John Wathen
Hurricane Creekkeeper
On September 23, 2001, a blast ripped through Jim Walter Resources (JWR)
Blue Creek mine #5 killing 13 of Brookwood’s fathers, brothers, and
sons. Federal regulators had conducted several inspections and written
31 violations, including 12 for “combustible materials and coal dust” in
the months leading up to the blast. JWR had been ordered to correct these
problems prior to the time of the blast. Each of these violations was a
serious threat to safety. But JWR is used to ignoring safety violations,
and minor slaps on the wrist from regulators.
This fall, five years after the blast, the courts lowered the fine that
Jim Walter Resources must pay to $3,000 from $435,000. That comes to $298.70
per man. Judge Barbour and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration
sent a clear message to Jim Walter Resources that it is okay to kill our
neighbors if the profit is right.
Coal is not cheap in Alabama. And it costs a lot more than dollars and
cents. It costs lives, habitat and quality of life for everyone, except
maybe those who thrive on our loss.
To say that 13 miners are not worth more than pocket change for King Coal
is an atrocity.
Hurricane
Creekkeeper The JWR #5 mine in Tuscaloosa County, AL.
Eighteen men have been killed in this mine between 2000 and 2004: 13 in one blast in 2001. The large building in the center is the vertical shaft into the mine where the coal comes out and men go in. This mine is the deepest vertical mineshaft in the U.S. The green roofed buildings to the left of the massive coal pile is the church and graveyard where the JWR 13 widows and families waited while the search went on for their men after JWR prevented them from entering the property.