US congressional probe charges Utah mine officials lied to federal agency before Crandall Canyon disaster

According to the Congressional investigation, whose results were made available last week, company officials failed to properly inform the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) of a previous roof collapse in March of 2007, and downplayed the damage caused by that collapse when they applied for permission to continue extracting coal from another section of the mine.

In a letter sent to the US Attorney General from Congressman George Miller of California, Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, which is conducting the investigation, Miller charged that company officials willfully concealed or covered a material fact or made materially false representation, to MSHA.

However, Millera top congressional Democratmakes no charges against the mines owner Robert Murray, who has close connections to the Bush administration. Nor are there any allegations against MSHA itself, which has been stacked with former mine officials and other pro-company types by the White House, and whose actions in the Crandall Canyon disaster at a minimum criminally negligent.

On August 6, a pillar or series of pillars burst apart causing a cave-in of the mine so powerful that it registered 3.9 on the Richter scale. Six coal miners whose bodies have never been recovered were killed. It is not know if the six men were killed outright by the collapse or died from injuries or starvation. Ten days later, three more miners who were working to reach the six trapped men were killed when a 1,500 foot section of tunnel they were working in collapsed.

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