Agency knew of Utah mine's problems years before disaster

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Bureau of Land Management inspectors noted serious structural problems at Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine at least three years before two roof collapses killed nine people in August, Congress was told today.

Yet the government's mine safety agency in another agency — the Labor Department — didn't know of the concerns about Crandall Canyon until after the accident, Kevin Stricklin, a coal mine safety and health administrator for Labor, told a Senate hearing on the accident.

The Labor Department had approved a plan to mine there.

"This is like the CIA not getting information from the FBI when we're getting attacked by terrorists," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., whose committee also is investigating the oversight by the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration of the mine and the accident response.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/5181545.html

knowing the levees wouldn't stand up.

then when the families want to use mining unions as their advocate. the Gov says the (Dead) miners had to sign the papers. astonishingly arrogant way to cover up their safety failures.