Crandall Mine owners, MSHA condemned

PRICE — In a long-awaited report released Thursday, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed a record fine against operators of the Crandall Canyon Mine and detailed 10 violations directly related to the August 2007 collapses that entombed six men and killed three others trying to rescue them.

But a separate report, also released Thursday, blasted MSHA itself for what it called multiple failures of the agency during the Crandall Canyon plan approval process, inspection activities and rescue attempt.

That report, prepared for Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, said MSHA "failed to fully meet its responsibility by approving the roof control plans for mining the north and south barriers" within the mine.

"MSHA's failure to adequately evaluate the roof control plans contributed to the occurrence of the Aug. 6th accident," authors of the report wrote for an independent review team within the Labor Department.

On Aug. 6, 2007, six miners were trapped by a catastrophic collapse within the Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County. After 10 days of digging, trying to reach the men, three more men were killed in another collapse.

Thursday's release of the reports left unanswered questions about why miners went after sections of coal that were supposed to have been left untouched. And there were anger and tears from family members who lost loved ones as they were taken back in time to nearly one year ago to the tragedies.

After a year of waiting, the results of MSHA's investigation confirmed what many victims' families and their lawyers said they already knew.

"It was a catastrophic outburst of the coal pillars that were used to support the group above the coal seam," explained Richard Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health during a press briefing detailing the long-awaited report.

A MSHA briefing for families Thursday morning corroborated for some that the Crandall Canyon mining plan was "flawed" prior to the Aug. 6 collapse. Coal was reportedly being mined from an area where the plan prohibited removing structures meant to support a mountain of rock and coal above those miners.

There were reports Thursday that critical information about geologic "bounces" in March and early August was either not reported or inadequately submitted to MSHA.

MSHA is proposing what officials called the highest fine amount for a coal-mining-related incident in history and the second highest in mining history.