Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Short
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration fined Jewell Smokeless Coal Corp. for failing to have a final map of its No. 18 Mine in Buchanan County on file with the agency. Tammie Keene Givens, 26, of Whitewood drowned May 13 after water from the old underground mine burst through a hillside and inundated her house.
The agency assessed a $50 fine, and the company has paid it, agency spokeswoman Kathy Snyder said.
The agency has no jurisdiction over a mine once it is sealed and abandoned. But J. Davitt McAteer, assistant secretary of labor for MSHA, said he wants to do anything he can to ensure that similar accidents don't happen again.
``We are very much concerned that all possible precautions are taken during the sealing process to prevent similar tragedies in the future,'' he said.
Givens was trying to leave the house when the foundation failed. The MSHA report concluded that 20,000 gallons of water per minute were gushing from a breach in a weak layer of weathered shale.
While the outburst occurred 60 feet from the abandoned mine works, only 12 to 15 feet of the material was solid material. The rest was soil and loose rock, the agency said.
The state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy issued two notices of violation and assessed a $1,530 fine. But agency spokesman Mike Abbott said Thursday that was later reduced to $675 because the incident was deemed inadvertent.
- Associated Press
by CNB