Testimony during a mine-safety hearing yesterday led to questions about why federal agencies had not shared their concerns about Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked Kevin Stricklin, Mine Safety and Health Administration administrator for coal mine safety and health, why the agency had "missed the warning flags about serious safety problems" at the Utah mine where six miners and three rescue workers were killed, reports James R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal.
Kennedy pointed to a report by the Bureau of Land Management that noted structural problems at the Crandall Canyon mine, but Stricklin said MSHA had no contact with that agency. "This is like the CIA not getting information from the FBI when we're getting attacked by terrorists," Kennedy told Stricklin.
The November 2004 BLM report said that the mine's pillars of coal were not stable and advised against attempts to remove them, reports The Associated Press. Still, MSHA did not get this report. While questioned by Kennedy, Stricklin did admit that such information likely would have influenced the agency's decision to approve mining at Crandall Canyon. (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment