7-15 Murray Earthquake Mining Collapse Safety Cran
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Added August 08, 2007
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http://www.NelsonIdeas.com/Min ingColl... 74 megs WC 2742 7-15 Murray Earthquake Mining Collapse Safety Crandall Utah Mining Collapse Safety Roofing Trapped photos escape fire drill horizontal drilling support bulldozers Crandall Canyon Utah website cave in rescue teams operation NelsonIdeas Helicopters Haul more Click Here
http://www.NelsonIdeas.com/Min ingColl... 74 megs WC 2742 7-15 Murray Earthquake Mining Collapse Safety Crandall Utah Mining Collapse Safety Roofing Trapped photos escape fire drill horizontal drilling support bulldozers Crandall Canyon Utah website cave in rescue teams operation NelsonIdeas Helicopters Hauling Machinery Disaster Coal crews empty shaft owner delay desperate Air Water Rescuer equipment Miners Alive Video Risk Explosion Gas Carbon Monoxide 1500 feet Survive Oxygen Violations Monongah Sago Springhill NIOSH West Virginia Huntington UT Rescue crews in central Utah know exactly where six trapped miners are located, but were forced to turn around late Monday because of 'impassable conditions,' the mine's operator said.This Video refere to Brian Nelson's User Friendly Version to look at all the reports about the Crandall Canyon Mining Collapse near Huntington, UtahCrews were instead going to try a method that could take days -- drilling through the top of the mountain. A helicopter-borne drill rig will begin boring down into mountain early Tuesday, said Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, the parent company of the mine's operator. 'We will be on our feet until we get these men out, one way or another,' Murray said. If the men survived the collapse, 'We just may get them out in two or three days unharmed.'The men were caught in a cave-in at the Crandall Canyon mine before dawn Monday. Rescuers had hoped to reach the miners by breaking through the seals of an old mine shaft, which could have potentially put them within 100 feet of the miners.'I'm disappointed to report that our efforts have not been fruitful in this approach to get to the men,' Murray said. Crews were driven out by hazardous conditions underground. There is still hope that crews might be able to breach a second entrance, but if those efforts fail, they will have to rely on the slower, more arduous drilling process, Murray said. Murray said workers in central Utah were 'using every means known to mankind' to reach them.'We're sparing no expense to bring every mining machine that we have in Utah in here,' he said. See the rescue efforts outside the mine »So far, rescue workers have been unable to establish communication with the miners, who are presumed to be about 1,700 feet away.More than 200 people are working to retrieve the men. Four rescue teams are already working at the site, and another 12 have been lined up to work in shifts over the next two days, Murray said. The miners are thought to have been working about four miles from the mine's entrance at the time of the incident, said an official with the U.S. Mining Safety and Health Administration.Murray said he was confident of the miners' location, but there is still no word on their condition. Watch CNN's Brian Todd give the latest on the search for the six miners »'They can be in a chamber in there that's 1,000 feet long, or they could be dead,' he said.It could take 48 hours to reach the miners, Murray said, but if they are still alive 'there's water and air for far beyond that.' Every miner carries a tank with about an hour's worth of oxygen, officials from Murray Energy said. There are also caches throughout the mine with additional oxygen, they said.It is unclear whether the collapse was caused by a small earthquake or whether the collapse itself was strong enough to register on seismographs.The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake of 3.9 magnitude jolted the region shortly before 3 a.m. (5 a.m. ET), with an epicenter about 16 miles west of Huntington, Utah, close to the mine's location in Emery County. See where the miners are trapped »Seismographs recorded movement near the area that was 'consistent with a mine-type collapse,' Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, told the Deseret Morning News. 'Now we have to go back and look at more careful analyses to be able to defend with more certainty whether the originating event was an earthquake or whether it was a seismic event caused in a mine environment,' he told the Salt Lake City, Utah, newspaper.It will take about 48 hours to analyze the shake pattern of the seismographs around the area, CNN Meteorologist Chad Meyers said.A 'rock burst' measuring on a seismograph would not be 'unheard of' in the region, Davitt McAteer, former head of the U.S. Mining Safety and Health Administration, told CNN.'It has happened in the past,' he said.The mine -- owned by Genwal Resources Inc. -- reported a cave-in to the Emery County Sheriff's Department about an hour after the seismograph reading was noted.Inspectors have cited Genwal for 30 violations in 2007, MSHA records show. Recommended fines in the 10 cases where penalties have been leveled so far range from $60 to $524. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. went to the Crandall Canyon Mine to 'lend his personal support to the families and mining community during this critical time,' his office said.Huntsman told reporters the families of the trapped men were at an 'undisclosed location' near Huntington, about 140 miles south of Salt Lake City. 'I am confident, based upon what I heard from Mr. Murray, that every expense is being made in order to do this right -- no stone left unturned,' he said. 'They're bringing in the professionals and all the equipment they need, hopefully to make this a successful outcome.' Mine rescue teams from the Rocky Mountain Power Co. are on standby if they are needed, spokesman Steve Eskelsen said. In addition, the power company has offered to loan out its heavy equipment, he said. MINE CITED FOR LACK OF EMERGENCY PASSAGEWAYS Miners trapped in US coal mine collapseWhile one rescue effort has failed so far, officials remained hopeful that six Utah coal miners trapped underground at the Crandall Canyon mine are alive, and may be rescued over the next two days.Author: Dorothy KosichPosted: Tuesday , 07 Aug 2007 RENO, NV - In the first western major coal mining accident since the enactment of the tough MINER safety act, six employees of GenWal's Crandall Canyon coal mine in Huntington Canyon, Utah remained trapped underground early Tuesday morning. As of late Tuesday night, rescuers were focusing on 1,700 feet of tunnel between the rescuers and the area where the miners were last believed to be working. Rescue efforts have been slowed by falling rock and debris.The mine is owned by Cleveland, Ohio-based Murray Energy, whose UtahAmerican subsidiary mines about 7 million tons of coal annually from federal coal lands in Carbon and Emery Counties in Utah.Murray President and CEO Robert Murray heads a privately-owned company which operates 11 coal mines in Utah, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, employing 3,000 people, and yielding 32 million tons of high quality bituminous coal annually. The company claims to be the second largest U.S. producer of coal using the advanced longwall mining method. Murray Energy has been the operator of Crandall since 1995.A former CEO of North American Coal Corp., Murray has also been a high profile opponent of global warming bills under consideration in the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, the United Mineworkers claimed in 2006 that two of Murray's Ohio mines have a less than stellar safety record.Meanwhile, an Associated Press science writer Monday questioned the Crandall Canyon mine's use of retreat mining in which coal pillars are used to support an area of the mine's roof. When the area has been mined out, the company pulls the pillar and causes an intentional collapse. However, Utah American Energy President Bruce Hill insisted that the practice is safe and has 'been done for the last 70 years.' While the Crandall Canyon mine collapse early Monday morning was originally believed to be caused by an earthquake, scientists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations suggested to the Salt Lake Tribune that the 3.9 seismic event recorded early Monday was actually the cave-in of the coal mine. However, the mine is near active faults where earthquakes happen. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake in the region shortly before 3 a.m. Monday.The Mine Safety and Health Administration said it was believed that the miners were 1,500 feet underground about four miles from the mine entrance. Rescuers were within 2,500 feet of their presumed location, according to MSHA. Federal mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the mine since January 2004, according to CNN. In 2007, inspectors issued 32 citations against the mine, 14 of them considered significant.An examination by Mineweb of MSHA records show that MSHA's last regular inspection of Crandall took place on July 5th. During that visit, inspectors cited Genwall Resources for violating a rule requiring at least two separate passageways be designated for escape in an emergency, reportedly the third instance in less than two years that the mine has been cited for the same problem.MSHA Chief Richard Stickler said he would be at the mine site today.Robert Murray told reporters Monday that if the miners survived the cave-in, they should have enough air and water to last for several days. Murray said oxygen naturally leaks into the mine, which is also stocked with drinking water. As of Monday night, however, rescuers have been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive.Along with the rescuers working inside the mine, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that a helicopter will help aim a large drill on the top of the mountain so it can drill down. Bulldozers are cutting roads for a second drill, while another drill is boring horizontally in the mine. Murray told the news media that any effort will take at least two days to reach the miners.The six men, who have not yet been publicly identified, range in age from their 20s to late 40s. All were described by Murray as 'family men.' Their families, several of whom do not speak English, have been advised by Murray not to speak to the press.'There's a very, very good chance that the men may not be in danger, other than they're entombed,' Murray declared late Monday.An ABC TV news report that that four survivors walked out through the front entrance from the 10-man crew working in the area. They have helped pinpoint the location of the remaining six men. ABC said the mine has been cited seven times for not providing an emergency exit.Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman told Reuters late Monday outside of the Crandall Mine that 'You have six miners who could very well be alive. In fact, the experts tell us that they are and the rescue attempts are increasingly close to the cavern where they think they are located.'Huntsman said he would meet with the miners' families at an undisclosed location. 'Hope is in order at this point. Heavy doses of hope,' he said.Emery County was also the site of a fire of Utah's biggest mining disaster, a fire in the Wilburg mine, which killed 27 people in December 1984.Tough new mine safety laws were enacted last year after 12 coal miners died after being trapped in an underground explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. However, congressional Democrats have insisted that the laws still should be strengthened and that MSHA should be given adequately resources for enforcing them.U.S. mine health and safety legal expert Mark Savitt told Elko, Nevada miners in June that MSHA is responding to congressional demands for increased mine safety by 'trying very hard to be more stringent.' He said mining operators are beginning to see evidence of MSHA's stringent stance on the citations issued by the agency.Savitt claimed that MSHA is responding to congressional demands for increased mine safety by 'trying very hard to be more stringent.' 'Congress is essentially counting citations and looking at dollar amounts' rather than allowing MSHA to encourage a health and safety environment that allows mining operators to use regulations are a strategy to drive people toward safer behavior at mines, Savitt asserted at the time.A history of safety citationsBy Joe Bauman Click here to view the website on this mining collapse. http://www.NelsonIdeas.com/Min ingColl...Deseret Morning News The Crandall Canyon Mine, where six miners were trapped Monday after a collapse, has a history of safety or health citations. Since early 2005, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has cited the Crandall Canyon Mine 176 times for alleged safety or health standard violations. Many of these were deemed 'significant and substantial' problems. For a violation to be considered significant and substantial, according to MSHA rules, mine inspectors must believe that 'based upon the particular facts surrounding the violation, there exists a reasonable likelihood that the hazard contributed to will result in an injury or illness of a reasonably serious nature.' MSHA issued 33 citations against the mine this year, plus three orders. Of the citations, a dozen were labeled significant and substantial. These citations included a build-up of grease and dust that was combustible, and inadequate warning devices and escape ways. Orders considered significant and substantial were issued regarding the dust accumulation and the availability of mine rescue teams. The mine was cited for not having at least two mine rescue teams available at all times when miners are underground. The rescue-team order was issued on Feb. 1, and subsequent inspections did not indicate anything lacking in that regard, so presumably the citation was not justified or any problem in this area was corrected. Since January 2004, the Crandall Canyon Mine has paid nearly $130,000 in MSHA-assessed fines. Nearly $4,000 in additional penalties have not been settled, and proposed penalties have not been assessed for 40 citations. Some citations result in no penalties, while the highest since January 2004 was a $6,300 penalty paid in June 2004 resulting from an order concerning examining, testing and maintaining electrical equipment. Another assessment for $6,300, resulting from a citation issued in February 2004, was marked 'delinquent' in MSHA records. The regulation involves keeping a primary escapeway clear of certain equipment. Walter Licht, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has researched mine accidents, said citations can be assessed because of minor or more serious concerns. 'One of the mine inspectors can be in a mine and see a wrench lying on the ground that somebody can trip on, so they get a citation,' he said. But the significant citations are to be taken seriously, he said. Attempting to put the citations into perspective, he said that other coal mines with disasters in recent years had in the neighborhood of 180 to 210 citations, compared with the 33 this year for Crandall Canyon Mine. In addition, he said, half of the violations at the other mines were serious, while fewer than half were in that category in the Utah mine. Licht said the number of citations at the Crandall Canyon Mine was not unusually high. 'This is maybe par for the course,' he said. Concerning the rubble that rescuers have been trying to remove, he said that seems to indicate a cave-in happened. 'When you have cave-ins, they usually are the result of some kind of explosion or some kind of fire,' he said. If there was no earthquake or explosion, Licht added, 'it's hard to understand why the buttressing system should give way.' The mine's permit area covers 5,000 acres, with a combination of private land and federal and state leases, according to the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. The mine is entirely within the Manti-La Sal National Forest, and its surface operations take place on 10 acres. Mining began there in 1939 and continued until September 1955, when it stopped. Production resumed in 1983 by Genwal Coal Co., with production from 100,000 tons to 230,000 tons a year, the state division noted. In 1991, mining began on state land within the mine. And in 1997, a mining machine was purchased that was intended to increase production from 2.5 million tons to 3.5 million tons yearly. Genwal Resources made $45 million in annual sales, according to the business-tracking Web site Hoovers.com. Genwal Resource's parent company, UtahAmerican Energy Inc., is owned by Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., which is the fourth or fifth largest mining company in America, said Murray Energy President Robert E. Murray. The Genwal complex is the smallest operation, with about 71 employees. Workers at the Crandall Canyon Mine are not unionized.Click here to view the website on this mining collapse. http://www.NelsonIdeas.com/Min ingColl...
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