Apr 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Maggie Borman The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.



Officials with the United Mine Workers in Southern Illinois say this week's deadly coal mine explosion in West Virginia could have been prevented.

"What happened in West Virginia is an absolute tragedy and, in my opinion, totally preventable," Steve Earle, UMWA Region 3 director and International District 12 vice president, said Wednesday. "This tragedy, which left wives without husbands and children without fathers, is a classic example of a large coal company that put productivity over safety of the miners."

Mine investigators said they believe a buildup of methane contributed to Monday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, W.Va., and the mine repeatedly had been cited for problems with its ventilation system, which clears away the highly combustible gas, according to the Associated Press. Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, frequently sidesteps hefty fines by aggressively appealing safety violations at the mine, according to an Associated Press analysis of mine safety records.

According to the Associated Press, the quality and quantity of coal produced at Upper Big Branch make the mine a gem of Massey's operations, producing 1.2 million tons of coal last year using the lowest-cost underground mining method, making it more profitable. The mine produces metallurgical coal that is used to make steel and sells for up to $200 a ton, more than double the price for the type of coal used by power plants.

 Massey still is contesting more than one-third of all its violations at the Upper Big Branch mine since 2007. In the past year, federal inspectors have proposed more than $1 million in fines for violations at the mine, and only 16 percent have been paid, according to the AP's review of records from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Bombarding federal regulators with appeals is an increasingly common industry tactic since the 2006 Sago mine disaster in Buckhannon, W.Va., killed 12 miners and led to stiffer fines and new enforcement.

"While the Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine is not a union mine, our hearts and prayers of all United Mine Workers of America families are with those who lost their loved ones in this terrible tragedy," Earle said. "At times like this, we feel we are all brothers and sisters in the coal fields."

UMWA President Cecil Roberts dispatched some of the organization's skilled people to the Upper Big Branch mine "to help in whatever way they can," Earle said.

Earle noted the massive effort UMWA and other mining unions made to see passage of the 1969 Coal Act and the 1977 Mine Act, which created the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Among other things, the laws allow mine inspectors to stop unsafe production in mines, require four inspections per year in each underground mine, increase federal enforcement powers in mines, and establish civil and criminal penalties for safety violations.

Earle said he does not know what will come of the investigation into the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, but in his opinion, inspections of mines need to be increased and violators held accountable, "monetarily, and criminally.

"The current system is simply not working," Earle said. "This is 2010, and with today's technology in the mining industry, this should never have happened."

Congressional researchers found that the fatality rate among people employed in the private sector was 4.2 per 100,000 workers in 2006, compared to 49.5 in coal mining. There are fewer than 45,000 underground coal mining jobs left in the United States, including about 3,000 in Illinois, so the fatality rate is staggering.

Yet since 2008, Illinois' coal industry has seen three fatalities; none of those, however, was related directly to underground mine work. Increased regulations, inspections and safety equipment in coal mining have helped, Earle said.

Coal is mined in 12 Illinois counties, and Illinois coal is a $1 billion-per-year industry.

Over the past several years, the former Freeman Crown 3 Mine, now Springfield Coal (still a union mine), located in northern Macoupin County, and the former Monterey Mine, now Shay Mine No. 1 (which went from a union mine to a non-union mine), located south of Carlinville, received safety citations for not only operating without injuries but for mine safety improvements.

"We have to make the system work," Earle said. "We should not lose one miner due to such negligence. Just think about how many years the families of these dead miners will suffer this loss due to putting production over safety."

The five worst U.S. coal mine explosions, since 1940:

--Nov. 20, 1968: Consolidated Mine No. 9, Farmington, W.Va., 78 deaths

--Dec. 21, 1951: Orient Mine No. 2, West Frankfort, Ill., 119 deaths

--March 25, 1947: Centralia Mine No. 5, Centralia, Ill., 111 deaths

--March 16, 1940: Willow Grove Mine No. 10, St. Clairsville, Ohio, 72 deaths

--Jan. 10, 1940: Pond Creek Mine No. 1, Bartley, W.Va., 91 deaths

(c) 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services  To subscribe or visit go to:  www.mcclatchy.com/