– by Mike Hall
The owners of the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah where six miners were killed last August used dangerous mining techniques and “were motivated by avarice and greed, at the expense of safety and human life,” the families of the six charged in a lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City last week.
The lawsuit, filed April 2 in the state’s 3rd District Court, names Murray Energy Corp., its subsidiary UtahAmerican Energy Inc., and others. The suit alleges the company’s use of “retreat mining” where pillars of coal that were left to support the mine roof are pulled down as the miners retreat was “dangerous…and unsafe.” The suit says the company acted without regard to safety from its
greedy determination to mine easily accessible coal.
Three rescue workers were killed 10 days after the initial collapse Aug. 6 while attempting to reach the workers. The bodies of the six miners remain entombed in the mountain site in Emery County, Utah.
Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, scheduled to appear before a Senate subcommittee Thursday, will have an opportunity to present his version of the disaster. However, a spokesmen for Murray Energy declined to say if Murray would appear before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.
Murray has been asked previously to testify but has yet to appear, and he faces two subpoenas from other committees.
The April 2 lawsuit alleges Murray Energy and the other defendants ignored several assessments that retreat mining in the area where the six were killed would be dangerous. The assessments include those of the mine’s previous owner that retreat mining would be unsafe. Computer models also found the area was unsafe for mining after a March 2007 collapse forced the company to cease operations there.
Following the Aug. 6 disaster, Murray denied retreat mining was being used at Crandall Canyon and said an earthquake or “act of God” caused the “evil mountain” to fall. Colin King, an attorney for the six families, told reporters there were enough warning signs that retreat mining would be unsafe and dangerous:
This is not a mystery. It’s very clear what the tradeoffs were, and that’s the tragedy. It wasn’t like, “God’s evil mountain” fell. It was very predictable. Very predictable.
The lawsuit came just days after a report by the U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General found that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was “negligent”when it approved the retreat mining plan. The report also raised concerns that company officials may have pressured MSHA to approve the plan. In a memo to MSHA two days before the safety agency approved a retreat mining plan, a Murray company official wrote:
I have a fire under my ass to get this approved. I need your help.