Between July and September 2005, federal mine inspectors spent 52 days examining safety problems at International Coal Group’s Sago Mine in Upshur County.

They never inspected a single emergency-breathing device. They failed to review the mine’s gas monitoring system. They didn’t even look at a map of the mine’s electrical system.

U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors frequently missed relatively obvious violations. MSHA inspectors repeatedly described serious safety problems in their notes, but failed to recognize them as violations and didn’t cite the company.

For at least a year, MSHA supervisors and managers “did not identify and correct these deficiencies,” according to a new internal agency review of MSHA’s actions prior to the January 2006 explosion that killed 12 Sago miners.

Separate MSHA internal review teams found similar lapses when they studied agency actions prior to the January 2006 fire that killed two workers at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine and an explosion that killed five in May 2006 at the Kentucky Darby Mine.

Richard Stickler, assistant labor secretary for MSHA, described the findings as “deeply disturbing.” Stickler said the internal reviews — 650 pages of reports in all — “show an unacceptable lack of accountability and oversight that will not be tolerated.”

But the conclusions should not have surprised Stickler, or anyone else who has followed MSHA’s record over the last 20 years.

Before each of the nation’s worst mining accidents, MSHA inspectors have overlooked major violations of safety rules intended to protect miners, the agency’s own internal reviews have found.

Over and over, MSHA officials missed safety violations, did not take harsh enough enforcement action or ensure that problems were fixed, according to the reviews.

In seven internal reviews published since 1990, MSHA teams found that agency supervisors did not properly train inspectors or make MSHA requirements clear to them. Top agency managers did not do enough to ensure that far-flung district offices were doing a good job, the review teams found.

MSHA internal reviews have often found that agency inspectors did not catch mine operators when they ignored the most basic precaution: pre-shift safety examinations.

That happened during reviews of the Fire Creek No. 1 Mine explosion that killed two workers in McDowell County in January 1991, the William Station explosion that killed 10 miners in Union County, Ky., in September 1989, the Blacksville No. 1 Mine explosion that killed four workers in Monongalia County in December 1992, and in the December 1992 explosion that killed eight workers at Southmountain Coal Co.’s No. 3 Mine in Wise County, Va.

Last week, internal review teams reported similar problems after they examined MSHA’s enforcement prior to the deaths at Sago, Aracoma and Darby.

“The results of these investigations are troubling, because they demonstrate that many of the same issues repeatedly identified in previous internal reviews continue to plague the mining industry,” said Rep. Nick J. Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat whose district includes the Aracoma Mine.

“The only value in this research is in instituting changes that improve conditions and save lives,” Rahall said. “That has to happen this time.”

Stickler promised that it would. He has created a new MSHA Office of Accountability to see that it does.

This new MSHA division will conduct oversight reviews “to ensure that management controls are in place and fully implemented to prevent potential lapses in enforcement policies and procedures, and to ensure the implementation of actions recommended as a result of MSHA audits and internal reviews,” the agency said in a prepared statement.

MSHA has promised such improvements before.

Four years ago, then-MSHA chief Dave Lauriski pledged reforms after an internal review found major agency lapses at the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine in Alabama, where 13 miners died in a September 2001 explosion.

“The existing system for accountability reviews focused on administrative evaluations and lacks follow-up measures,” Lauriski said at the time. “The new system will streamline the process so that corrective actions prompted by our reviews will be made quickly and efficiently.”

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao had promised after the Alabama disaster that MSHA was “determined to do everything we can to keep it from ever happening again.”

Among the problems discovered at Jim Walter was that MSHA’s district office in Alabama improperly used a system meant to allow operators to resolve safety citations during conferences with agency “litigation representatives.”

The internal review team at Jim Walter found that these litigation representatives weakened or threw out valid citations without ever talking with the agency inspectors involved. The team concluded that the MSHA district office — and its headquarters in Arlington, Va., — “did not provide sufficient oversight” of the “alternative case resolution initiative” that allowed the enforcement conferences.

Lauriski promised to fix the problem. An MSHA attorney and a special assistant to Lauriski were put in charge of the program.

But MSHA reviewers found that exact same kinds of problems at Darby and Sago, according to the reports released last week.

At Darby, for example, an MSHA litigation representative repeatedly downgraded the severity of citations for accumulations of explosive coal dust. The representative also ignored the mine’s growing history of repeat violations, blocking increased enforcement action against the operator.

And at Sago, reviewers found, MSHA inspectors in Morgantown had become “conference conditioned” to reduce the severity of their citations to avoid being overturned by an agency litigation representative. Internal reviewers also found major flaws with a 2005 MSHA audit that said the Morgantown office’s enforcement conferences were being handled properly.

MSHA reviewers also found that then-Morgantown district manager Kevin Sticklin “improperly identified significant issues as insignificant” during oversight of district inspectors. Those included lack of emergency breathing device inspections, not making sure operators conducted pre-shift safety checks, and listing major violations as minor problems.

Sticklin has since been promoted from Morgantown district manager to MSHA’s administrator for coal mine health and safety in Arlington.

“For too long, MSHA has served as compliance assistants for mine operators while letting their core responsibilities of safety oversight wither,” said Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. “I take no personal pleasure in pointing out that if the agency had been doing its job properly, most of the miners we lost this year and last would still be with us.”

Internal Reviews

• Wolf Run Mining Company - Sago Mine — (203 pages - 1.2Mb)
• Aracoma Coal Company Inc - Aracoma Alma Mine #1 — (233 pages - 1.4Mb)
• Kentucky Darby LLC - Darby Mine No. 1 — (214 pages - 2.1Mb)

• Sago Mine - Mine Rescue & Recovery, and Seismic Location System (pp. 109-124)
• Kentucky Darby - Mine Rescue & Recovery (pp. 113-123)

JENNERSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A 50-mile bus tour through Somerset County takes visitors from the temporary Flight 93 memorial site to a farm where nine men were safely freed from a flooded mine in 2002.

The somber journey through Somerset County has become a popular tourist attraction in recent years, with thousands of people making the excursion through the Laurel Highlands.

At the temporary memorial near the site where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, visitors see a tall fence covered with mementos and rows of wooden benches with the names of most of the 33 passengers and seven crew members who died when the plane crashed near Shanksville.

Passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was en route from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco on Sept. 11, apparently rushed the cockpit, foiling the four hijackers' plan to crash the plane into the White House or Capitol building.

Bob Musser, a volunteer, greets the tourists and gives them details about the airplane, its passengers and the $58 million permanent memorial that is to be built on the site.

"When it crossed the ridge, the plane was traveling 560 miles per hour and it was about 500 feet in the air," Musser said. "Nevin Lambert, the man who owns that farm up on the ridge, was outside working. He thought he was going to die."

Then the bus takes the group to an interdenominational memorial chapel, a structure designed as a reminder of the emotional days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when many Americans of all faiths attended special prayer services.

The stop at Dormel Farms is mixed with sadness and joy.

Lori Arnold, who owns the 200-acre organic farm, stands near a capsule that was used to save nine miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in July 2002.

Arnold conveys both the tension of the crisis and the joy of the miners' rescue and has nothing but praise for the 25 Navy divers who participated in the rescue and helped out at the farm.

"If you were young and single, this was the place to be," she said.

At the end of the day, Joan DeFilippo, one of the tourists, has only one word to describe her bus tour: "Awesome."

While they're not the greatest in producing safety results, they sure
have a handle on kicking out the statistics.

This latest report from SAWS comes 2 days after the mid-year report
period. You go SAWS!

I hope they didn't miss any from the last week of June.

Rob


--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "USMRA" <usmra@...> wrote:
>
> China's coal mine accidents down 18.5% in first half of 2007
> Xinhua - China
> July 2, 2007
>
> BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of coal mine accidents in China
in the first half of 2007 totaled 1,066, down 242 from the same period
last year, based on figures released by the country's safety watchdog on
Monday.
> The death toll was 1,792, 14.3 percent lower than the same period last
year, according to officials with the State Administration of Coal Mine
Safety (SACMS) and the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
>
> The death ratio in producing one million tons of coal was 1.633, down
19.9 percent compared with the same period last year, said SACMS
Director Zhao Tiechui.
>
> "Though we have made some progress, we should still be aware of the
severe situation regarding coal mine work safety," Zhao said at the
conference.
>
> He said illegal coal mines were still the main cause of coal mine
accidents, and there was a rise in accidents involving gas explosions.
>
> Zhao ordered all branches of the SACMS to continue strengthening work
safety supervision, close illegal and small coal mines without safe
working conditions and harshly punish those responsible for accidents.
>
> ___________________________________________________________
> United States Mine Rescue Association
> www.usmra.com
>

The Labor Department has canceled plans to outsource 258 administrative support jobs to the private sector after recent law labeled one-fifth of the jobs inherently governmental functions.

Nine rescued, six still trapped in Jharkhand mine

Do you think SAWS included this accident in their 6-month report?


--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "USMRA" <usmra@...> wrote:
>
> Coal mine blast kills six people in N China
> Source: Xinhuanet | 07-05-2007 16:14
> TAIYUAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A coal mine blast has left six people dead
in north China's Shanxi Province, a local official said on Thursday.
>
> The dynamites underground blew up at an illegal coal mine located at
the Xinglin village, Gujiao City, on June 28, said Pan Fuguan, director
of the Taiyuan bureau of the Shanxi Provincial Coal Mine Safety
Administration.
>
> The bureau received the report on the accident from an anonymous
person on June 29, and immediately began investigating into the
accident, Pan said.
>
> The official did not reveal who were responsible for the accident and
what penalties they would face.
>
> ___________________________________________________________
> United States Mine Rescue Association
> www.usmra.com
>

Mining explosives blamed for China nightclub blast

Miners dying of black lung despite laws
By R.G. Dunlop and Laura Ungar
Gannett News Service

July 6, 2007

POUNDING MILL, Va. — Mark McCowan knew he had inhaled a lot of coal dust during 20 years of operating heavy equipment in underground mines in southwest Virginia.

But at 40 years old, he had no symptoms of disease, and a chest X-ray taken eight years earlier had shown nothing amiss.

Plus, a federal law enacted to eliminate coal workers' pneumoconiosis — black lung — had been in effect for more than 35 years, long before he began working in the mines.

The 1969 law set the level of coal-mine dust that miners can breathe during an eight-hour shift at 2 milligrams per cubic meter of air. But 38 years later, they're still dying — more than 20,000 nationwide since 1990.

For years, federal officials have talked about eliminating black lung, but there have been obstacles:

* A federal advisory committee's key recommendations on how to stamp out the disease still haven't been implemented almost a decade after they were issued — partly because of a change in focus when President Bush took office, some say.

* Some researchers say the operators of small mines common in Eastern Kentucky may not have the resources or the will to bring dust down to levels that won't sicken workers.

Because McCowan, now 43, began working in the mines after the law went into effect, he never should have been exposed to dust levels sufficient to scar his lungs, end his career and perhaps consign him to a premature death.

"The record production I give `em has shortened my life on this earth," he said. "Legislation was enacted to try to protect us (but) we're dyin'. Thirty-eight years is too long."

The federal law's overall impact has been substantial. The percentage of coal miners with black lung has declined dramatically since the 1970s, from 33 percent to 5 percent or less.

But the deaths continue, and in addition to the human toll, more than $40 billion in federal black-lung benefits has been paid out since 1970, financed by an excise tax on coal and with the cost presumably passed along to consumers.

"We are finding people for whom things went terribly wrong," said Dr. David Weissman, director of the division of respiratory disease studies for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, in Morgantown, W.Va. "And that makes us think there are others for whom things went terribly wrong. ... That's not something that should be happening in 2007."

Danny Hall, 56 — a retired Knott County miner, whose disease required a lung transplant — said laws are useless if they aren't enforced.

"If it cuts down on production, it's a hardship for the companies," he said. Inspectors "aren't going to... shut down a big company."

Some federal health officials and others also have raised questions about whether the current coal-dust standard needs to be tightened further.

In 1995 NIOSH concluded that the dust limit needed to be cut in half, to 1 milligram per cubic meter of air, to eliminate severe cases of black lung.

That recommendation, consistently opposed by the mining industry — and now also by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration — has never been implemented. Legislation introduced in Congress recently, however, would cut coal dust levels to those recommended by NIOSH.

A (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal investigation in 1998 disclosed widespread cheating by mine operators and miners on dust samples, despite repeated warnings to MSHA by independent experts and government auditors that reported dust levels often were improbably low.

In 2003, MSHA proposed a regulation that would have had the effect of actually increasing as much as four-fold the legal concentrations of coal dust.

Melinda Pon, MSHA's acting deputy administrator for coal-mine safety and health, said the agency's current emphasis is on enforcing operator compliance with existing regulations.

"We feel that the 2.0 standard is sufficient, and with operator compliance and enforcement, will continue to limit exposure to dust," Pon said.

Gary Gibson, 59, of Jenkins, Ky., a former miner who is now a federal inspector for MSHA on disability for heart problems, said that in his experience, mine operators wouldn't always work to reduce dust to acceptable levels. "Some did," he said, "but most didn't."

He acknowledged that they did more — hanging curtains to increase ventilation, for example — when he was around.

"If people like me wasn't around, they didn't," he said, adding that miners would contact him frequently. "They would talk to me if they weren't getting air."

While some health and safety advocates argue that better technology, monitoring and compliance can effectively eliminate black lung, Dr. John Parker isn't so sure.

Parker, a former NIOSH official who now is chief of pulmonary and critical-care medicine at West Virginia University, said, black lung has been more formidable than expected.

"I'm really not certain that lowering the dust standard to 1.0 would actually eliminate" all serious cases, he said. "I hate to admit that there is a human lung cost of doing business, but it's possible that's what we may have to accept."

SOMERSET — Former Gov. Mark Schweiker will be the keynote speaker July 28 at the 5th anniversary celebration of the 2002 rescue of nine miners trapped in the Quecreek Mine.

The anniversary celebration events will take place beginning at 9:30 a.m. on that Saturday, at the mine rescue site on the Arnold Farm at 151 Haupt Road in Somerset.

"We are honored to have Gov. Schweiker return for the anniversary this year to recognize all those who were involved in the rescue effort," Bill Arnold, President of the Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation, said today in a news release. "Gov. Schweiker's leadership during the rescue and the compassion he felt for the families of the trapped miners was a blessing for those families and our community."

Other speakers will include Joseph Sbaffoni, director of Deep Mine Safety for the Department of Environmental Protection, and other state and local officials. Jim Burton of WJAC-TV will be the master of ceremonies for the event.

Special music will be provided by the Milford United Methodist Children’s Bell Choir, Cathi Casale as “Patsy Cline,” and Dan and Galla. "Mountain John” of Somerset will be reciting his poem “The Quecreek Mine Rescue.”

On July 24, 2002 miners broke through into an abandoned, water-filled mine flooding the Quecreek Mine with over 50 million gallons of water. Nine miners scrambled to safety, but nine were trapped in a pocket of air in the dark, cold, water-filled mine. They were rescued four days later through the combined efforts of state and federal mine rescue agencies and hundreds of workers and volunteers.

Now Available . . . Products Commemorating the Quecreek Mine Rescue
(front) USMRA Banner Logo	(back) Quecreek Miners
Prices starting at $11.19

I am a member of the Midas Mine Rescue Team. I just want to say hello.

For all you folks looking for something different to do with your favorite pics, I stumbled across a site that may be of interest.

I have a few slideshows created there that you can check out at http://www.slideroll.com/slideshows/members/usmra/

Oh yeah, it's free!

Rob

Midas mine still closed

By JOHN SENTS — Staff Writer
Friday, July 6, 2007 3:14 PM PDT

ELKO — Mining operations at Newmont's Midas underground mine remain suspended while the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration investigates an accident that claimed the life of miner Dan Shaw, 30, of Winnemucca.

The Midas mine will reopen as soon as it has been thoroughly examined to ensure that it meets government and Newmont Mining Corp. safety standards, according to a statement from the company.

MSHA spokesman Dirk Fillpot said it is possible for the agency to grant a company permission to open portions of a mine before an investigation is concluded. However, he said permission will be granted only after ensuring an area is safe.

Fillpot said the Midas investigation is ongoing and a report will be made available after it is complete.

Shaw went missing at the mine June 19 after the ground failed beneath a loader he was operating and it fell roughly 100 feet. Search and rescue crews located his body in the subsidence on June 30 and it was recovered early Monday.

The Washoe County Medical Examiner's office has completed an autopsy of Shaw's body and results were to be provided to the Elko County Sheriff's office. Elko County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Webb said today he had not yet received results from the examination.

Shaw's services will be held at 1 p.m. today at the Winnemucca Convention Center.

Inspectors, coal execs worry federal mine seal rule goes too far

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Now it's the industry's turn to expound on unprecedented and expensive new federal requirements for sealing abandoned areas in underground coal mines.

Coal companies, industry groups, organized labor, even regulators from coal-producing states seemingly have plenty to say about the emergency rule put out by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration on May 18. All say they plan to speak at the first public comment session on the rule Tuesday in Morgantown.

"There's a lot of confusion. There's confusion as it relates to the (rule) and the explanation that accompanied it," said Ron Wooten, director of the state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

For instance, MSHA needs to clarify just how strong new seals must be, said Wooten, who'll be representing the 19-state Interstate Mining Compact Commission.

The West Virginia session is the first of four. MSHA also plans sessions for Thursday in Lexington, Ky., July 17 in Denver and July 19 in Birmingham, Ala.

The rule is designed to protect more than 30,000 men and women who work in underground mines that seal abandoned sections from Utah and Colorado to West Virginia and Kentucky. It requires operators to build far stronger seals and monitor the atmosphere behind them for explosive gases and, in some cases, to evacuate miners.

Methane explosions that killed 17 West Virginia and Kentucky miners last year prompted MSHA to adopt the rule immediately rather than follow the normal yearlong procedure. Both the Sago Mine and Kentucky Darby blasts occurred in abandoned, sealed mine sections.

The rule applies to a broad swath of the U.S. coal industry. MSHA estimates 372 of the nation's 670 underground coal mines seal abandoned areas and those mines employ more than 70 percent of the nation's 42,700 underground miners.

MSHA estimates it will cost the industry $39.7 million a year to meet the new requirements. That comes atop an estimated $128 million for complying with a sweeping federal safety law passed last year and another $50 million for West Virginia's 254 underground mines to purchase airtight emergency shelters.

The rule requires seals capable of withstanding blast pressures of at least 50 pounds per square inch, if mine operators make sure the atmosphere behind those seals remains nonexplosive. Mines could avoid monitoring by building seals to withstand 120 psi. And mines at risk of more powerful explosions would need even stronger seals.

Since last year, West Virginia has required Mitchell-Barrett concrete block seal capable of withstanding about 100 psi. "That was the Cadillac and now we don't even know whether it's acceptable to the federal government," Wooten said.

If MSHA sets the standard too high, Wooten believes mines will stop using seals altogether. While that's an option, it would expose miners and government inspectors to hazards such as collapsing roofs in disused mining sections.

"They've got to be examined weekly," he said. "Someone has to go back in there and examine it and if they find something, then someone has to go in there and correct it. If we have the opportunity to seal, that's what we should do."

The coal industry also expects to comment on the measure.

"It doesn't go far enough in making a risk-based determination for the standards it proposes," said National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich. "If a risk of failure is determined to justify a higher standard, then by all means let's require it. But let's first assess the risk before requiring wholesale changes that may not be necessary, let alone improve safety conditions."

Wooten said West Virginia also plans to push MSHA to consider allowing mines to find ways to deflect explosive forces before they reach seals, perhaps by using strategically stacked bags of rock dust.

Though the rule is in effect, MSHA isn't expected to adopt the final version until February, and Wooten said the time to add blast mitigation is now.

"You don't have to necessarily have a gigantic seal," he said.

The notion has the support of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton. "It might be some type of gel substance, water, sand," he said. "There may be ways to deflect that blast" to lessen the impact on the seal.

I for one am nauseated after reading this article.  Let's blow up a couple more mines, then let's all line up with comments like "we have to make sure this never happens again", and then we'll wait for another year and ½ to pass and criticize the engineering.  Sheesh!

And speaking of engineering, what do you folks think?  I know you're out there!  Click on reply, pleeeease!

Is anyone old enough to recall the auto makers complaints when they proposed putting seat belts in cars?  And we won't even discuss air bags.  Are we seeing something similar here?

Bring back the Mitchell seal.

Rocky Ledge

--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "Rob McGee" <usmra@...> wrote:
>
> Inspectors, coal execs worry federal mine seal rule goes too far
> 7/8/2007, 3:13 p.m. CDT www.al.com <http://www.al.com> By TIM HUBER
> The Associated Press
> CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Now it's the industry's turn to expound on
> unprecedented and expensive new federal requirements for sealing
> abandoned areas in underground coal mines.
>
> Coal companies, industry groups, organized labor, even regulators from
> coal-producing states seemingly have plenty to say about the emergency
> rule put out by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration on May
> 18. All say they plan to speak at the first public comment session on
> the rule Tuesday in Morgantown.
>
> "There's a lot of confusion. There's confusion as it relates to the
> (rule) and the explanation that accompanied it," said Ron Wooten,
> director of the state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.
>
> For instance, MSHA needs to clarify just how strong new seals must be,
> said Wooten, who'll be representing the 19-state Interstate Mining
> Compact Commission.
> The West Virginia session is the first of four. MSHA also plans sessions
> for Thursday in Lexington, Ky., July 17 in Denver and July 19 in
> Birmingham, Ala.
>
> The rule is designed to protect more than 30,000 men and women who work
> in underground mines that seal abandoned sections from Utah and Colorado
> to West Virginia and Kentucky. It requires operators to build far
> stronger seals and monitor the atmosphere behind them for explosive
> gases and, in some cases, to evacuate miners.
>
> Methane explosions that killed 17 West Virginia and Kentucky miners last
> year prompted MSHA to adopt the rule immediately rather than follow the
> normal yearlong procedure. Both the Sago Mine and Kentucky Darby blasts
> occurred in abandoned, sealed mine sections.
>
> The rule applies to a broad swath of the U.S. coal industry. MSHA
> estimates 372 of the nation's 670 underground coal mines seal abandoned
> areas and those mines employ more than 70 percent of the nation's 42,700
> underground miners.
>
> MSHA estimates it will cost the industry $39.7 million a year to meet
> the new requirements. That comes atop an estimated $128 million for
> complying with a sweeping federal safety law passed last year and
> another $50 million for West Virginia's 254 underground mines to
> purchase airtight emergency shelters.
>
> The rule requires seals capable of withstanding blast pressures of at
> least 50 pounds per square inch, if mine operators make sure the
> atmosphere behind those seals remains nonexplosive. Mines could avoid
> monitoring by building seals to withstand 120 psi. And mines at risk of
> more powerful explosions would need even stronger seals.
>
> Since last year, West Virginia has required Mitchell-Barrett concrete
> block seal capable of withstanding about 100 psi. "That was the Cadillac
> and now we don't even know whether it's acceptable to the federal
> government," Wooten said.
>
> If MSHA sets the standard too high, Wooten believes mines will stop
> using seals altogether. While that's an option, it would expose miners
> and government inspectors to hazards such as collapsing roofs in disused
> mining sections.
>
> "They've got to be examined weekly," he said. "Someone has to go back in
> there and examine it and if they find something, then someone has to go
> in there and correct it. If we have the opportunity to seal, that's what
> we should do."
>
> The coal industry also expects to comment on the measure.
>
> "It doesn't go far enough in making a risk-based determination for the
> standards it proposes," said National Mining Association spokesman Luke
> Popovich. "If a risk of failure is determined to justify a higher
> standard, then by all means let's require it. But let's first assess the
> risk before requiring wholesale changes that may not be necessary, let
> alone improve safety conditions."
>
> Wooten said West Virginia also plans to push MSHA to consider allowing
> mines to find ways to deflect explosive forces before they reach seals,
> perhaps by using strategically stacked bags of rock dust.
>
> Though the rule is in effect, MSHA isn't expected to adopt the final
> version until February, and Wooten said the time to add blast mitigation
> is now.
>
> "You don't have to necessarily have a gigantic seal," he said.
>
> The notion has the support of the West Virginia Coal Association, said
> Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton. "It might be some type of gel
> substance, water, sand," he said. "There may be ways to deflect that
> blast" to lessen the impact on the seal.
>

Roof Fall Closes Consol Mine
Forbes
Associated Press
July 9, 2007

A Buchanan County coal mine was evacuated and shut down Monday after a roof fall and possible underground fire, according to state officials and the company that owns the mine.

No injuries were reported at Consol Energy (nyse: CNX - news - people )'s Buchanan No. 1 mine, Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy spokesman Mike Abbott said.

The department issued an order closing the mine indefinitely and dispatched a crew to join the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and the company in sampling for gases, including carbon monoxide and methane, Abbott said.

Thomas Hoffman, a vice president at Pittsburgh-based Consol, said about 120 miners were working at Buchanan No. 1 when the incident occurred shortly before 10 a.m. About 450 people work at the mine, which was closed for several months in 2005 because of a fire.

Abbott said it was unclear Monday afternoon whether the roof fall just caused a "flash" or whether a fire continued to burn underground. He said it could take up to 72 hours to gather the data needed to determine whether a fire is still burning.

Coal Company Cited In Deaths Of 2 Miners

WJZ.com

July 9, 2007