Mine owner: Seal section containing miners bodies & resume mining!!

[Bluebear]

Well. That didn't take long.


HUNTINGTON - The suggestion that coal mining would resume in the Crandall Canyon mine even if efforts to rescue six trapped miners fail and their bodies are entombed forever was received with outrage in the coal community.

"To us, that would be sacred ground," Mike Dalpiaz, vice president of United Mine Workers of America District 22, in Price, said Monday. "We hope the families will stand against that and we would stand with them."

Robert Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., said enough coal remains in the mine to keep it open 2 1/2 years. He said the section containing the bodies of the miners would be sealed, but mining could continue in other parts of the mine....

Though the Crandall Canyon mine is nonunion, the International UMWA denounced the intention to resume mining. "In an industry long known for having quite a few greedy and uncaring mine operators, this statement is perhaps the most calloused I have ever heard," said UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6676796

[teamster633]

1. Since he's made it clear that the collapse was due...

...to an "earthquake", you'd think it would be way too dangerous to continue mining in this "earthquake" zone. Think he knows something that we don't?

[Bluebear]

4. Maybe he reckons it's past "earthquake season"

Or the "Lord" he keeps referring to talked to him and told him it was alright to commence digging again.

[xultar]

11. DUZY!!!

[PA Democrat]

2. Mr. Murray is a pig. Sometimes I think it's a shame that greed is not a fatal illness.

It's always the "little people" who end up the victims of filth like Murray.

[Virginia Dare]

3. Murray is a homicidal maniac...

his workers are just a number, just part of the bottom line as far as he's concerned. He needs to be sealed in a dark chamber someplace and left to die.

[Philosoraptor]

5. Sounds like the neo con plan in Iraq.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

6. This beyond horrifying.

MKJ

[KharmaTrain]

7. Surprise Surprise

I predicted that Murray couldn't wait to seal the mine...miners recovered or not...to hide the tracks of his real crimes of retreat mining and other safety violations.

The sad side of this story is the games he's played with the mining families...keeping their hopes high and controlling both the flow of information and keeping the families "sequestered".

As usual, our beloved corporate media will pack up their cameras and move on to the "next big thing"...meanwhile questions will never be answered and those responsible will never be held accountable. Murray's spent his money well.

[Bluebear]

8. Companion story:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1637392&mesg_id=1637392

[KharmaTrain]

10. Thank You For The Link

The MHSA is as complicit in this cover-up as Murray is. We both know the connections with the the "Brownie" who heads that agency...a former lobbyist whose idea of a safe mine is a quiet one. He's played Murray's bag man here...leading the press conferences instead of fact finding and investigating what really happened here.

Murray is no yokel...he has spent hundreds of thousands in getting political influence and he's calling in his chips now. When I saw a Coal Industry ad on CNN right after this mess began, that showed who was paying for that coverage (Michael Moore and big pharma came to mind). Here's a guy who knows he owns the regulators, politicians (boasting how he knows Mitch McConnell who "sleeps with your boss), the politicians and the media. Instead of being shown as the greedy robber baron, he's portrayed as some cranky but loveable "uncle".

I sure hope we'll see some lawsuits from the families...but in that part of the country I even have my suspicions the money wouldn't affect these people getting out the truth or getting any real closure on this mess. Hell, there's coal to mine...money to be made.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. This is a classic case of greed. The last bit of coal is mined at

a good profit and safety violations can be hidden.

Check out this link:

According to the American Society of Safety Engineers, retreat mining requires very precise planning and sequencing to ensure roof stability while the pillars supporting the roof are removed.

The reason the practice is used is that it pays off: The last bit of coal taken from pillars is pure profit, Oppegard said. Plus, if someone violates rules during pillar removal and there is a collapse, the evidence of rule violations are gone, he said.

Retreat pillar mining is one of the biggest causes of mine roof collapse deaths, according to studies done by the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601257.html

Also:

Retreat pillar mining is one of the biggest causes of mine roof collapse deaths, according to studies done by the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health.

Three of the nine roof fatalities in 2001 were from retreat mining, according to a 2003 NIOSH paper. Between 1992 and 2001, 100 miners died in roof collapses, 27 of them during retreat mining the study found.

Yet that type of mining only provides 10 percent of underground coal production, the report said, concluding "mathematically a coal miner on a pillar recovery section was more than three times as likely to be fatally injured" in a roof collapse than colleagues in other parts of a mine.

"Pillar recovery continues to be one of the most hazardous activities in underground mining," the report said. A NIOSH study six years earlier found the same thing.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/07/america/NA-GEN-US-Mine-Collapse-Report.php

[zabet]

9. Sounds like more advice from..

that stupid squirrel that he is fond of listening to.

[Oilwellian]

12. Well geez....

a mine is a terrible thing to waste. :banghead:

[King Coal]

13. Please listen to me and trust me on this.

Those bodies can be safely recovered. There are known processes to accomplish this. But, it is expensive. Murray should be made to pay to recover the bodies. Believe me, it can be done. I know this for a fact. Make that fat greedy bastard pay to recover the bodies, and then if he wants to continue mining he can do so with careful oversight by MSHA.

[KharmaTrain]

15. Careful Oversight From The MSHA???

I assume you mean one that would be headed by someone other than a former coal industry lobbyist who couldn't even get enough Repugnican votes to be confirmed.

I have no doubts that the bodies can and must be recovered...and that Murray should be forced to pay for this and the health and welfare of these miner's families. But many here don't see any justice being served here in the current situation and how he's gotten away with exploiting first the miners and then the corporate media to cover his sorry ass.

One would hope this story has woken up the folks in Utah as to what their votes can and do mean...That their support for booshie and the GOOP has emboldened fatcats like Murray who constantly put profit over worker welfare or safety. Expecting an agency that's rife with political operatives is expecting a bit much.

Cheers...

[TXDemGal]

18. Agree 100% that Murray should be forced to pay

to extract the bodies from the mine before he goes back in to get even another ounce of coal.

Anything less will be a travesty.

[peekaloo]

16. Bob Murray: I may not know my ass from a hole in the ground but I knows a profit

when I sees one!

Ghoul.

btw he reminds me of Danny DeVito as the Penguin from the Batman movie.

[Javaman]

17. Murray is indeed a scumbag, however...

We want lights, we want giant ass screen tv's, we want more and more useless gewgaws that suck up energy in our homes? That power to run them comes from coal.

Granted this pile of shit could have fixed the many many violations at his mines, however we as a nation are power hungry. The majority of our electricity comes from coal.

Until a real solution is put forth to eliminate fossil fuels, expect more and more mining accidents.

We are all to blame. Not just this turd.

[Fierce]

19. Miners, stand up and organize!

This bastard is ready to be toppled!

[Bluebear]

20. Hell yes, UNION!

[BlooInBloo]

21. Is "supreme indifference to anything remotely resembling humanity" a crime? It should be.

[TahitiNut]

22. "If you can't safely recover the bodies, then you can't safely continue mining operations."

THAT should be the message ... nothing less. Force the basturd gasbag to pay up AND shut up.

[Maddy McCall]

26. Exactly!

I can't believe the insensitivity that this guy has displayed.

Hopefully, when the families of the miners involved in the initial collapse and the rescue collapse get through suing him, he won't have a bucket or pick left to take into that mountain.

[backscatter712]

23. Boss Hogg needs more money...

Can't risk any more lives going after the bodies so the families of the dead can give them a decent burial, but we can risk those same lives mining in that exact same mine just to make a few bucks...

[SoCalDem]

24. Um..Bob.. the mountain has already "sealed' them up..

But hey.. there's money to be made and miners to exploit..

[Maddy McCall]

25. This guy is the devil incarnate.

:grr: