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A final borehole at Crandall Canyon mine in Utah has failed to detect signs of human life, more than 3 weeks after 6 miners were buried some 4 miles from the mine entrance. Six boreholes have failed to reveal livable conditions, showing no space large enough to survive in, or no breathable air.

The question that many are asking in the wake of the Crandall Canyon disaster is, “What went wrong?”

Although it’s too early to point fingers, many are looking to the federal Mine Safety and Health Agency, MSHA, for answers. MSHA was founded to oversee worker safety in mines. It serves a similar function in the mining industry to that of OSHA in other sectors of the economy.

After three tragic mine accidents in West Virginia and Kentucky in early 2006, MSHA tightened regulations. The agency also hired additional mine inspectors, to check safety precautions at mines up to four times as often. Yet, even all these precautions didn’t prevent the tragedy at Crandall Canyon.

In response to those accidents, the U.S. Congress passed the MINER Act, which the U.S. Department of Labor claimed “has significantly improved safety for workers in the nation’s mines” The MINER Act was signed into law on June 15, 2006 and introduced a number of significant changes in the way the mining industry does business.

“The MINER Act was the most significant federal mine safety law in nearly 30 years, and we at MSHA are fully committed to putting its protections in place for America’s miners,” said Richard E. Stickler, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, when the act was introduced. “MSHA has made great strides in implementing the MINER Act in the past year, and we are continuing to meet or beat the deadlines set by the act.”

Fourteen months later, Stickler is heading up the rescue efforts at the Crandall Canyon mine.

Still, the MINER Act did introduce some improvements. Under this legislation, 11 family liaisons were trained to respond to accidents nationwide. Three of them were quickly routed to Crandall Canyon in the hours after the disaster occurred.

Some of the changes were more technical. Under the act, MSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard, an ETS to increase the strength of seals in underground coal mines to 120 pounds per square inch (or psi). The ETS also requires that the environment behind the 50 psi seals be monitored and maintained inert. The MINER Act set a time limit for that ETS to be established. In fact, the MSHA delivered the ETS seven months earlier than required.

One of the most important changes under the MINER Act was to establish higher maximum penalties for flagrant violations. By July 2007, MSHA had already issued 13 citations for repeat offenders under this provision. One of those fines went to a coalmine operator who did not report a serious accident within 15 minutes.

Sources at the MSHA point out that coal mining is a hazardous occupation. Probably all the safety measures in the world wouldn’t prevent all accidents. They point out that mining accidents occur throughout the world, not just in the U.S. In July and August, two high-profile mining accidents occurred in China. In the first, 181 miners were lost when a dyke collapsed and the mine near the Wen River in Eastern China was flooded. U.S. sources point out that there was no effort, by the Chinese government or by mine owners, to recover the victims. They were simply presumed dead and their families paid “death premiums.”

Yet, the U.S. seems to have had more than its share of mining accidents lately.

In January 2006, there was an explosion in the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia that trapped 13 miners for nearly two days. Although survivors launched heroic efforts, only one of the 13 trapped miners survived.  That same month, a fire at the Aracoma Alma Mine in Melville, West Virginia poured smoke into the miner’s escape route, killing two people.

Again in May 2006, a methane explosion at the Darby Mine No. 1 in Kentucky killed five workers. In response, MSHA hired additional mine safety inspectors, tightened regulations and made other changes. Still, critics argue that those changes clearly were not enough.

Events at Crandall Canyon were especially tragic, in part because there were initial hopes that the 6 missing miners would be discovered alive. The first reports indicated that the men might be trapped in an area with sufficient air to survive. There were emergency stores of food in the mine, and potable water. Tragically, the men were never found.

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1. Posted by: Stickler Answers Sticky Questions about Crandall Canyon Disaster - Labor Law Center Blog

   [...] Richard Stickler, head of MSHA, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, faced probing questions by Senators on the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster on Wednesday. [...]

2. Posted by: Crandall Canyon Mine Hearings - Labor Law Center Blog

   [...] In the wake of the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster, a number of people – including the head of the nation’s largest mineworkers union—are pointing fingers at mine co-owner Robert Murray. Murray has declined invitations to appear before the Senate subcommittee investigating the accident, without a subpoena. [...]