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It will probably come as a surprise to no one that the MSHA released new regulations for safety in coal mines following the disastrous rescue attempt at the Crandall Canyon mine in Emory County, Utah.

The newest rules establish tighter regulations for coal mine rescue teams, in Utah and across the nation.  The proposed regulations were published in the Federal Register on September 6, 2007. They will be approved only after public hearings to discuss the regulations. The hearings will be held in Salt Lake City on October 23, Lexington Kentucky on October 25, Charleston, West Virginia on October 30 and Birmingham, Alabama on November 1. All hearings will begin at 9 am local time.

The new regulations are designed to make underground coal mine rescue teams more effective. The rules will require that each mine have two certified mine rescue teams available. Team members must be able to reach the mine from the mine rescue station within one hour.

The new MSHA regulations also require that coal mine rescue team members be better trained. They will be required to have 64 hours of training instead of 40, and to have practical experience as an underground coal miner or a member of a mine rescue team. In addition, the rescue team members will be required to actively participate in training at each mine they serve. This will allow the team members to have first-hand knowledge of the operations and ventilation at each mine.

Mine rescue contests are an important tool in training mine rescue teams. The new Mine Safety and Health Administration regulations will require team members to participate in two contests per year, to improve their rescue skills.

The proposed new MSHA regulations also include a revised list of equipment to be available for mine rescue teams, including two additional hours of breathable air from their self-contained breathing apparatuses and gas detectors to measure harmful gasses.

Mining is an extremely hazardous occupation. That’s why the federal government created a special agency to handle miner’s safety. While most businesses in the nation are covered by OSHA or a similar state agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, MSHA, is the federal agency charged with protecting the safety of miners.

In recent years, MSHA has faced a number of challenges, including three major mining accidents in 2006. Those include  a January 2006 explosion in the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia that trapped 13 miners for nearly two days. Only one of them 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. 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.

The events at Crandall Canyon are especially tragic, in part because there were hopes that the 6 missing miners would be discovered alive. Initial 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.

In issuing these revised regulations, the MSHA seems to be taking partial responsibility for the fact that the rescue teams may not have been as well-prepared or well-equipped as they would have liked.  

On the morning of Monday August 6, at about 3:30 am local time, MSHA was advised of a mine accident at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County, Utah. The mine is owned and operated by Genwal Resources, Inc. The event was initially described as a “seismic or ground failure event”. Six miners were missing – presumed buried in the depths of the collapsed mine, about 4 miles from the entrance.

Four mine rescue teams, including two mine inspectors, were rushed to the site, within 1,700 feet of the trapped miners. Rescue teams alternated 12-hour shifts around the clock to locate the missing miners, despite continuing ground shifting. In all, there were up to 64 workers in the mine at any one time.

On Thursday August 16, a significant bounce occurred. Three rescue workers, including one MSHA inspector, were killed. Six additional workers required hospitalization. Rescue work was suspended for the day, and resumed the following day.

Tragically, mine rescue efforts were abandoned after 3 weeks when no evidence of the trapped miners could be found.

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