Report Of Earlier "Bump" At Utah Mine Was Disregarded

Salt Lake Tribune:

Federal mine inspector Stephen Falk went into the Crandall Canyon mine earlier this year, and what he saw troubled him.

"I have been concerned about pulling pillars in this environment," Falk, a mine inspector for the Bureau of Land Management, wrote in February 2007, referring to the retreat mining going on in the mine - where huge blocks of coal left to support the roof are cut away, leaving the roof to fall in.

So far, things had gone well, he wrote, but work was nearing the deepest part of the mine, where pressures from the weight of the mountaintop above would be most intense, and he predicted that things "should get interesting soon."

Read the whole story: Salt Lake Tribune

Comments

[guajiro]

04:39 PM on 09/02/2007

The only way we'll get to the truth of what happened is if our Congressional Representatives agree with the Union that the families of the miners that Murray drove to their death can be represented by the union. Right now, both the mine owners and the Bureau of Land Management/Mine Safety and Health Administration are equally interested in assigning themselves no blame or even worse, assigning the blame to the miners themselves. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
"The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has determined the United Mine Workers of America union cannot represent the families of six trapped coal miners in the agency's upcoming investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster".
Thankfully some local union leaders are stepping up to the plate: " Mike Dalpiaz of Helper, a longtime union leader in Utah, said MSHA's ruling was not surprising and that the union will press congressional committees to force the agency's investigation to include "an independent voice" such as the union.
"Right now, these families have no voice whatsoever because the mine operator [Murray Energy Corp.] and MSHA have a joint problem in what happened," said Dalpiaz."
Now we need for the local Representatives/Senators/and Governor to step up to the plate and do likewise.
Let's see...that would be Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.
Also....Republican Senator Bob Bennett.
To include...Republican Governor Jon Huntsman.
I wonder if they revel in the havoc their policies have created. Surely they must, there is no repentance, no acknowledgement of the sins against humanity they are a part of, nothing but public wrapping of themselves in the American flag and religion that they use to fool those of their party into believing.

[Kungfublood]

01:33 PM on 09/02/2007

whistle blowers should be protected and if later fired or laid off it should be with full benefits and a tidy sum from the employer unless the employer can under review by a state board prove the person failed at their job.

[Destin]

01:07 PM on 09/02/2007

Funny how everyone say that there has never been any seismic activity in Utah before, but somehow they have geological equipment there "just in case". And the inspector talks about the seismic activity in the article long before the collapse, but that was all ignored.

[Hydrogenman]

12:49 PM on 09/02/2007

Robert Murray should become the face of the Republican party...Heartless, greedy, morally bankrupt. How more Republican can one be?

[Hawkeye17]

12:45 PM on 09/02/2007

The owners of that mine put greed ahead of the miner's safety. That makes them murderer's in my book. They knew this mine wasn't stable but pushed ahead anyway and lives were lost. These owners should be put on trial for murder and jailed.

[LittleBrother]

11:52 AM on 09/02/2007

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__________________________________________________

I thought this was the HuffPo Borg Censor's way of telling me that my comment would be disappeared because it wasn't Nice enough. Guess not.

[LittleBrother]

11:49 AM on 09/02/2007

This inspector will probably be reprimanded, and maybe the lost miners will be fired posthumously.

Bad apples, the lot of 'em!

Instead of coal in his stocking, Murray will get a Medal of Freedom for Christmas for his work aiding the War Effort.

[hilow64]

11:39 AM on 09/02/2007

Imagine that.The government ignoring the safety of workers.

after all,they were only people,much less important than the leftover scraps of coal in the mine....

[democritus]

11:37 AM on 09/02/2007

Gross criminal negligence. Murray's consciousness of guilt is demonstrated by his strenuous denial of retreat mining. Given the history of the mine, the fact that it was being run at all is astonishing.

Reminds me a little of the Challenger disaster in which the timing of Reagan's State of the Nation speech determined that the space shuttle be launched despite objections from the engineers that the unusual freezing temperatures compromised safety. The common element is that unusually bad conditions led to definite objections by technical people which was clearly overridden from the ownership/political level.

[ultracrepidarian]

12:30 PM on 09/02/2007

I remember the media covering the launch of the Challenger poking fun at the repeated delays. You could feel the pressure build to get it off the ground. After disaster struck, there was never a mention of this. I always felt they were, in a small way, responsible. It is, of course the responsibility of those who understand the realities of the situation to resist this pressure.

[Jason357]

11:16 AM on 09/02/2007

Murray is a prime example of the GOP support, the 28%. They don't give a damn, while they pretend to exemplify the highest of moral standards as they enrich themselves in the destruction of others.

[foolme1ns]

11:11 AM on 09/02/2007

George Bush is responsible for this. He put in a hack to run MSHA. A hack so bad that not even a republican majority in his rubber stamp congress would vote for him!!!! A hack whose own safety record was awful!!!! Bush put him in because Bob Murray gave him bribes to put in Stickler who was one of Bob Murray's managers!!!!

George Bush, Kevin Stickler and Bob Murray have murdered nine miners. But hey, that is just a drop in the bucket. George Bush's hacks have murdered more than a thousand people in New Orleans and left that city devastated for over two years!!!!

But that isn't even the worst of George Bush's record!!!! His firing of good Generals who told him his plans for invading Iraq would be a disaster and his replacing them with hacks just looking for more stars, has killed THOUSANDS of US soldiers in the worst run war in the history of the United States.

This is the legacy of George Bush. The single handed destruction of the United States. From mine disasters, to incompetent flood management, to the complete debacle of the Iraq war, George Bush has crippled the United States government and the good agencies that were put in place just exactly for these purposes!!!! He is worse than an incompetent fool. He is a destructive force the like of which has never been seen in America before.

[TXfemmom]

11:22 AM on 09/02/2007

Foolme is right. EVEN Bush's hand-picked bunch of butt kissers in the Republican-controlled Congress wouldn't agree to Strickler's appointment, so it is a given that he is a PAID HACK OF THE INDUSTRY.

Stickler, Murray, the other co-owners, and the person who appointed Strickler should be held legally liable for this.

[helonias]

11:00 AM on 09/02/2007

One of the 5 finest Americans did what.

Some one better call Sen Mitch or get him another 13 peices of silver.

[TXfemmom]

11:21 AM on 09/02/2007

McConnel, Murray, Chao, the woman with whom he sleeps every night, Strickler, and the person who appointed Srickler, all need to see and live within the walls of a very nasty prison for a long, long time.

[AtticusinPa]

08:29 AM on 09/02/2007

Please. Please. Please. Can we agree to stop using conservative's choice of words. Their choice of words always . . . always . . . skews the point in their favor. This was not a bump. This was a collapse. I live in coal country. An uncle was a miner at Vesta mine number 6 in SW Pennsylvania. We never heard of the word bump until Murray used it. It was not a bump. It was a collapse and the sooner the media uses real words to describe accurately what has happened, the better off we will all be.

[grainger5]

08:40 AM on 09/02/2007

It wasn't a collapse. It was just Murray looking for truffles.

[booker52]

10:36 AM on 09/02/2007

You are so baddd!

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

08:51 AM on 09/02/2007

"Bump" helps to confuse the event with something uncontrollable like a NATURALLY-OCCURRING seizmic "event," i.e., an earthquake of some size! Murray and his ilk KNOW they must cut safety corners in order to squeeze the MAXIMUM of profit from these reopened works....rather like opening a factory with worn out, third hand machinery and then pushing both it and the employes to their limits....

Murray is likely pleased that the rescue(?) was suspended; otherwise, incriminating evidence might be found....as well as miners who perished from lack of air!

[socks1]

09:18 AM on 09/02/2007

And don't forget it cost money to sink a hole into the earth. +- $2,000/ft.

[gogocat]

07:51 AM on 09/02/2007

MARCH ON WASHINGTON SEPT. 15

MARCH ON WASHINGTON SEPT. 15

MARCH ON WASHINGTON SEPT. 15

Until, "we the people" take back OUR GOV'T from this Criminal Administration of Bu$h & Co. the American people will continue to be led to slaughter either in Iraq, unsafe coal mines, natural disasters, a major illness or worst of all corporate greed. WAKE UP! TAKE ACTION!

MARCH ON WASHINGTON SEPT. 15

[TimtheDemocrat]

10:27 AM on 09/02/2007

Why bother? no one cares...

Americans do not care about each other, the world or anything but their own selfish desires.

[only1Demvoter]

12:00 PM on 09/02/2007

You ain't no Democrat ' Tim - idity '. But you are partly right... NOBODY cares about YOU!

( We bother because this Great Nation deserves a better fate than the one shills like you THINK (sic) that you've relegated US to... ). Troll.

As for Crap Murray ( et,al. )... They'll ALL walk! ( just like OJ ). As I said in '94... If I had 35 million in the bank, I could get away with ALMOST anything... Just watch. $$$ buys the legal system in this country... Murray will be NO exception! Neither will Bush, Cheney, Rove, Delay, Foley, Frist, Libby, or ANY of the other RICH F&%KS!!!!!!!!!!

A Troll poster ( on another thread ) wrote that ' class wars ' were fruitless! ( Thinking about THAT yet?? ). Certainly must look that way, from your ' high - on Glass Tower ' standpoint. We built ALL this shit for you... Get it????

We need healthcare, including dental... retirement benefits, AND safety protection ( from the ' Robber Baron ' ) in the workplace! The days of the ' disposable worker ' have been OVER for a hundred years, you despicable F&%KS... ( Time for you to modernize your practices! ). You think that the GW Tort Reform, and his laxed regulation over workplace safety gives you a ' green light ' to reap - in MORE profits off The Uninsured ( like The Terminator ), YOU are sadly delusional ( * see above epithet ).

Your ' Nero ' fiddles while our ' Rome ' festers. The ' Class Wars ' are close at hand! To be fought by our children... For the likes of you to be demoralized, as we have been for so many decades! What will you do when your money WON'T buy your way up out of this rift you've created?? Time to wake up and smell the bullshit you've been feeding us, you upper caste... Or your comfort WILL be your undoing. Time to take care of those that have sacrificed SO MUCH for you.

Protect the Working Class!
More to follow. -ralph

[blackjack]

06:36 AM on 09/02/2007

Question? was Kyra Phillips there to give him a big sloopy KISS like before. (Linbaugh main play toy.)

[TXfemmom]

03:16 PM on 09/02/2007

Did you notice that the day after Phillips did that, CNN ran their first and only Keeping Them Straight, where it insinuted that Murray had intentionally mined this mine, which had been abandoned as "unsafe"?