(Utah) House labor chair seeks mine emergency plans

[Omaha Steve]

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - In response to the Utah mine disaster, the chairman of the U.S. House committee over labor issues wants federal officials to ensure that every mine in America has an adequate emergency-response plan fully in use.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the head of the House Committee on Education and Labor, also says he plans to hold a hearing on the Crandall Canyon mine tragedy the first week in October.

Miller sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao late Thursday asking her to direct the Mine Safety and Health Administration to check that every mine has an emergency plan that is "fully compliant with the law" and "fully implemented."

The Crandall Canyon mine, where three miners have already died trying to rescue six other miners now feared dead, had an emergency plan approved by MSHA, Miller said in the letter. But the provision for breathable-air devices was only "on order" and not available.


Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6717364

[demoleft]

1. "Hole Apparently Finds No Sign of Miners" - AP/The Guardian

Sad report in The Guardian.

AP/The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6876542,00.html :

"HUNTINGTON, Utah (AP) - What next? That was the question remaining after a drill punched a sixth hole through a mine shaft and found no sign of six miners last seen before a massive collapse nearly three weeks ago.

...
Family and friends of the missing miners have pressed for the efforts to continue, if only to find the bodies of Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez.

...
Seismologists say the mountain is crumbling upon itself, bursting support pillars as it shifts, creating phenomena known as mountain bumps.

The thunderous collapse blew out the walls of the mine shafts, filling them with rubble more than 8 to 10 feet deep in some places. If the men were not crushed by rock, they could have been killed by the immense air pressure generated by the collapse, mining executives and federal regulators have said."