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Vol. 71/No. 39      October 22, 2007

 
Relatives of trapped miners
speak out at Utah hearings
(feature article)
 
BY ERNEST MAILHOT  
The Bureau of Land Management warned in 2004 that further mining of pillars supporting the roof at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah was unsafe, because they were already failing.

This came out in October 3 Congressional hearings on the August 6 collapse at the mine. Six miners died as a result of the collapse, and three more in the rescue attempt.

When Robert Murray took over the Crandall Canyon mine in 2006, he used a computer model to show the pillars could be mined safely. A standard formula for barrier widths indicates safe widths should have been 400 feet. The computer estimated 100 feet. The company was also cutting 40-foot sections out of the coal walls, weakening them even further.

Relatives of miners who died at Crandall Canyon addressed the October 3 hearing by the House Committee on Education and Labor. They said the mine’s owner and the government were responsible.

Cesar Sanchez, a miner for 17 years, is the brother of Manuel Sanchez, who died in the August 6 collapse. He told the hearing that the owners of Crandall Canyon put “production over safety” and that his brother had complained that “the mine safety was not right.” Cesar Sanchez also protested that the United Mine Workers union was barred from the investigation.

Steve Allred, whose brother Kerry died in the mine, said the Mine Safety and Health Administration took only 12 days to approve Crandall Canyon’s mining plans. Allred, a union miner, said a union provides “safety in numbers when it comes to mining.”

The U.S. Labor Department has refused a subpoena for documents related to the Crandall Canyon mine. Rep. George Miller, chair of the panel, said neither the Labor Department nor the company has been fully cooperative with the committee.
 
 
Related articles:
Black lung doubles among U.S. coal miners  
 
 
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