Mine collapse in Utah

August 8, 2007

In case you missed it, there was another coal mine collapse, this time in Utah — six people trapped. The owner of the company that operates the mine says the cave-in was caused by an earthquake, but other experts seem to think he has events backwards. From Canada.com:

Six miners were trapped in the collapse of a coal mine in central Utah on Monday and experts said initial reports of an earthquake might have been the rumbling from the mine’s cave-in. [ Utah coal mine collapse traps six miners ]

And…

Seismic activity detected in Utah at the same time a mine collapsed there, trapping six men deep underground, was probably caused by the cave-in itself and not an earthquake, U.S. geologists said on Tuesday. But Harley Benz, scientist in charge of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said a final conclusion was still several days away.

The mine’s owner has insisted that an earthquake was responsible for the collapse and lashed out at experts and members of the media who have said otherwise.

The seismic activity, whether causing or caused by the collapse, registered at about 4.0 on the Richter scale. And I think it’s fair to ask why the miners are so much at risk if they are working in an earthquake-prone area — especially since they were using room-and-pillar mining:

It’s a delicate endeavor: Columns of coal are left in place to hold up the roof of the mine while the vein is tapped. Once the reserves have been extracted, the miners harvest the last of the coal on the way out, cutting carefully into the pillars and scrambling out of the way as the roof caves in.

The final column to be slashed is known among miners as the “suicide pillar.” [ Utah Mine Used Risky Cave-in Method ]

Rick Perlstein has more on the mine regulatory environment and Bob Murray, mining operator:

He’s the guy who, in 2002, when officials of the Mine Safety Administration confronted him about his mines’ poor safety conditions, shrieked at them to lay off or he would tell Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to fire them. Chao, of course, is married to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Murray bellowed, “Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss.” [ E. coli Conservatism Killing Six More? ]

Murray is, of course, virulently anti-union and apparently unconcerned with the safety of his mineworkers. Ideally, of course, there would be no regulation and no union. Then the jobs would be so dangerous and pay so little they would become one of those so-called “jobs Americans don’t want to do,” and Murray would be forced to hire illegals. That, at least, seems to be the pattern I’ve recognized from the mass agriculture industry.

Posted in Infrastructure