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This article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Peggy Cohen's youngest son, Hunter, was only
2 years old when the Sago Mine blew up. Today, he still blows kisses
whenever the family goes by his grandfather's grave.
Cohen's father, Fred Ware, was among the 12 miners killed in the
Sago Mine disaster. The family still feels the loss three years
later.
"My other son, Marc, breaks down and cries still for his pawpaw,"
Cohen said last month. "I often cry, too, but I know that Dad is
watching over us and we have our own special guardian angel above."
At the same time, Cohen says she worries about the safety of other
miners, and holds out hope that a change in the White House might
help more families from losing husbands, fathers and sons in the
nation's coal mines.
"We cannot take mine safety lightly," Cohen said in an e-mail
message. "There is still plenty of work which needs to be done to
protect our miners. This is my hope for our new president and his
staff."
Three years ago this morning, an explosion ripped through
International Coal Group's Sago Mine, located outside Buckhannon in
Upshur County.
Within hours, the national media had focused on 13 missing miners.
Twelve of those workers died before rescuers could reach them 40
hours later. Only Randal McCloy Jr. survived.
The disaster - West Virginia's worst in nearly 40 years - was the
first of four major coal-mining accidents over the next 18 months.
Three weeks later, two more miners died in Massey Energy's Aracoma
Alma No. 1 Mine.
In May 2006, five workers died in an explosion at the Kentucky Darby
Mine. In August 2007, nine miners died in a cave-in at Murray
Energy's Crandall Canyon operation in Utah.
In response, there's been a flurry of new laws, tougher regulations
and demands for increased inspections and enforcement. Much progress
has been made. Last year, for example, the U.S. Mine Safety and
Health Administration for the first time completed all of its
mandated quarterly inspections of underground coal mines nationwide.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., pushed for additional funding to
replace MSHA inspection jobs that had been cut by Bush.
"There are visibly more coal inspectors on the ground, and nearly
100 additional federal enforcement personnel hired in West
Virginia," Byrd said. "Looking at mining conditions since the Sago
tragedy, I think we can fairly say we're on the right track - and
believe me, we're not going to let up."
Still, at least 98 coal miners have died on the job in the United
States since the Sago Mine blew up. Through Wednesday afternoon,
coal-mining deaths in 2008 were down over the previous year, from 34
to 29. West Virginia was tied with Kentucky for the most mining
deaths, with eight. West Virginia's figure could bump up to nine, if
the death this week of a CONSOL Energy foreman at the company's
McElroy operation is classified as mining-related.
And despite improvements, many critics say MSHA remains a troubled
agency damaged by Bush administration budget cuts and efforts to
replace tough enforcement with industry-friendly "compliance
assistant" programs.
"President-elect Obama needs to re-orient MSHA entirely," said
Nathan Fetty, a mine safety lawyer with the Appalachian Center for
the Economy and the Environment. "MSHA needs leadership who wants to
tackle the biggest health and safety problems facing miners without
waiting for a court or Congress to tell the agency to act."
Earlier this week, MSHA finalized the last two key rules required
by the MINER Act passed by Congress in 2006 after Sago, Aracoma and
Darby. The rules require mine operators to provide underground
shelters to help miners surface explosions and fires and tighten the
restrictions on the use of conveyor belt tunnels to ventilate
underground mines. But MSHA also recently announced that it doesn't
believe truly wireless communications equipment will be available by
a congressional deadline of mid-June 2009.
Congressional leaders believe MSHA has been far to slow to implement
MINER Act requirements, and hope that a new administration will move
more swiftly.
And Labor Secretary Elaine Chao has pushed for a new rule - not yet
finalized - to drug test miners, while MSHA officials say they are
too busy to write tougher limits on coal dust to fight a recent
resurgence of deadly black lung disease.
"Sago demonstrated how cutting government programs, popular as that
may be as a political tactic, can have truly detrimental, and even
fatal, effects," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va.
"The government faces incredibly tough budgetary times," Rahall
said. "But, with the examples of Sago and Aracoma still strong in
our memories, I expect the Obama administration to have greater
respect than the Bush White House for the value of a properly
financed MSHA to ensuring the safety of America's miners."
During his campaign and since then, President-elect Barack Obama has
said little about coal-mine safety. Campaign aides and transition
staff declined requests for comment on Obama's plans for MSHA. It
could be several months before an announcement is made on whom Obama
will put in charge of the agency.
In late October, Obama called lax MSHA enforcement "one of the worst
disasters of the Bush administration."
"In my Department of Labor, the Administrator of Mine Safety and
Health will be an advocate for miners' safety and health, not for
the mining companies' bottom lines," Obama said in a letter to the
American Federation of Government Employees, the union that
represents rank-and-file MSHA workers.
"Our mine safety program will have the staffing and the enforcement
tools needed to get the job done."
So far, at least four of the families that sued ICG over the Sago
explosion have settled their cases. Eight other cases are still
pending.
In mid-December, Scott Depot-based ICG announced it was going to
permanently seal the Sago Mine. The mine had reopened several months
after the explosion, but then was idled in March 2007 because of bad
geology.
Some mystery still clouds the January 2006 explosion. Family members
have never really believed the conclusion of state and federal
investigators that a lightning strike was "the most likely" source
of ignition for the blast.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com
or 304-348-1702.
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