Editorial
Crandall Canyon’s Shame
Published: May 12, 2008
The six miners and three would-be rescuers killed in last summer’s Crandall Canyon mine disaster might have died needlessly. New evidence suggests that the mining company concealed an earlier collapse, which could have alerted safety regulators and avoided the tragedy. There will be no peace for the dead — and no deterrence of future disasters — until there is a criminal investigation.
A detailed House investigation has concluded that high-risk mining techniques — and a clear intent to conceal problems — was at the heart of the Utah disaster. The finding is a red alert for miners’ safety, as the coal industry once again booms under the questionable watch of a regulatory bureaucracy bristling with the Bush administration’s pro-industry appointees.
The House has already passed a safety reform measure to mandate more stringent oversight of the risky “retreat mining” in use at Crandall Canyon — the technique of doubling back to carve final profits from the coal pillars that brace the mine. The Senate should quickly rise above Big Coal’s heavy lobbying and pass the House measure.
Representative George Miller of California, whose committee led the inquiry, says that five months before the Crandall Canyon tragedy, another section of the mine collapsed. No one died in that near disaster. But rather than alerting the proper authority — the Mine Safety and Health Administration — the company contacted the more industry-friendly Bureau of Land Management. It soon went back to business as usual....
The greed and obfuscation now uncovered should mandate a criminal investigation. It should also warn Congress that any further abetting of the industry will lead only to more dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12mon3.html 
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