Coal Mines Still Deadly Despite Reports

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Despite the release of an independent report Thursday that said "corporate risk taking" resulted in the deaths of 29 Upper Big Branch miners, "some still aren't getting it," Mine Safety and Health Administrator Joe Main said in a phone interview. His agency, only three weeks ago, found that the conditions that caused the April 5, 2010, deaths at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine existed in yet another Massey-owned mine in West Virginia.

He noted that on April 29 MSHA issued citations against Massey's Randolph Mine in Boone County, W.Va. Government inspectors seized control of the Randolph mine's phone network to prevent advance warning of their arrival and found a ventilation system that was not working properly.

"Miners were being exposed to dust hazards that could result in permanently disabling injuries such as black lung and other diseases," Main said. "Combustible materials in the form of loose coal, coal dust and float coal dust were allowed to accumulate, which can contribute to a mine explosion.

"The conduct and behavior exhibited when we caught the mine operator by surprise is nothing short of outrageous," said Main.

Thursday's report on the Upper Big Branch mine disaster by David McAteer, former head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, found that a combination of methane gas and huge amounts of coal dust in the poorly ventilated and improperly monitored non-union mine turned a small ignition into a massive explosion that killed the workers as it roared through miles of underground tunnels.

McAteer's report, commissioned by then-Gov. Joe Manchin, describes a horror show in the mine in which safety practices were virtually non-existent. Air filled with deadly gases routinely flowed in the wrong direction, including on the day of the explosion, because of broken ventilation systems.

Miners, gasping for air, were regularly forced to wade through chest-deep water because of broken pumps. The rising water squeezed out even more of the precious air they needed to breathe.

Managers responsible for checking methane levels did so without turning on their detectors.

continue at: http://www.peoplesworld.org/mine-safety-chief-some-still-aren-t-getting-it/