Nine miners were trapped underground for 78 hours when tens of millions of gallons of water flooded into the Quecreek mine after mining operations broke through into an abandoned adjacent water-filled mine in July. The miners were found alive after a round-the-clock operation by fellow workers. The nonunion mine was operated by Black Wolf Coal for PBS Coals, the state’s largest strip mine operator

The DEP, which is responsible for mine safety in the state, put the blame on bad maps. The state’s environmental secretary, David Hess, pointed the finger at a mine superintendent and a state mine inspector, both now dead, claiming they did not file updated maps. Hess said that there was no culpability on the part of Black Wolf Coal.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts called the report "woefully inadequate" and said it raises more questions than it answers about conditions in the mine and state permitting procedures. "The DEP and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) must turn over every rock to try and ensure this kind of accident never happens again," stated Roberts.

The union’s health and safety administrator, Joe Main, pointed out that "there were signs the miners were getting close to something abnormal. The problem they were encountering with the mine roof was extremely significant. I can’t believe this wasn’t a warning sign." Main explained that the union wants to make sure that investigations into the accident at nonunion Quecreek are complete. "Union or nonunion doesn’t matter. The public, the miners, their families, our members, have a right and a need to know just what happened and why," he said. Shortly after the disaster, the UMWA issued a call for a public inquiry.

Howard Messer, an attorney for seven of the nine miners underground, dismissed the report as "self-serving" and "embarrassingly incomplete." He stated that investigators asked insignificant questions and cut out some telling response from his clients. The report quotes one miner as saying that before the flooding the miners encountered "just normal conditions," but "they edited out a very strong statement from one of them," Messer said.

In a November 8 article, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that "transcripts of the original interviews identify the miners and indicate some comments were edited extensively at key passages and often nixed were entire paragraphs of testimony that might have suggested something far different than the report’s conclusion that the miners noticed nothing out of the ordinary before the accident."  
 
‘Water was gushing through the walls’
One miner, for example, is quoted in the report as saying there were "pretty decent conditions." Not included in the report, however, were comments by Blaine Mayhugh, one of the trapped miners, who described "water gushing through the roof bolts and walls and a shale ceiling that seemed on the verge of collapse."

The newspaper reports that the full transcript echoes comments Mayhugh and other miners made before a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing held by Sen. Arlen Specter in Johnstown last month.

In response to criticism, Hess defended the report. "We reported the results of our official investigation and the interviews we did," he said. "No one we talked to right after the accident indicated anything unusual in the mine.... It’s up to the miners to make any corrections now, for the miners to offer any information they have."

Hess added that the upcoming federal MSHA report is likely to reach the same conclusions. "They should have the same information. They have the same factual background," Hess said. The federal and state interviews of miners were carried out together.

These interviews, however, were criticized at the Senate subcommittee hearings. There it was revealed that an attorney from the coal company was present when investigators took statements from miners, while the miners’ attorney was barred. In order for the miners’ lawyer to get a copy of the statements, he was required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

David Lauriski, MSHA assistant secretary of labor, insisted that MSHA "is conducting the Quecreek investigation in a fair and impartial manner and in accordance with long-standing agency procedures."

Along with glossing over conditions in the mine, the report puts the blame on former mine officials while actually revealing some of the gaps in the permitting process. Among the facts revealed are:

• The map of the abandoned Saxman mine, which the DEP now says is undated, shows mine workings as they were prior to 1961. The mine continued working until 1963. Attorney Messer says he has not seen the map used by the company.
• No maps reviewed by mine company officials met state requirements as "true, complete and correct" maps.
• The permit was approved without reviewing coal production for abandoned adjacent mines, which would have raised questions about the accuracy of the mine maps.
• No additional map search was conducted when the permit for the mine was expanded from 272 to 3,666 acres in 1999. Reports then revealed unmapped mine voids and water in test wells near the mine area. But despite objections, the mine was granted a permit.
• A retired miner in the area had warned of a large mined-out cavity in the old mine.

Other questions are raised about the accident rate and the number of safety violations by the owner of the Quecreek mines, PBS Coals, which is a division of Mincorp.

Mincorp claimed that Black Wolf Coal was a contract miner with no connection to Mincorp. Black Wolf is a "paper corporation," commented Messer, pointing out that it didn’t even own the mining equipment.

The effort of seven of the Quecreek miners represented by Messer to dig out the truth behind the disaster has brought them under attack. The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat ran a piece titled "Tarnishing our miracle." Referring to testimony by the seven miners at the Senate hearings, the article stated that it was hard "to reconcile the TV image of the compassionate and scared mine owners with the evil picture painted at the hearings."

A Philadelphia Inquirer feature on November 10, titled "Freed miners fall from grace at home," quotes from other Black Wolf employees who, the article claims, "now worry that their old mates will take down the company that feeds them and their families." One employee is quoted as saying, "It’s a miracle gone sour is what it is." Another said that the rescued miners "should just be happy that they’re alive, that we saved them. They should get on with life."

Tony Lane is a member of United Mine Workers of America Local 1248 in southwestern Pennsylvania.
 
 
Related articles:
Miners lead fight for safety  
 
 
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