From Deseret News archives:

MSHA nets $70,000 in fines from Utah mine

Violator in Carbon County is subsidiary of Murray Energy

Published: Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 12:38 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
A subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. has been forced to pay more than $70,000 in overdue fines for health and safety violations at the Aberdeen Mine in Carbon County.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said this week that it collected the $70,000 in overdue civil penalties this summer from Murray subsidiary Andalex Resources Inc. MSHA cited nine violations in August and October 2007 at the Aberdeen Mine, including problems with the mine's roof-control plan, as well as inadequate installation of barriers between the coal face and walkway areas, which presented potential safety hazards for workers.

The agency also cited the company for excess accumulations of coal dust within the mine, an inadequate fire-suppression system and an improperly maintained methane-detection device.

"When mine operators do not pay civil penalties, they have a reduced incentive to prevent and remedy the hazards that face the men and women who work in their mines," said Richard E. Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, in a news release announcing payment of the fines.

Meanwhile, the company is appealing a $420,300 fine that MSHA sought in March for "flagrant" fire and explosive conditions at the Aberdeen Mine. Shortly after that fine was announced, the mine was closed.

Story continues below
A Murray Energy spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

In April, MSHA also levied a $118,800 fine for another Murray-owned mine, the West Ridge Mine in Carbon County, for a "flagrant" violation of safety rules. The Intermountain Power Agency is a co-owner of that mine.

Murray Energy and the Intermountain Power Agency also own equal shares in the Crandall Canyon Mine, where six miners died in a collapse last August. Three rescuers died days later in a second collapse while trying to reach the trapped miners, whose bodies were never recovered.

Since the Crandall Canyon disaster, federal inspectors have cited more than 1,300 safety violations in Utah underground coal mines — a rate higher than the average for the previous four years. That amount is in addition to numerous other citations issued for the disaster itself.

At least 368 of those violations after Crandall Canyon were considered "significant and substantial" threats to health and life.

Murray Energy, based in Cleveland, is the largest independent, family-owned coal producer in the United States. Murray Energy owner Robert E. Murray ranks No. 7 in the nation for the number of violations found at his mines nationwide — 1,543 from Oct. 1 to March 31. Murray also has contested more violations — 1,367, or 89 percent of all those cited at his mines — than all but one other mine operator in the nation in that time.


E-mail: jlee@desnews.com

Recent comments

bob murray or should i say the nefarious bob murray runs unsafe coal...

THE PREZ | Oct. 6, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.

previousnext

Latest comments

The more people there are helping the less supervised the children present...

Harpring's NBA career is over

Thanks for the passion and intensity you brought to the court day-in and...

Sloan, comeon, we're talking about the same guy that gave jarron collins...

Those Jazz teams in the early eighties must have had a horrible record in...

I love this story! I was terrified as snakes as a child. Mainly, because I...

I have to admit. I am glad it died. The article makes light of the fact that...

Why is Y. ignoring spew of hatred?

are guilty of hate themselves.

I still have my green Jazz jacket that I will wear to the game when the Jazz...

just wait a day

@cl, I'm with you, it would be nice to see feztheb and miles play up to...

Advertisements