NU Online News Service
An explosion in a coal mine this week leading to 25 reported deaths looks to have been caused by numerous safety violations and risk management oversights, according to a safety consultant for the mining industry.
Published reports indicate that Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch coal mine has received at least 100 citations this year alone, while methane gas in the mine has dampened rescue efforts.
"It is a big mine, and generally they've got a big list of violations," said Ralph Christensen, a safety and health compliance consultant who has himself worked in underground mines. "But from what I see there, I'm very uncomfortable with that. That's way out of the realm. Some of [the violations] are serious."
What could be seen as normal number of violations for a mine is hard to say, he noted, "but you generally don't see pages upon pages upon pages of violations."
Listed among the violations are "unwarrantable failures," he said, "which means management knew about them."
Unwarrantable failure–104D-1 or D-2 violations–"are the ones that management knew about and should have taken care of," he said.
"When you look at the whole list, there's some small stuff, but some big stuff," he added, pointing out that numerous violations had been issued in the ventilation area and with sweeping out gasses.
He explained that as the mining progresses deeper into the earth, miners have to put curtains up to help eliminate gas.
"You can't be deficient in that, you've got to keep up with it faithfully," Christensen said. "The supervisor is in charge of those people–he needs to take responsibility and demand that that's done."
He pointed out that it's easy to be nonchalant about safety measures, when year after year there are no events.
The attitude becomes, "'nothing's happened, so we'll let it go this time and we'll get back to it.' The guys do that, but that's what the foreman is there for, to control that," he said. "If you get a poor foreman that allows that, that's what's going to happen–we've got some of those out there."
The biggest dangers in coal mining, he noted, are roof falls and methane and coal dust explosions. While deaths from roof falls are generally low, "the methane and the coal dust–those are the big ones. They'll wipe out the whole crew," he said.
"I found out that if the coal mines are underneath the water table, that's where you have the methane, because the water table stops the methane," he explained. "So you get a little methane above the water table, where you test and it is maybe 1 percent, but when you're below the water table, that methane is trapped."
Sadly, he pointed out, "If there wasn't any explosion in there, we wouldn't be aware of the situation or conditions at all."
According to its Web site, "Massey is the largest coal producer in the Central Appalachian region, which is the principal source of low sulfur bituminous coal in the United States, used for power generation, metallurgical coke production and industrial boilers. Central Appalachian coal accounted for 20 percent of 2007 United States coal production according to EIA."
Massey said in a statement that its chair and chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, is on site at the Upper Big Branch mine. Also, its senior vice president and chief operating officer, Chris Adkins, and vice president of safety and health, Elizabeth Chamberlin, have been coordinating the search and rescue efforts with state and federal officials.
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