An uproar against the threat of the mine being forever sealed with the miners still inside started about a week ago when Bob Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine, said the rescue teams are running out of options and the mine could soon be closed. As of Wednesday, a petition, located at www.gopetition.com/petitions/drill-crandall-canyon-mine.html, to keep the mine open had received at least 229 signatures from across the country in favor of recovering the miners' bodies.

Since Murray's initial statement about closing the mine, a seventh borehole has been started, and plans to lower an exploratory robot are under way. However, the question remains: What happens if the robot doesn't find anything?

Many calls do come into MSHA about new equipment that can be used in mine rescues, and some of those calls lead to improvements in rescue efforts. However, when those calls come during an emergency — as tends to be the case — they are often not ready for use, said Richard Kulczewski, a spokesman with MSHA.

MSHA officials may be running out of options of what to do next, besides drilling more boreholes. Several of the standard methods of retrieving trapped miners have been used, but a lack of developed, advanced technology may lead to a dead end, according to Mike Nelson, an associate professor of mining engineering at the University of Utah.

Nelson says a cutback on funding for the U.S. Bureau of Mines has strained mine safety research. However, that neglect could change with the national attention being given to the Crandall Canyon Mine, Nelson said.

"I think the general atmosphere in the U.S. is that people would pay a higher price for coal to make mines a safer place," Nelson said. "I think what's happened at Crandall Canyon will help to make that happen. Now, everything is tuned in more closely, and the public sentiment is in favor of making mines a safer place, so I hope the industry and the government can move in that direction."

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Contributing: Josh Loftin

E-mail: achoate@desnews.com