Authors Update on the Coal
Truth
Sago Mine Disaster
The very day the winter issue of Waterkeeper magazine
was mailed a blast at the Sago mine in West Virginia killed 12 men. One
survived and is only slowly recovering. I’m privileged to have
a friend who survived the Jim Walter blast that killed 13 of his workmates
in a similar disaster in Alabama in 2001. Rick Rose was blown some 75
feet back through the mine and lived to tell about it. He will be the
first to say that his life changed that day and will never be normal
again.
In the same week of the Sago disaster there was another incident where
two more men were killed in West Virginia. A week later a miner was killed
in Kentucky. In the next week 75 men were trapped underground in Canada.
Fortunately the Canadian government cares enough about it’s miners
to force the installation of “Safe Rooms” where oxygen and
supplies are stored for just such an incident. Unfortunately, the 65
Mexican miners trapped underground as I write this on February 23 also
live in a country that places coal profits above men’s lives.
[None
survived—Editor.]
Hurricane Creekkeeper
Business As Usual For a Belligerent Industry
On January 2nd the nation awoke to news about a mine explosion in West Virginia that had trapped 13 miners. As events of the next 24 hours unfolded, the tragic death of 12 of the Sago miners caught and kept the nation’s attention.
Formal investigations by both federal and state teams are underway. But behind the veil of concern and investigations, it’s business as usual:
No Comment: After delivering testimony in front of the U.S. Senate, David Dye – Acting Assistant Secretary of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) – defied Senator Arlen Spector’s request to stay another hour to answer additional questions.
Safety Last: Don L. Blankenship, chairman, CEO and president of the Massey Energy Co. – the nation’s second largest coal mine company and owner of the Aracoma Coal Alma No. 1 mine in Melville, WV, where two miners died Jan. 19 – clarified that:
Mines are safe (except when they are not)
“As far as avoiding accidents, the industry avoids thousands of accidents every year.”
Workers should be more careful
“Most often, the problem is not the safety rules, it’s the day to day (activities of mine workers).”
Nothing to Worry About
Blankenship was reported as saying he believes that the type of explosion that occurred at the Aracoma mine and the Sago Mine are “rare and statistically insignificant.”
Corporate Takeover: Governor Joe Manchin III has put up new welcome signs at state borders – West Virginia is no longer “Wild and Wonderful.” It’s now “Open for Business.”
Twenty-one mining fatalities have been reported in the United States as of February 19, 2006.
An avalanche of media attention by National Geographic, Orion, Harpers, The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and others is raising the profile of the issue. In addition, a new book, Missing Mountains, compiles essays on Mountaintop Mining by Wendell Barry and other Kentucky writers. Documentaries Black Diamonds – Mountaintop Removal and the fight for coalfield justice, Kilowatt Ours and Mucked also cover the issue, along with Al Gore’s soon to be released global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth.
West Virginia Headwaters Waterkeeper
A caption on page 36 of the winter issue underreported the weight limits of coal trucks. Rather than the 12,000 pounds listed, many coal trucks in Kentucky run 126,000 pounds. In West Virginia trucks weighing 120,000 lbs. (60 tons) are permitted to run on roads built to withstand only half that weight.