Government faulted over mine cave-in

WASHINGTON - The government agency overseeing coal-mine safety was supposed to have changed its ways after West Virginia's deadly Sago Mine disaster. Its handling of the cave-ins at Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine has some worried that the changes did not go far enough.

Government officials on Friday indefinitely halted their attempts to dig to six miners trapped since Aug. 6, after a cave-in Thursday night killed three rescuers and injured six.

Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey, both California Democrats, vowed to convene hearings about the disaster "at the appropriate time," and Utah lawmakers also promised tough questions.

"We're going to see changes in this industry because of this accident," said Ellen Smith, owner of the industry newsletter Mine Safety and Health News. "There is no doubt."

The Mine Safety and Health Administration's director, Richard Stickler, had already come under fire for being slow to take public control of the scene.

Even though Stickler's agency is supposed to be in charge, the mine's colorful co-owner, Bob Murray, has dominated news conferences, narrated video of rescue efforts for TV news and - despite safety concerns - led reporters and family members on a tour of his mine.

That MSHA let anyone, including rescuers, into the still-dangerous mine is raising new questions. Some predict greater scrutiny of the agency's decision to allow mining at Crandall Canyon at all, given what it knew about conditions that made the mine particularly unstable.

"Despite misleading and self-serving comments to the contrary . . . these miners' lives were jeopardized because of the acts of men," United Mine Workers of America International president Cecil Roberts said. He expressed doubts about whether MSHA and the mine's owners "fulfilled their responsibilities" to keep the miners and their rescuers safe.

Three high-profile accidents, including Sago, where 12 of 13 miners were killed, helped make 2006 the deadliest for coal mining in 11 years. The 47 deaths that year triggered sweeping changes to the nation's coal-mining laws.

Observers of the Crandall Canyon accident have criticized MSHA for not heeding a key provision of the post-Sago law, which requires the government to be the primary communicator with the mine operator, the media and the public when an accident occurs.

The goal was to prevent a repeat of the confusing and conflicting information that was given at Sago. After anxious hours of waiting for a rescue there, family members were told their loved ones were found alive, only to be told three hours later that all but one were dead.

Observers say they have heard echoes of Sago in the way Murray had upstaged Stickler at news conferences.

Lawmakers have noted that it took MSHA at least two days to take public control of the scene. Others were irate that Murray was allowed to publicly predict success - and contradict MSHA - while agency officials quietly looked on.

For example, Murray has insisted that an earthquake caused the initial collapse, while government seismologists say the ground shaking was caused by the cave-in itself.

"It makes MSHA look bad," said Tony Oppegard, a former top federal and state of Kentucky mine-safety official who now represents miners as a private lawyer in Lexington, Ky.

Others have questioned the decision to allow anyone in the mine but those who were absolutely necessary for the rescue efforts. The mine is still experiencing "bumps" - often-violent explosions from the roof, wall or ground that can send rocks and coal shooting into tunnels.

Some critics were incredulous last week when Murray led tours of the mine for family members and a troop of news reporters.

Smith, an 18-year industry observer, said that when she saw news coverage of the tour, she paced around her living room in a fury and eventually wrote a heated editorial.

"What were they thinking?" she said in an interview. "It wasn't safe. The ground's still moving."

MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere said the agency interprets the law to mean that MSHA is the primary - but not the only - source for the media and the families. It cannot stop Murray from holding news conferences or meeting with the miners' family members, she said.

MSHA has made the rescue efforts its priority, Louviere said. It probably will investigate after the miners have been found. For now, it has included Murray or others from his company in its news conferences.

"I don't think it would serve any purpose to not work through these issues together," Louviere said.

Experts say they think Crandall Canyon will prompt lawmakers to take a hard look at "retreat mining" - a sometimes dangerous technique that causes deliberate roof cave-ins. They are especially critical of the MSHA's decision to allow retreat mining at Crandall Canyon because they say earlier mining there would have left the roof dangerously unstable.

Industry watchdogs also say they will continue to crusade for better communications equipment that will allow rescuers to track miners and better safety equipment to help in rescues.

Crandall Canyon "certainly is a clarion call that we have to redouble our efforts," said J. Davitt McAteer, vice president of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, who served as President Bill Clinton's MSHA director. "We run a risk here of returning to the bad old days of mine accidents."

Officials extinguished nearly all hope of finding any of the six miners alive yesterday, nearly two weeks after the men were trapped in a violent collapse deep within a mine.

Relatives responded by accusing federal officials and the mine's owners of quitting on the rescue effort and leaving the men for dead.

"We feel that they've given up and that they are just waiting for the six miners to expire," said Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the families, reading from a prepared statement as about 70 relatives of the trapped miners stood behind him.

The latest results from a fourth hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside found the air quality could not sustain life, said a top executive of the company that co-owns the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah.

"It's likely these miners may not be found," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp.

There has been little evidence that the miners survived the initial Aug. 6 collapse. Underground tunneling was suspended after three rescuers were killed Thursday.

Engineering experts gathered at the mine yesterday to try to figure out a safe way of reaching the missing men. - Associated Press

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