House panel seeks more data on mine's operations

WASHINGTON — Murray Energy and the Labor Department received another congressional request for information Monday as the House Education and Labor Committee gets its review of the accident at the Crandall Canyon Mine under way.

As family members and observers wait for the six trapped miners to be found inside the mine near Huntington, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., wants specific information on the mine and its safety record.

"Gathering this information is the first step in an investigative effort to learn what went wrong at the Crandall Canyon Mine and what we must do to prevent such tragedies in the future," Miller said in a statement. "The families of the miners, the public and miners who still work underground every day deserve a full accounting of the events that led up to and followed the collapse at Crandall Canyon Mine."

In a letter sent to Murray Energy Corp., which owns the mine, Miller said the accidents "raise many troubling questions" about the mine's operations.

Miller asks for documents in 10 different categories, as well as contact information for those working in the mine or those involved in the rescue.

He wants to see the mine's mining plan on file with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, engineering studies and reports on the mine, internal correspondence, any documents filed with the state and safety reports given to the miners.

From Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Miller also requests documents but is focusing there on "how the Department of Labor carried out its roles and responsibilities in overseeing mining activities at the mine," he wrote.

First among five categories of requested documents, Miller wants all "communications" since January 2001 between Labor, MSHA, employees of Murray Energy and the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining, among others, discussing the Crandall Canyon Mine. This includes e-mail, documentation of conversations, meetings, phone calls, faxes and forms of communication.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., requested his own set of documents from the Labor Department last week for his committee's investigation into the accident, and a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee has a hearing planned for Sept. 5.

Miller plans to have his own hearing on the accident during the first week of October.

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