Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100126
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTON LENGTH: Long
MINE CHARGES PLANNED
Safety-violation charges will be filed against the operators of Southmountain Coal Mine No. 3, where eight miners were killed Dec. 7 in a massive methane explosion, the federal mine inspector heading the investigation said Tuesday.The inspector, Timothy Thompson, head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health office in Barbourville, Ky., wouldn't reveal what safety-violation charges will be made.
Thompson did say, however, that investigators have determined who tampered with a methane monitor that was designed to automatically turn off a continuous-mining machine in use at the time of the explosion.
Investigators don't know what sparked the methane explosion, but revealed earlier that someone had covered the methane monitor with a rag, possibly to prevent it from turning off the machine. The monitor is set to shut down the machine well before methane reaches explosive levels.
"We know how it got on there and why," Thompson said of the rag. "The guy who put it on is still alive." He wouldn't reveal the person's identity or motive.
Some officials say the rag may have been put on the monitor so that the machine wouldn't turn off and interrupt production. Others say it may have been put on to keep out water that is sprayed to limit coal dust.
Thompson made his comments after appearing before the first meeting of a 10-member watchdog task force that Gov. Douglas Wilder appointed to review the investigation for fairness and thoroughness and to recommend ways to prevent such mining disasters.
In his brief appearance before the task force, Thompson did not discuss the preliminary findings of the investigation. He did provide an outline of the way in which the investigation was conducted.
Thompson said he expects the final report to take two more months to complete. When it's done, he said, it will be written in a new style - one that is more readable than technical.
"We want every coal miner in the United States to read this thing," he said.
Since the bodies of the eight miners were brought out five days after the explosion, federal and state mine officials have been stunned by flagrant safety violations discovered in Southmountain Coal Mine No. 3.
The violations included the monitor tampering and the revelation that miners might have been smoking in the mine. Cigarette butts, unsmoked cigarettes and lighters were found on or around three of the miners. Federal authorities were so shocked that they took the unusual step of revealing some of their findings in December and issuing a nationwide safety alert.
In Virginia, the Southmountain disaster has prompted a major effort to overhaul state mine-safety laws and improve inspections. Among legislative bills expected to be passed are laws making it a felony to smoke in a mine or to tamper with a methane-sensing device.
Max Kennedy, a United Mine Workers of America representative who is on Wilder's task force, said one bill in particular might have prevented the explosion. That bill would require state inspectors to classify all underground mines as gassy, thus requiring higher degrees of caution.
Federal authorities classify all coal mines as gassy because methane is naturally released when coal is mined. Virginia classifies mines as nongassy unless a certain level of methane is detected.
Southmountain Mine No. 3 was classified as nongassy. Kennedy and other union officials say the classification may have given miners at the nonunion mine a false sense of security.
Officials with Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, which handles mine inspections for the state, also spoke to the task force. Harry Childress, head of the division of mines, gave a detailed report on the rescue operation that ended with the discovery that all of the miners believed trapped had been killed by the explosion.
Childress had high compliments for the mine-rescue teams, saying they tried so hard to get to the miners that they had to be ordered out of the mine when they got tired.
Opie McKinney, who is heading the investigation for the state, said that after the underground investigation was completed, state and federal investigators questioned 31 people, most of them present and former workers at Southmountain No. 3. He said they were given the opportunity to be questioned in confidence if they didn't want company representatives or others to hear what they had to say.
Tony Oppegard, a lawyer representing the families of three of the dead miners, earlier criticized the decision to let company representatives sit in on the interviews. He said employees would be afraid to be open with their bosses watching. And he said they might also be afraid to ask for a confidential interview.
Two panel members - Max Kennedy, a union representative, and Danny Davidson, a coal miner and UMW member - also criticized the interview procedure.
"If I was one of the employees testifying, I would feel uneasy," Davidson said.
Kennedy and Davidson said they may ask the task force to interview employees of the nonunion Southmountain mine confidentially and compel the testimony with subpoenas if necessary.
"Potentially, this is the most important part of our investigation," Thompson said. He included the interviewing miners with company officials present among "standard procedures" followed.
Oppegard, surrounded by some of the disaster victims' relatives, was the only member of the public to ask a question of the task force Tuesday. He said he still wants to know "why company men were allowed to sit in on the interviews."
And, Oppegard said, "We want to know why conditions at the mine were allowed to deteriorate."
That's what the task force hopes to find out so that "there will never again be another Southmountain tragedy," said Jim Robinson, its chairman.
Robinson, a former state delegate from Pound, just a few miles from the mine, said he lost two friends in the disaster, and wants to make sure it never happens again.
The Associated Press provided information for this story.
Keywords:
FATALITY