Get over it. Stop complaining. It's time to move on. Seal the failed area off and get back to work.
"They just don’t believe that they’re gone," said Sonny J. Olsen, a lawyer from Price who is a spokesman for the families. "And if they seal that mine up, they’ll never know if these people died from a lack of food, water or oxygen. They just won’t know."
Sure, it's a tragedy but they are miners who knew the risk.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers - thick walls of coal that run on both sides of the main tunnels and help hold up the mine.
This kind of stuff happens all the time. It's not like we didn't know it wouldn't happen.
Critics think any investigation of the accident will ultimately ask why MSHA signed off in June on a mining plan for the area where the collapse occurred.
Experts have said the terrain there was already risky for the type of mining the operators wanted to do. Concerns about the roof's stability after a cave-in damaged another part of the mine in March made MSHA's approval even more questionable, they say.
Mine accidents are a part of life. Officials in Utah are already moving on to more important matters.
OREM - The city is pressing charges against a 70-year-old woman who was arrested in a dispute over her brown lawn, an attorney said Wednesday.
Betty Perry was taken to a holding cell July 6 before she was released by red-faced police officials. The mayor and City Council apologized for her treatment. But city attorney Paul Johnson said he's sticking to the facts: He claims Perry failed to followed an Orem ordinance that requires property owners to maintain their landscaping.
"We don't make our decision based on what political leaders do or think. ... There's a huge other side of the story," Johnson said Wednesday. "There's a violation that needs to be corrected."
Besides the brown lawn, Perry is accused of resisting arrest. Two misdemeanor charges were filed Aug. 17, and she is due in court Sept. 18, Johnson said.
It's time for closure.
The fifth borehole drilled in the search for six missing miners turned up no proof of life deep inside the Crandall Canyon mine, as rescuers prepare to drill a sixth hole, in possibly their last attempt to find the missing men.
The fifth hole, completed Wednesday, punctured into a six-inch void that was not large enough to sustain human life, said Jack Kuzar, a federal Mine Health and Safety Administration official.
Officials were removing the drill steel to begin taking air readings this evening in an attempt to determine if there is an atmosphere to sustain life. Meanwhile, officials are preparing to begin drilling a sixth hole tomorrow morning.
"That will bring closure in my mind that everything has been done,"
said Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the parent company of Utah-American Energy Inc., which owns Crandall Canyon mine.
That is, closure of the the Crandall Canyon Mine. Lessons have been learned from this tragedy. We need a new name for the remaining reserves.
An official at the mine, the Crandall Canyon, said it could be back in business under a new name, after blocking off the area that collapsed on Aug. 6.
Robert E. Murray, president of the Murray Energy Corporation, a co-owner of the mine, suggested that other parts of the mine remained safe for work and that mining should resume.
"We would abandon any effort to mine there," Mr. Murray said, referring to the site of the initial collapse where the six miners were trapped.
"But the reserves are in an entirely different place," he said Monday night outside the mine.
It's time to get back to business (Murray Energy Political Action Committee).
Candidate Name Office Party State $ Dollar Amount
ALLEN, GEORGE SENATE Republican VA 5,000
BLASDEL, CHUCK HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
CAPITO, SHELLEY MOORE HOUSE Republican WV 1,000
CHABOT, STEVE HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
CORKER, ROBERT P JR SENATE Republican TN 2,000
DAVIS, GEOFFREY C HOUSE Republican KY 5,000
DEWINE, RICHARD MICHAEL SENATE Republican OH 5,000
ENSIGN, JOHN ERIC SENATE Republican NV 5,000
FOLTIN, CRAIG MR. HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
GRAMS, RODNEY DWIGHT SENATE Republican MN 5,000
HARRIS, KATHERINE SENATE Republican FL 5,000
ISAKSON, JOHN HARDY SENATE Republican GA 10,000
KEAN, THOMAS H JR HOUSE Republican NJ 5,000
KENNEDY, MARK RAYMOND SENATE Republican MN 5,000
KYL, JON SENATE Republican AZ 5,000
PADGETT, JOY HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
PARKE, GREGORY TARL SENATE Republican VT 1,000
POMBO, RICHARD HOUSE Republican CA 5,000
PRYCE, DEBORAH D. HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
RICKETTS, PETE SENATE Republican NE 2,000
SANTORUM, RICHARD J SENATE Republican PA 5,000
SCHMIDT, JEANNETTE H HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
STEELE, MICHAEL SENATE Republican MD 5,000
TALENT, JAMES MATTHES SENATE Republican MO 5,000
TIBERI, PATRICK J HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
"Some have incorrectly reported that after I bought the mine I changed the mining plan. That is not correct,"
Murray said. He said the mining plan was developed by its previous owners, Andalex Resources, in conjunction with the Colorado mining engineering consultant Agapito Associates and approved by MSHA.
Documents on file with the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining show Andalex had previously decided not to mine those barriers,determining it posed a risk to worker safety.
"Although maximum recovery is an important design criteria, other considerations must be looked at in the final analysis in the extraction of coal. These factors consider the insurance of protection of personnel and the environment," the company wrote in April 2005. "Solid coal barriers will be left to protect main entries from mined out panels and to guarantee stability of the main entries for the life of the mine."
Union troublemakers have been complaining, however.
"No one took the time to see that it was a recipe for disaster," Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said Tuesday of the nonunion mine.
In question is the decision to allow Crandall Canyon's operators to mine between two sections that had already been excavated using a mining technique that causes the roof to collapse.
But those walls of coal were pure profit.
In the Crandall Canyon mine, sprawling sections to the north and south of the main tunnel had been longwalled, where coal was cut out leaving behind nothing but rubble and no roof support. That creates pressures on the main tunnel that the barriers are designed to help manage.
It was those barriers that Murray's company sought to mine when it asked MSHA to approve a change to the mine plan on Nov. 11, 2006. MSHA officials spent just seven business days reviewing the request before approving the mining in the north barrier.
"There was a change of philosophy there," said Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA attorney and Kentucky mine official. "It's certainly very questionable. They wanted to get as much coal out of it as they can."
All the money had been spent on the mine and this was a chance to get coal for almost free.
In that middle section, the mine was cut like a city block, leaving pillars of coal holding up the mountain above. MSHA approved a plan allowing the operators to pull out the pillars, a practice called "retreat mining," which causes deliberate, controlled roof cave-ins.
Experts think any investigation will focus on why MSHA agreed to that plan.
Those conditions are so unstable, some companies will leave behind the last of the coal rather than risk lives trying to pull additional pillars, experts have said.
In addition to the questions about structure, experts say that the operators and MSHA should have been aware that deep mines such as Crandall Canyon are prone to "bumps" _ an unpredictable and dangerous phenomenon that happens when settling layers of earth bear down on the walls of a coal mine. The force can cause pillars to fail, turning chunks of coal into deadly missiles
Experts can investigate all they want but we already know the answer to why the MSHA approved the plan.
Of course it was dangerous, but profits were maximized.
"It's a significant change in terms of pillars or no pillars or robbing the pillars," said Jerry Tien, a mining engineering professor at the University of Missouri-Rolla. "Bob Murray may have been more aggressive based on his experience in the east which may not be applicable here."
Work in the north barrier progressed until March, when the mine suffered a major "bump" - a jolt in the mine caused by the pressure of the mountain bearing down, often causing the roof to fall in, floors to heave or coal to explode from the support pillars. The March bump damaged tunnels over a span of more than 700 feet, and prompted mine operators to abandon their retreat mining in the northern barrier.
Instead, they asked MSHA for permission to mine the south barrier, armed with an Agapito memo that said using wider supports to add roof support should enable it to be mined safely. In May, the company asked MSHA for approval to begin cutting away those support pillars, which was approved by the agency on June 15.
Six miners - Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Juan Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez - were working in that south barrier on Aug. 6, when another major mine bump caused a massive cave-in, trapping all six inside.
And there are always more miners. Besides, there are jobs at stake.
Others who had worked in the mine said they had felt safe and would work there again. Jim Hanna has worked as a supervisor at the mine.
"I would have been going in that Monday morning," said Mr. Hanna, who was on leave because of a back injury. "I’ve never seen anything like this. It tears me up."
But Mr. Hanna said he would be back at work as soon as his back improved.
"That’s just coal miners," he said.
Amanda Hight, a graduate student in Price, said if the mine remained closed, "then you have a ghost town."
"It’s tricky," Ms. Hight said,
"because there are people’s jobs at stake. "