Reply #3: Report: 15 Percent of Mines Uninspected

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Report: 15 Percent of Mines Uninspected

Saturday November 17, 2007 10:46 AM

By JESSE J. HOLLAND

AP Labor Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency
responsible for mine safety failed to carry out
required inspections at 15 percent of the nation's
underground coal mines, according to an internal
Labor Department report.

The report, by the department's inspector general,
also said Mine Safety and Health Administration
records of an inspection of the Crandall Canyon
mine in Utah, where six miners died in roof collapse
in August, were dated four months before the
inspection started.

The records covered “a requirement for the
inspector to evaluate the roof control plan,” said
the report, which was obtained by The Associated
Press on Friday. “The inspector could not explain
why the forms were dated before the inspection
period.”

According to the inspector general's report, the
mine safety agency's Office of Coal Mine and
Health “did not perform all required inspections
at 107, or 15 percent, of the nation's 731
underground coal mines in fiscal year 2006.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7084673,00.html