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TESTIMONY OF UTAH GOVERNOR JON M. HUNTSMAN, JR.
Testimony before the Committee on Education and Labor Hearing on
"Mine Safety: The Perspective of the Families at Crandall Canyon"
(Source: Utahamicus.com, 10/3/07)

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for inviting me to testify this morning about a tragic event in our state's history - the collapse of the mine at Crandall Canyon - and the importance of mine safety to the citizens of our state and this great nation. It is an honor for me to be here today alongside members of these wonderful families who endured weeks of excruciating, and possibly needless, uncertainty regarding their loved ones.

On August 6, 2007, my office received word of the mine collapse. Over the next several weeks many unsuccessful attempts were made to rescue those six miners trapped inside. During one of the many heroic rescue attempts, three miners were killed and several others injured. The families of all the miners who died and were injured deserve to have a full understanding of the circumstances that led to the deaths of their loved ones.

Coal has been an important part of Utah's economy for decades and will continue to be for generations to come. As such, it is incumbent upon us to learn what might be done differently in the future to protect the safety and welfare of our brave coal miners. Our miners know the inherent danger associated with their line of work, but have generally been willing to accept some risk in order to be employed at the mines. Many have told me that they would like to make the mines safer but are concerned that if the mines become overly regulated, the owners will close the doors. The mines are the economic base of many of these communities which would be devastated by such a closure. These communities are already struggling with not only the closure of the collapsed Crandall Canyon Mine, but also the subsequent temporary closure of the Tower Mine. Therefore, we must all, at the state and federal levels, strike the right balance between protecting the health and safety of our miners and appropriate regulation of the mining industry.

The federal government has regulated mine safety in Utah since 1977, upon the creation of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Following that federal action, the state's role was reduced by state legislative actions over the next several years. Since 1987, state involvement in miner safety has been limited to miner certification. This most recent horrific accident at Crandall Canyon has been an extremely painful reminder that Utah must critically assess its role in ensuring mine safety. To this end, I have created the Utah Mine Safety Commission, chaired by Scott Matheson, Jr., former dean of the University of Utah Law School and former United States Attorney. The Commission members include former United States' Senator Jake Garn, Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon, Price Mayor Joe Piccolo, State Senator Mike Dmitrich, State Representative Kay McIff, Dennis O'Dell, Safety and Health Director of the United Mine Workers of America, and David Litvin, Utah Mining Association President.

The Commission is charged to:

1- Review the role of the State of Utah in the area of mine safety, including the safety inspection process, accident prevention, and accident response;

2- Review the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster and the State's role in mine safety leading up to the accident;

3- Examine how the State can assure itself that MSHA and private mining companies are doing everything reasonably possible to ensure the safety of Utah miners, their families, and their communities;

4- Make appropriate policy recommendations regarding how the state should promote mine safety and accident prevention.

This Commission is a panel of extraordinary public servants. In order for them to be able to serve Utahns well, they need to work closely and collaboratively with MSHA and its investigation team. It's important for them to have real-time access to the information being gathered in order to implement needed changes at the state level. To accomplish this, I call upon the U.S. Department of Labor, through MSHA, to begin providing logical points of connection with our UMSC that will allow a useful flow of information from the ongoing federal investigation. Today, such a connection does not exist and the risk of uneven outcomes is very real.

In summary, the State of Utah is concerned that a mine collapse like that which occurred at Crandall Canyon never happen again in Utah or anywhere else. And, if it should occur, that we have in place protocols and equipment that will protect and save miners' lives, as well as expedite successful recovery efforts.

Thank you.

REMARKS TO THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
(Source: Utahamicus.com, 9/3/07)

Biography

Wayne Holland Jr. is the staff representative for the United Steel Workers in Utah and northern Nevada and is himself a third generation copper miner. Mr. Holland's responsibilities include representing over 1300 hard rock copper miners, with over 500 of these workers employed in MSHA regulated mining and concentrating facilities. Mr. Holland has been involved in MSHA training as a worker and as a trainer of Miners Representatives and Joint Safety and Health Committees in the Copper mining industry.

Also, Mr. Holland is chair of the Utah Democratic Party.
____________________________________________

Thank you Mr. Chairman, Congressman Matheson, and members of the committee for inviting me here today to offer my perspective on the tragedy at Crandall Canyon Mine.

First let me say that every Utahn, and that includes myself as chair and the Democratic Party of Utah, should commend Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. The governor's progressive bi-partisan approach is the approach I hope Congress will take. The governor's appointment of his Democratic opponent during the last election, Scott Matheson, one of Utah's most distinguished and respected citizens, to lead our state investigation has created confidence that the process will result in a constructive outcome.

The tragedy of the initial collapse that killed six miners on Aug. 6 was magnified when the mountain came down on their rescuers several days later. As someone who has been closely involved with attempts to hold mine owners accountable for worker safety for most of his adult life, I know that these events have significant and long-lasting impact on mining communities.

The nation's miners employed in both underground and open-pit mining operations total about 225,000. In the past 21 months, 121 miners have died in U.S. mining operations. This year alone, 24 miners have died in coal mines and 25 have died in metal/non-metal mines. Our government owes our nation's miners a great deal.

It's been a tough summer. The people of Carbon and Emery counties just want to get back to the business of living: working at decent paying jobs, making sure their kids are OK in school, going to church, enjoying Utah's spectacular high-mountain country. They deserve to know that as they try to get on with their lives that their government will implement effective protections and assure aggressive enforcement.

Mr. Chairman, you, your committee, and members of this and the previous Congress are to be congratulated for leadership in protecting our miners. You acted decisively in pushing through the MINER Act of 2006.

But in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "It seems like déjà vu all over again."

Mr. Chairman, when you introduced the 2007 mine safety and health bills on June 19, you said the MINER Act of 2006 was "intended only as a down payment on what was needed to clean up years of neglect and backsliding by this Administration and an industry that had become, by its own admission, overly complacent."

You said implementation had been slower than anticipated.

You said, "Last year we acted with urgency but too late; this year, it is our hope to enact needed legislation before the next tragedy occurs."

Again, that was on June 19.

Sixty-five days later, at 2:48 a.m., a mountain in Wasatch Plateau came down on six miners working a seam of coal about 2,000 feet below ground. Ten days later, at 6:39 p.m., nine rescuers were buried when the mountain came down again. Six made it out alive.

Mr. Chairman, these men were heroes.

Coal miners in Utah and their families understand the dangers of being inside an unstable mountain. They know the signals the mountain sends. The most recent had occurred just four days earlier. They know about the disaster in Alabama, for instance, in which 12 miners died September 2001 trying to get to one injured miner.

They went inside anyway.

Mr. Chairman, I am not a mining engineer. I do not know for a fact that Crandall Canyon Mine was too dangerous under the mining conditions employed by the operator and very questionable mining plan.

I do not know that so-called "retreat mining" should never have been allowed.

This is what I do know:

I know that when I go back to Helper or Price, Huntington, Castle Dale or Orangeville I want to be able to walk down the street and if the widow, wife, or children of a miner comes up to me, I want to say, "NEVER AGAIN. Those guys back in Washington are doing whatever they possibly can to make sure you won't have to go through the horror of last summer never, ever again."

I know that NEVER AGAIN should the dedicated public servants of MSHA fear losing their jobs because they stand up to a mine owner with political connections and refuse to sacrifice worker safety.

I know that NEVER AGAIN should any administration be allowed to appoint a Secretary of Labor without the experience and background necessary to assure that America's working families get the protections and enforcement they deserve.

Miners and their families don't want empty words.

They demand that their representatives here in Washington examine life-saving and proven technologies - including wireless communication devices, safe haven chambers, and personal tracking devices - that have been widely used by underground miners all over the world.

They demand MSHA have the enforcement authority to do its job, with miners and their families getting the uppermost consideration.

Mr. Chairman, I cannot close with words more eloquent than those you chose in June: (quote) "As we focus this year on how to address this country's energy problems, let us not forget to provide for the safety and health of the workers who provide the raw materials that power this country."

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to tell the people back in Emery and Carbon counties that Congress will not wait for any more miners to die before it acts.

Thank you. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

APPROVAL MOVES RIO TINTO CLOSER TO BUYING ALCAN INC.
(Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 10/4/07)

European Union antitrust regulators on Wednesday approved the purchase of Canadian aluminum company Alcan Inc. by global miner Rio Tinto, saying the deal would not hinder competition in the European market.

Rio Tinto PLC's $39.65 billion (27.99 billion euros) purchase of Alcan will make Rio Tinto, which owns Utah's Kennecott Copper, the world's biggest producer of aluminum and bauxite.

Approval from regulatory authorities is a condition of Rio Tinto's offer to purchase Alcan's outstanding shares. The company has also received clearance from Canadian, U.S. and Australian competition authorities.

The deal is set to close as planned in the fourth quarter of 2007. Rio Tinto and Alcan's main rivals will be the Alcoa Inc. of the United States and Russia's Rusal.

TWO KENNECOTT BUILDINGS GET 'GREEN' RECOGNITION
(Source: Amy Choate-Nielsen, Deseret Morning News, 10/11/07)

COPPERTON — Improving employee productivity is one reason Kennecott Utah Copper Co. recently reinvented its Mine Administration Building and spruced up its visitors center.

But the other reason Kennecott has invested millions of dollars into its mine buildings is the company values being recognized as an environmentally conscious community member and employer, said general mine manager Ted Himebaugh.

"This (project) becomes an icon to the people that work here that says this is different, the company cares about this, and when we ask our employees to be environmentally friendly, we send a huge message by doing it ourselves," Himebaugh said.

Kennecott's new administration building and remodeled visitors center are the first of the mine's buildings to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification. The company spent some $2 million on the administration building to add reusable carpet and use recycled materials for 20 percent of the building's materials — but it doesn't look like it, said architect Garth Shaw.

"You don't walk up to this building and think it's a green building, but that's the challenge for an architect," Shaw said.

Waterless urinals and low-flow toilets limit the amount of potable water that will be used in the building. Sun shades and light shelves control the amount of natural sunlight that enters the building. And light sensors accordingly decrease or increase the amount of artificial light that is projected.

Shaw designed the administration building in six different pods so that it can be dismantled and moved easily, eliminating the need to construct a new building every 10 years. The visitors center was moved to another area to facilitate mining procedures and updated to have less of an environmental impact.

The buildings cost about 15 percent more to include the environmentally friendly details, but Shaw and Himebaugh say the initial increased cost is worth it.

"When you get started, you have to decide if it's worth it," Himebaugh said. "We made a lot of changes to get to where we are now."

 

ARCH COAL DELIVERS 'SOLID RESULTS' IN Q3
(Source: Mike Gorrell, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/22/07)

Arch Coal Inc., which has three coal mines in Utah, said its net income for the third quarter 2007 was $27.2 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with $50.8 million, or 35 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Those earnings were based on revenue of $49.8 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30. Arch took in $82.2 million in the same quarter in 2006. For the first nine months of 2007, Arch's earnings added up to $93.4 million, compared with net income of $181 million from January to September 2006.

Arch Chairman and Chief Executive Steven Leer said the company "continued to deliver solid operating results during the third quarter of 2007, despite weaker market conditions than in the year-ago period."

He cited several factors for expecting a brighter future.

During the next four years, power plants will go online around the country that will require an additional 50 million tons of coal to operate. Arch is positioned to supply that demand, Leer said, citing the early opening, on Oct. 1, of the Mountain Laurel complex in Central Appalachia. This mining operation is expected to yield 4 million tons of coal annually.

In addition, Arch has expanded its holdings in the Illinois Basin, spending $38.9 million in September to acquire 157 million tons of coal reserves and surface acreage from International Coal Group Inc. Arch now controls 375 million tons in the region, Leer said.

Arch's four mines in its "Western Bituminous" region - Sufco, Dugout Canyon and Skyline in Utah, and West Elk in Colorado - improved their quarterly performances

 

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AT UTAH MINING ASSOCIATION

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PRESIDENT'S REPORT by David A. Litvin

This month's UMA newsletter is filled with articles concerning the aftermath of the Crandall Canyon Mine accident which occurred on August 6th. Since that time, the Utah mining industry has been under the spotlight first by the media, the public, Utah state officials, Federal regulatory agencies, and lastly the U.S. Congress. The Crandall Canyon Mine aftermath has forever changed the face of Utah's coal mine industry in the areas of increased safety mine scrutiny, and possible Federal legislation that will impact the entire U.S. mining industry.

With this having been experienced firsthand, I would urge all UMA members to think about these simple questions: What if some type of catastrophic event was to occur at my operation, am I and my organization prepared to effectively handle the crisis? Are we as well trained as we could be to handle the crisis? Are appropriate crisis management plans in effect and updated to appropriately respond?

When things are going smoothly, it is easy for a company to become complacent. But suddenly, and without warning, the unexpected can happen. 

When you're faced with crisis communications, such as: an on-site accident, environmental problems and demonstrators, internal company scandal, labor unrest, company problems within the community and so on, you need quick-response, and clear thinking to handle the immediate situation…and the lingering aftermath.

In a crisis, an organization's character – with all its inherent strengths and flaws – is exposed for all to see. That means managers at all levels must plan ahead. Given the range of crises that can suddenly occur – a major industrial accident, executive malfeasance, a financial scandal, product recalls, or massive class action lawsuits, to name a few – preparedness is a business imperative.

We all experienced and saw firsthand how the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy directly impacted UtahAmerican Energy, the industry workers in Carbon and Emery counties; and the aftermath of investigations, allegations, commissions, hearings, and legislation.

As a wise person once said: "By the time most people come to the realization to do something, it's probably already too late."

As the Utah mining industry begins to regain some degree of normalcy the paramount questions remains: Are you properly prepared for an unanticipated crisis?

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COLLEGE GETS $54K TO CONDUCT MINE EMERGENCY TRAINING
(Source: Mike Gorrell, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/4/07

The College of Eastern Utah in Price will receive $54,000 from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to conduct mine emergency training.

Overall, MSHA provided seven grants totaling $500,000 from its Brookwood-Sago safety fund, named after the locations of two coal mines in which disasters killed 25 men in 2001 and 2006.

Like CEU, four recipients will use the money directly for mine emergency training. Institutions in Colorado and west Virginia will spend their money on training materials for mine emergency responses.

The grant program was established as part of the Miner Act of 2006, passed by Congress after three mine disasters early last year. States or nonprofit entities may apply for up to 10 grants each of which is worth at least $50,000 to provide education and training for miners and employers, with a special emphasis on smaller mines.

 

FUNDING A TOP CONCERN FOR MINE-TRAINING BASE
(Source: Mike Gorrell, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/8/07)

PRICE CANYON - Across a two-lane highway from the Western Energy Training Center is a hardscrabble cemetery where weathered headstones mark the graves of many of the 1924 Castle Gate coal mine disaster's 172 victims.

Traces of soot also are visible here and there on training center buildings, a remnant of the dense smoke that an underground fire belched out of the Willow Creek mine after a series of methane explosions killed two coal miners and injured eight others in the summer of 2000.

For the most part, however, those buildings have been scrubbed clean. With the mine's permanent closure, company surface offices have been transformed into a training and research facility for the energy industry as a whole.

But the center's coal-mining sector seems likely to receive additional emphasis now because of August's Crandall Canyon disaster, which killed nine and wounded six.

Initial meetings of a gubernatorial commission examining what role the state should play in future mine-safety efforts have zeroed in on the need for more training in an industry scrambling to replace an aging work force with a new generation of technically oriented employees.

All the Western Energy Training Center needs to deliver that training is money.

Robert Topping, hired a year ago as program director at WETC (pronounced wee-tech) is overseeing a $1.9 million budget for the fiscal year that began last Monday.

The Legislature is providing $200,000 of that through the College of Eastern Utah in Price, but the rest must come from federal and state grants and fees charged to training recipients. Topping said he has 11 grant requests out now and a 12th in the works.

But to Price businessman Jerry Carlson, who recruits miners for operators in five Intermountain states, relying on annual grants is not the way to assure that the center can meet the existing training needs of the energy industry, let alone adding whatever extra coal-mining training is required in the aftermath of Crandall Canyon.

"We need continuous funding to look out three to four years, not just six months," said Carlson, a CEU trustee and also a prominent figure in the Southeastern Utah Energy Producers Association, which includes mining, oil and gas, trucking and infrastructure-development companies.

A steady source of income from the state would solve the problem, he said.

Carlson, Topping and CEU administrators Dale Evans and Miles Nelson all told the Utah Mine Safety Commission last week that WETC is the vehicle for meeting work force training needs because it pulls together industry, academia and government regulators.

This unification of slightly different interests has been challenging. But it is picking up steam, aided by the Legislature's decision last spring to merge the industry-oriented Southeast Applied Technology College into CEU.

The two Price-based colleges had been working on parallel tracks, with the applied technology college handling MSHA's training grants while CEU provided other training for new miners, mine rescue teams and people seeking advanced certification as electricians or foremen.

Their programs now will be commingled, with CEU moving its mining department offices to WETC's buildings. Energy-related companies have paid to adapt rooms in the training center, which was bought and cleaned up with state funds. Energy companies also have donated used equipment to the center.

And Topping is lobbying the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, to open offices in WETC so that federal regulators can observe training programs first-hand to ensure they comply with codes.

"All of these groups have to be sitting at the table to develop curriculum and standards," he said.

But the energetic Topping also has some definite ideas about the best directions to go.

"Utah will never be known for its energy production. Utah will be known for its energy innovation," he said. "We hope to shift learning from knowing to doing. You have to have people hands-on, doing it, to know how regulations affect the real world."

Topping already has secured one grant that will convert a large WETC room into a simulated power plant control center. This simulator should be up and running by next May, he said, in time to help start training people to operate facilities, such as Rocky Mountain Power's three power plants in Emery and Carbon counties.

All three plants will face personnel challenges in coming years as the current crop of managers and workers start retiring, Topping said.

He hopes to acquire additional simulation programs that will enable WETC to train people to troubleshoot digital control systems for drilling oil and gas wells, for instance. And for the mining industry, he anticipates buying simulators that would allow incoming and experienced miners to don hard hats equipped with screens that would teach them to operate shuttle cars, continuous mining machines, roof bolters, bulldozers or haul trucks in real-world type of situations.

"We can program in conditions that [equipment] operators will have to deal with," Topping said, predicting this training also could open the industry to more women by "showing that some jobs are really about manipulation of knowledge rather than lifting and carrying."

Topping is intent on developing a certified mine safety professional program so retirees with a lifetime of knowledge about real-world conditions can become "effective adult educators."

In addition, he envisions research projects being conducted on site that could help modernize the Castle Gate power plant, develop a synthetic biodiesel plant or processes for using by-product gases to generate electricity.

Already, a pilot project spearheaded by Price-based Terra Systems has been processing fine coal waste materials into briquets of metallurgical grade coke.

"We're making premium product out of waste," said Terra Systems founder Clayton Timothy, noting that college students who worked on the pilot plant have moved quickly into industry jobs after completing their education.

That is just one example of how WETC can help meet work-force needs, Topping said, contending safety training will benefit companies and trainees in similar ways.

And, he added, "when we see the cemetery across the road, we see our responsibility in this area."

MINE DRILL INCLUDES MEDIA AND FAMILIES
(Source: Samira Jafari, Associated Press, 10/11/07)

HOLMES MILL, Ky. - Rescue drills have always been a major part of mine safety. But the nation's high-profile disasters over the past two years have forced the industry to practice in another area: dealing with victims' families and the media.

A mock disaster drill Wednesday at an eastern Kentucky coal mine had nearly 100 federal and state officials, miners and personnel role-playing as first-responders and investigators, as well as panicked family members and reporters.

The daylong scenario depicted a mine fire that left a dozen miners trapped.

''It's in response to the disasters over the past [few] years,'' said Thurmond Holcomb, president and general manager of Lone Mountain Processing Company, which held the mock disaster at its Clover Fork mine in Holmes Mill.

The company is a subsidiary of Arch Coal, one of the nation's largest coal producers. It has three mines in Utah (SUFCO, Skyline and Dugout Canyon) as well as operations in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming and Colorado. The company hasn't had a multiple-fatality disaster in more than a decade, said spokesman John Snider.

But the mock disaster was held less than a mile from the Kentucky Darby mine, which lost five men to an underground explosion in May 2006.

Those deaths, plus the 12 at West Virginia's Sago mine last year and the recent cave-ins that killed nine in Utah, all drew criticism from lawmakers, union representatives and industry officials on how victims' relatives were treated and how well information was released to the public.

Safety advocates and industry experts said making family and media relations a part of disaster drills was necessary.

''It's a trend we're going to see more and more of,'' said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. ''This is a way of showing that our responsibility extends beyond the life of the miners to the obligation to inform and comfort.''

Tony Oppegard, a safety advocate who represented several widows from the Darby disaster, was a little more skeptical of the effort.

''I can see it being useful if it's being done with the right intentions,'' said Oppegard of incorporating family and media into disaster drills.

 

In the aftermath of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, the head of the federal mine-safety agency said Thursday that he would like to see better standards to gauge the potential risk of mining deep coal seams, like those common in Utah, and a policy to encourage the sharing of mine safety information.

Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler said he would like to see the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) moving toward targets for mine stability, although it's too soon to set those standards.

"I don't think we know enough to put the parameters on it, but I think that's where I'd like to see us head," Stickler said.

In his wide-ranging interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Stickler also said he is working on a policy to encourage the sharing of information on mine safety, assured MSHA would hold itself accountable for any shortcomings and supported a state role in mine inspections.

Stickler would not discuss the adequacy of MSHA's review of the Crandall Canyon mine plan or the engineering work behind the mine's design, saying those are issues that need to be addressed by the agency's accident investigation.

He said he was shaken by the Aug. 6 collapse that entombed six miners, and a subsequent cave-in on Aug. 16 that killed three rescuers. It is easy to say, in hindsight, that the rescuers should not have been in the mine, he said, but experts told MSHA the safety precautions would protect the people.

"Anyone who was there and part of that and wasn't traumatized in some way, I don't know, they're a lot stronger than I am," he said.

Stickler was in Salt Lake City to meet with investigators and the families of the victims of the Crandall Canyon collapse.

While the investigation is ongoing, Stickler said he has asked MSHA's technical experts to begin looking for common threads in mines that are prone to "bumps" - a frequent phenomenon in Utah's deep coal mines that occurs when the pressure from the mountain bearing down overwhelms the coal pillars supporting the mine, jolting the structure and shooting coal from the walls.

"There's no engineering methods to guarantee there won't be mountain bumps tomorrow or the next day," Stickler said. "There are some guidelines you can put in that will reduce the risk, and that's what I hope, that we'd move in the direction of reducing the risk."

He said he would eventually like to see data crunched on all working mines, so MSHA can develop guidelines for the approval of mines. Now, he said, designing coal mines is "a little bit of science, but you've got a lot of art," allowing for debate over whether a specific plan would work.

"At some point in time, you've got to say, look folks, the arguing is over. You pick something that gives you a high enough margin of safety and you mandate it. That may be one way to deal with it."

Stickler said MSHA is crafting a formal agreement to encourage the sharing of safety information with the Bureau of Land Management.

A BLM inspector who was in Crandall Canyon months before the collapse raised questions about the safety of mining being done, but the information never got to MSHA. At a hearing last week, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., likened the communication breakdown to the failure of intelligence agencies to share information prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Stickler said the release of an engineering study of the mine last week was "unfortunate," because the engineering firm that designed the mine subsequently said it would not participate in the mine collapse investigation. Agapito Associates, the engineering firm, said Thursday it only sought to reschedule its meeting with MSHA investigators and would cooperate with investigators. The former director of coal mine safety in Pennsylvania, Stickler said having state inspectors working in Utah coal mines could improve safety. A Utah Mine Safety Commission, appointed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., is reviewing whether the state should take a more active role in regulating mines in the future.

"The answer to the question is pretty obvious: Two eyes are better than one, two people checking is better than one, two agencies is better than one," Stickler said.

RETREAT MINING: STUDY NEEDED TO
ADDRESS SAFETY CONCERNS
(Source: Tribune Editorial, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/22/07)

Imagine sitting in a tent when the support poles are pulled away. What happens? You're going to be wearing that tent like a blanket, right?

It's kind of like what happened at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in August, only the poles were pillars of coal, and the roof came crashing down with the weight of a mountain behind it - with deadly results.

In the aftermath of the twin tragedies at the mine in Emery County, which killed nine men and injured six, Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett are wisely seeking $1 million in federal funds to pay for an in-depth study of the type of mining that contributed to the disaster.

It's known as retreat mining, a dangerous method used to recover as much coal as possible from otherwise played-out mines. The coal that helps form the structural support system for the mine is removed, allowing the roof to collapse as the miners work their way back, or "retreat," toward the mine entrance.

For decades, retreat mining has been conducted with relative safety in the East, where miners plumb shallow coal seams with minimal overburden. But less is known about the practice in the West, where mining is conducted thousands of feet underground and the weight of the mountains bring incredible pressures to bear.

If approved as part of a spending bill for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor, the Hatch and Bennett amendment would provide funds to examine the use of retreat mining at depths exceeding 1,500 feet, with a goal of finding ways to make it safe. Officials at the University of Utah and West Virginia University would partner with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to conduct the much-needed study.

Congress should support the amendment, and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration should put a moratorium on retreat-mining permits in the West until the results are in.

Hopefully, researchers will find a way to safely conduct retreat mining, which prevents waste and preserves jobs by extending the life of older mines. If the study hits pay dirt, federal mine safety officials should move quickly to incorporate their safety recommendations into regulations, and enforce them without fail. If not, retreat mining should be banned in Western deep mines before more lives are lost.

 

PROPOSED MINE SAFETY RULES RAISE CONCERNS
(Source: Mike Gorrell, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/23/07)

The McClane Canyon coal mine north of Grand Junction, Colo. has only 19 employees. The nearest coal mine is 75 miles away.

That makes it doubly hard for McClane Canyon to comply with a proposed rule for mine-rescue teams that was the subject of a public hearing held Tuesday in Salt Lake City by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Being such a small operation, company official Rodney Head said, it is virtually impossible for McClane Canyon to fill a pair of six-member rescue teams, as the proposal requires. In addition, the company could not rely for assistance on the nearest mine, Deserado, because it is more than an hour away - the limit allowed by the proposed rule.

Although the McClane Canyon mine is in Colorado, it exemplified the Utah Mining Association's position that MSHA needs to be more flexible in finalizing the proposal, which might work just fine in the East but creates problems when applied to the wide open spaces of the Western mining landscape.

"There is often a disconnect between the two," association president David Litvin told the MSHA panel in the first of four hearings nationally. "Our mines are forced to do [difficult] things that in the East would be easy to do" because mines there are relatively close together.

For example, Litvin said, the one-hour travel time provision is "tremendously burdensome and in some cases unfeasible," the McClane Canyon case buttressing his point. "The current two-hour limit is workable. One hour wouldn't be."

He also disagreed with a requirement that mine-rescue teams must participate in two contests annually, contending team members can derive greater benefits from industry-sponsored training programs than contests in a gym or on a playing field.

Above all, Litvin said, MSHA should defer final adoption of new rules until it receives guidance from the "real pros" in mine rescue, people such as Kevin Tuttle, chairman of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mine Rescue Association.

Tuttle works for Rocky Mountain Power's coal-mining subsidiary, Energy West, whose mine-rescue teams perpetually do well in regional and national contests. Still, he advocated the development of MSHA-certified training programs as an alternative.

"If you have a certified program out there where you get a contest problem, go through smoke, fight fire, do gas detection, why shouldn't I get as much credit for that as going to a contest and running through a problem," Tuttle asked. "Some mines have taken their team to a professional firefighting course instead of going to a mine rescue contest. They ought to have that ability."

He also predicted the two-contest requirement would force Intermountain-area mines to send teams to the two existing annual contests, one in Price and one in western Colorado, overwhelming organizers.

No Utahns participated in a second public hearing dealing with MSHA's proposal to require underground mines - metal, non-metal and coal - to provide rescue teams with breathing apparatuses that have four hours of oxygen, twice as much as currently required. The proposal also mandates that operators have four gas-detection instruments capable of measuring all toxic gases likely to be encountered in their mines.

Hearing director Patricia Silvey said MSHA's proposals were guided by the belief that "there is no more noble cause than the service provided by mine-rescue teams."

$1M AMENDMENT OK'D FOR STUDY
ON RETREAT MINING SAFETY
(Source: Thomas Burr, Salt Lake Tribune, 10/24/07)

WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed Tuesday evening to authorize a $1 million study on the safety of retreat mining in the wake of the Crandall Canyon tragedy that killed nine miners and rescue workers.

The amendment orders the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in conjunction with the University of Utah and West Virginia University, to examine how retreat mining is conducted in mines more than 1,500 feet deep and make suggestions on how to make the method safer for miners.

Retreat mining - approved for use at the Crandall Canyon mine in rural Utah - involves removing pillars of coal holding up the ceiling and letting the roof collapse, a process deemed dangerous by critics.

Six mine workers and three would-be rescuers were killed in separate cave-ins at the Utah mine in August, prompting several investigations and congressional probes.

Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both Utah Republicans, sponsored the amendment to the spending bill for the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor.

"The tragedy at Crandall Canyon mine struck a chord with not only Utahns, but all Americans," Bennett said in a statement. "I appreciate the quick action and interest by my colleagues in the Senate to further examine the implications of deep coal mining."

The study will focus on what conditions necessitate retreat mining and the susceptibility of a mine to seismic activity when the method is used, according to the amendment. It also will look at ways to improve technology for miners engaged in retreat mining.

MINING UNION NOT HAPPY WITH NEW RULE
(Source Tim Huber, The Associated Press, 10/31/07)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The United Mine Workers has panned a proposed federal rule designed to improve rescue operations at the nation's 653 underground coal mines.

Among other things, the proposal, in the aftermath of the recent Crandall Canyon Mine disaster in Utah, cuts maximum emergency-response time in half.

"The union does not believe the proposed rule should move forward as it is written," Dennis O'Dell, administrator of Occupational Health and Safety, told a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration panel Tuesday. MSHA either misunderstood or ignored Congress when it crafted the mine rescue rule, said O'Dell, who suggested tabling the proposal and rewriting it after talking with the union, mine operators and lawmakers.

The rule is aimed at complying with a federal law passed last year after an explosion that killed 12 West Virginia miners and several other high-profile fatal accidents.

The proposal would require rescuers to reach underground coal mines within one hour. The current rule is two hours.

Rescue teams also would have to be certified, familiar with a mine's workings and participate in two local mine rescue contests annually. Members would need at least three years of underground experience and 64 hours of training a year. The current requirement is 40 hours per year.

O'Dell, however, said Congress mandated rescue teams at every underground coal mine, not just two employees from each mine serving on rescue teams as proposed by MSHA.

"They should be employed at that mine," O'Dell said in an interview with The Associated Press.

O'Dell and others from the coal industry also raised questions about the amount and type of training required by the rule. O'Dell told the panel that rescue teams should be required to practice at mines they are assigned to serve, though he said the union has not decided how often that should occur.

Ken Perdue, from Abingdon, Va.-based mine operator Alpha Natural Resources, said the rule is going to cost his company $530,000, much of it to relocate one mine rescue station. He said MSHA's estimate that the rule would cost the industry $3.3 million a year is too low.

Perdue added that the rule may eliminate mine rescue teams rather than increase their ranks because it would break up existing units and add so much training time that members would quit.

"It will take years and millions of dollars for us to overcome" the changes, Perdue said.

MSHA was scheduled to hold a second hearing Tuesday afternoon on proposed rules regarding equipment that would apply to all of the nation's mines, whether they mine coal or not. Mines would have to stock additional gear to bolster rescuers' oxygen supplies and improve their ability to detect dangerous underground gases and communicate with the surface.

Interest in emergency response was spurred by the January 2006 deadly explosion at West Virginia's SagoMine and was renewed after this past summer's death of six miners and three rescue workers at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.

The MSHA proposals were called for in last year's federal Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act.

Tuesday's hearings were the third of four sessions on the proposals. MSHA has held similar meetings in Salt Lake City and Lexington, Ky. A final session is scheduled for Thursday in Birmingham, Ala.