Was info on 'bounce' withheld?

WASHINGTON — House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., wants the Justice Department to investigate whether there was a conspiracy among Crandall Canyon Mine officials to withhold information from the government about a "bounce" at the mine before the Aug. 6, 2007, accident that killed six miners and a subsequent accident that killed three mine rescuers.

An attorney for the mine released a statement calling the conspiracy allegation zealous political grandstanding.

As a result of the chairman's investigation into the accident, which was released Thursday, Miller asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate whether Laine W. Adair, general manager of Genwal Resources Inc., the mine operator, either on his own or "in conspiracy with others" purposely withheld information about the bounce — a violent bursting of coal and rock caused by pressure or stress — in order to continue mining at Crandall Canyon.

Miller said he was now going after Adair instead of Murray Energy head Bob Murray because of more evidence that Adair was directly responsible for communicating with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Committee counsel Patrick Findlay said they want to learn whether Adair was part of a conspiracy and, if so, how high he went in withholding this information. They were reluctant to give more details, saying they wanted the Justice Department to take up the investigation.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett L. Tolman said "further investigation and consideration of criminal charges" will be taken seriously. "We will carefully screen the material provided to us," Tolman said in a statement released shortly after the Thursday morning press conference in Washington ended.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said hard-working coal miners in Utah, and the entire country, "deserve to know that mining companies are being held responsible."

"If there was intentional misdirection on the part of individuals at Crandall Canyon in order to receive MSHA approval, they should be prosecuted. The fact is that this report doesn't make the nine families who lost someone in this tragedy whole, but hopefully it can at least be used to ensure that this does not happen again," she said.