4 senators seek Crandall mine reviews

WASHINGTON — Four senators — including Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — told the Labor Department this week that they want internal department reviews of the Crandall Canyon Mine accident, even as the Mine Safety and Health Administration continues its investigation into the disaster.

Kennedy — who is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — has scheduled a hearing Oct. 2 to examine mine safety. He has already requested volumes of documents related to the Utah mine. The House Education and Labor Committee has a hearing set for Oct. 3 that will also look into the disaster.

The Labor Department has asked that the hearings be postponed as it works on the investigation into the Utah accident. Six miners were trapped in the Aug. 6 mine collapse, and days later, three rescuers died trying to reach them.

Kennedy and Hatch, who is also a member of the Senate committee, along with the committee's top Republican, Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Tuesday that they "want to move as expeditiously as possible" in looking at MSHA's oversight of the mine during the year leading up to the collapse, and after the accident.

"Our interest is in ensuring the safety of miners and mines and preventing future incidents of this nature," the senators wrote in a letter to Labor Department Inspector General Gordon Heddell. "Therefore, an expedited review is crucial."

The senators want to examine the approval process for the mine's operating plan and obtain more information on how MSHA made the decision to send rescuers into the mine after the initial collapse. The lawmakers also want to review inspections of the mine.

A Senate appropriations subcommittee held a hearing Sept. 5 on the accident. Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, were able to ask questions there of MSHA head Richard Stickler and other witnesses.

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