Was info on 'bounce' withheld?
House panel chief seeks federal investigation, suspects a conspiracy
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.
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.
After reviewing more than 100,000 pages of documents produced by Murray Energy, which operates the mine, and more than 300,000 pages from the Labor Department, Miller said the investigation found that the accident resulted from a mining plan that "never should have been submitted by the mine safety operator and never been approved by the Mine Safety and Health Administration," mainly because the March bounce before the accident should have alerted those involved that the mine was unsafe.
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