4-16-05 - DREAM -  I was living in a smaller city or town with a factory in it.

I was divorced and lived with all my normal real children, but also had two adopted children, both boys with the same name but much different ages.  One boy was an infant and the other was about age 21 and in college.  (He was a tall, intelligent, good looking, blonde curly haired young man, who reminds me of the singer - 'Michael Ball')(The name Michael mean 'gift from God)

I was living with my Father and his new wife. He resembled my former neighbor Arnold A. . She reminds me of a One Life to Live TV show character - dark-haired, wavy shoulder length.  (She was pushed off a cliff in a past year and the body never found)

It was nearing the end of May and the end of the school year.

I had been sick a day or so, thus my step-mother had been caring for all of us, but during that time, something in her had changed and she became a threat to me and my family.

It was a bright and sunny day out but we knew that the school year was ending the the June rains were coming. 

My step-mother and I were discussing moving because of the rains and floods that were sure to come.

My step-mother decided we should move to a college town so it would be convenient for 'Michael' to go to school.

I knew 'Michael' the college student could take care of himself. I was more concerned about 'Michael' my adopted infant, who I hadn't seen in two days, because of my illness.

I was suddenly struck with the thought that my step-mother was in love with my adopted older son 'Michael'.

I decided that for my family's sake, I would have to pack up all my kids stuff while she was out of the house during the last week of school and go somewhere she wouldn't think of.  My children's safety was my utmost concern.

My Father was sleeping in bed and I heard a knock at the door. I opened it and one of the men who worked for my Father who either owned or supervised the factory told us that there was a problem.  Water was coming in the roof of the factory and running down off the pipes that lined the ceiling of the building and was running all the way down into the mines at the bottom and a disastrous flood was imminent because the mines were full of people.

I jumped up to go with my Father to see what was happening. The man who had come to warn my Father and I rode up the elevator together to the 12th floor where the pipes were strung along the factory ceiling.

During the elevator ride, the man who had warned us ended up hanging from a nail on the elevator door and I couldn't lift him up to get him off the nail.  My Father had to quickly attend to the disaster.  I told the man that if he rode the elevator back down to the first floor, someone could lift him off the nail.  He sadly understood his plight.  (This reminds me of Jesus on the cross)

I left the elevator and watched as my Father climbed up to the ceiling of the factory where I could see more and more water running in and falling off the pipes and dropping all the way to the mine floor below.  There was nothing in between to stop it.

I decided I would go down to the mine floor to warn the miners of the imminent flood. My Father was doing what he could to stop the rain from coming into the factory.

There was no stairway but the way the pipes were arranged, I was able to slide down from pipe to pipe all the way down to the mine floor. It was only about a six-foot drop from the bottom pipe and I managed that easily enough.

I walked over a few feet to the mine entrance where the train tracks went in and the men came out. Just then, two mine trains came out of the tunnel, with all the people bent over so they didn't hit their heads on the  top of the tunnel.

All the men in the first train raised up when they got near me and I could see their dirty faces, grimy with moist dirt from sweating in the heat of the mine.

I was stunned to see who was riding on the second train.  When the people raised up their heads, I could see they were all female office workers, mostly older women. Some of them recognized me on sight. I hadn't know that the mine tunnels also had offices underground.

The women were clean and pristine looking, as they didn't go into the mine tunnels themselves, but they worked in underground offices and were equally in danger from the coming flood.

I woke up before I could tell them of the danger.

Nine trapped in Pennsylvania coal mine

By David Walsh
26 July 2002

Nine coal miners remained trapped underground in southwest Pennsylvania after they accidentally drilled into an abandoned mine shaft July 24 that was flooded with water. Rescue workers lowered a six-inch drill into the Quecreek Mine near Somerset (55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh) early Thursday morning, and the miners could be heard tapping on the pipe. “We answered them and they answered back,” said Joseph Sbaffoni, Pennsylvania’s deep mine safety chief.

The accident occurred around 9 pm on Wednesday when the miners ruptured the old mine shaft, last worked in the 1950s and unmarked on maps, which was filled with water. The first crew was able to warn another team of miners working behind them, who waded to safety in water up to their necks.

The trapped workers are apparently huddled in an area three feet high by 12 feet wide, about 300 feet below ground and 8,000 feet from the mine’s entrance. Rescuers were pumping air through the 6-inch hole in an effort to sustain the air pocket. They are planning to bring in a larger drilling rig to bore a 36-inch wide hole, but that process, once drilling begins, could take 18 hours.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection observed, “It is a race against time because the water is still filling [the mine].” She spoke of “a glimmer of hope.”

About 80 family members of the miners gathered inside a fire hall in Sipesville, some two miles from the mine. The Quecreek Mine is located about 10 miles northwest of the site where hijacked Flight 93 crashed during last year’s September 11 terrorist attack.

The facility, operated by Black Wolf Coal Company and employing about 40 workers, has only been in operation a year and has already witnessed two accidents. In the first, last October 17, a 40-by-30 section of roof caved in. No one was injured in that incident.

A miner from Black Wolf Coal told the Associated Press, “Those are my brothers down there. God help them. Nobody knows what’s going on.”

On September 23, 2001, 13 miners were killed as the result of two gas explosions at the Jim Walter Resources Blue Creek No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Alabama. Most of the victims were miners who refused to evacuate and rushed to help other workers after the first explosion. The Brookwood accident was the worst since 27 miners died in Orangeville, Utah in 1984.

Despite an average annual loss of 5.6 percent in the number of US coal miners during the 1990s (from 120,602 in 1991 to 71,522 in 2000), the total number of fatalities has increased over the past several years: 29 deaths in 1998, 35 in 1999, 38 in 2000 and 42 last year. As of July 11, 17 miners had died in 2002.

The Bush administration’s policy of gutting health and safety regulations, already extremely limited, can only contribute to the death toll.

The individual who took over head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in May 2001, David Lauriski, is a trusted defender of mining industry interests. He had served as general manager for the Energy West Mining Co. in Huntington, Utah, and was director of health, safety and environmental affairs at Interwest Mining in Salt Lake City. He also worked as industrial relations manager, safety director and safety engineer at Kaiser Steel Corp.’s Sunnyside mine.

According to an official Labor Department biography, “The US mining industry selected Lauriski to represent its interests in Geneva, Switzerland, at the International Labor Organization during development of worldwide mine health and safety standards.” Prior to his nomination by Bush to his present post, Lauriski was the president of Lauriski and Associates, a consulting firm, and served as chairman of the Utah Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining and as a board member of the Utah Mining Association (UMA). When he was nominated, the UMA called him “an excellent choice for the Bush administration.”

Lauriski has lived up to the industry’s expectations. During Senate hearings last year on the tragedy in Libby, Montana, where asbestos from a vermiculite mine has been linked to some 200 deaths, Lauriski declared that he did not believe any new workplace regulation was necessary to protect workers, particularly miners, from the risk of getting ill from asbestos.

In February 2002, Lauriski met with industry representatives and spoke about efforts to “change the culture” within MSHA, i.e., make it more sympathetic to business concerns. Those responsible for enforcing agency standards would no longer be termed “inspectors,” for example, but now would be known as “safety and health compliance specialists.” The expression favored by Bush administration officials, “compliance assistance,” involves “a collaborative approach” between industry representatives and regulatory agency staff, rather than any serious effort at enforcement.

In remarks to a Senate committee earlier this month, Lauriski acknowledged, “This year, the number of fatalities and the non-fatal injury rates [in the mining industry] began to rise compared to the same time last year. January was especially disappointing and we knew that we had to keep that month’s increase in fatalities from becoming a trend.” He went on to assert that “the vast majority of mine operators want to comply [with government directives] but are often hampered by the volume and complexity of the regulations.”

Nine US miners rescued after three-day ordeal

By Eula Holmes and Paul Sherman
29 July 2002

All nine coal miners trapped underground for three days in a southwest Pennsylvania shaft were brought to the surface by rescuers early Sunday morning. The men, who were working 240 feet down when their mine flooded Wednesday evening, emerged in various states of hypothermia, dehydration and near-starvation, but all were alive and expected to recover from their ordeal.

The near-fatal disaster occurred at the Quecreek Mine near Somerset, 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The nine rescued miners are: Thomas Foy, 51, of Berlin; Randall Fogle, 43, of Garrett; Ronald Hileman of Gray; Blaine Mayhew, in his late 20s, of Meyersdale; David Mullen of Gray; John Phillippi of Gray; Mark Popernack of Somerset; Robert Pugh, 50, of Ferrelton; and John Unger, 52, of Gray.

Shortly after 10pm Saturday, rescue workers who had been drilling a shaft to the trapped miners since Thursday broke into the air pocket that had protected the men, lowered a telephone and spoke directly with them. This was the first confirmation that the men were still alive since Thursday noontime, when seismographers picked up the sound of tapping from the four-foot cavity in which the men were huddled.

Work then got underway to lower a 10-foot-long capsule down the 29-inch-wide shaft and bring the miners up, one by one. The first miner reached the surface just before 1am Sunday, and the others followed roughly at 15-minute intervals. The last miner was pulled up at 2:45am.

All of the men were in relatively good health, considering what they had endured. Of the six who were transferred to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in nearby Johnstown, three were released later on Sunday, and three, as of this writing, remained under doctor’s care. Of these, all three had mild hypothermia. One had a history of cardiac problems and complained of chest pains, and was consequently under intensive care. Another miner is being treated with medication for a rapid and irregular heartbeat. The third is being treated for “bends”, i.e., a painful condition caused by bubbles forming in the bloodstream as a result of a rapid reduction in air pressure.

The mine flooded shortly after 9pm Wednesday as two crews of nine men each were working underground. One crew digging in a new direction broke the wall into Saxman Mine, which was abandoned in 1950 and had filled with water. The miners were able to make their way to higher ground and were protected from the rising water by an air pocket that had formed. They warned by radio nine workers in the other crew, who were able to escape after making their way through neck-high water.

The accident occurred more than a mile from the mine entrance. Rescue workers feared that the miners, if even partially submerged in the 50-degree water, would soon die from hypothermia. To avert this, they raised the temperature of the fresh air being pumped down to the miners to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

They also increased the air pressure to 90 pounds in an attempt to enlarge the air pocket and give the miners some dry space. Water pumps were installed to drive the 50 million gallons of water out of the mine at a rate of 12,000 gallons per minute.

By Saturday afternoon, the drilling had reached within 30 feet of the trapped men. Rescue workers had to be very careful at this point since air pressure was holding back the water. There was concern that a break into the four-foot cavity could release the pressure and allow the water to rush back in and drown the men.

Instead of risking breaking the air bubble, the rescue team decided to slow the drilling to allow more time for the pumps to reduce the water level a few more feet. This, they hoped, would give the miners sufficient protection, even without the added air pressure.

The nine men spent 77 hours standing in three to four feet of water, hugging and rubbing one another to keep warm, and encircling the coldest among them. They wrote their last words to family members and placed the slips of paper for them in a pail. Then they tethered themselves together, so if they drowned, all of them would be found.

A high level of technological equipment, engineering know-how, resources and manpower were used to save the miners, but the same cannot be said of the operation of the mine itself.

While mining remains the most dangerous occupation in the United States, and coal operators have always been more concerned with their profits than the safety of their workers, enormous advances in technology and, above all, the struggle of mine workers over generations have combined to sharply reduce the number of accidents and deaths in the industry, as compared to the carnage that prevailed in the first half of the 20th century.

Over the past two decades, however, the government has spearheaded a ruthless offensive by the coal and energy companies to dismantle the past gains of the mine workers, especially as they impact workers’ health and safety, and the leadership of the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) has collaborated in this assault.

The decade of the 1980s was dominated by union-busting attacks on the miners, in which the coal bosses, backed by the government at all levels, revived the use of armed goons, court injunctions and deadly violence to either break local unions outright, or impose conditions in UMWA facilities that were previously seen only in non-union mines. At the same time, the federal government made its mine health and safety watchdog agency even more toothless.

The result has been a drastic reduction in the percentage of coal dug by union miners, and a dramatic erosion in the conditions for miners who continue to have nominal union representation. The site of last week’s disaster is one of many regions that have been transformed over the past two decades from union stronghold to largely non-union production. Quecreek is a non-union mine.

The UMWA has virtually abandoned the area. It closed its District 2 headquarters in nearby Ebensburg and combined it with its District 5 office in Rostraver, a town closer to Pittsburgh.

Mine officials and government safety experts have been quick to blame faulty maps for the Quecreek disaster. Indeed, the maps with which the miners were working showed the Saxman mine as being 300 feet from the spot where they hit it.

But it has long been known that the 50-year-old maps are far less accurate than today’s mapping, which can pinpoint mine digs to within centimeters. Moreover, it was common practice for mine owners to dig coal wherever they found it, even if they had not bought the rights for the coal. Mine companies did not map such illicit excavations.

To compensate, two techniques have been widely used throughout the mining industry, especially when miners are operating near abandoned shafts. Neither appears to have been used by the owners at Quecreek.

The first is to conduct a two-dimensional seismic profiling of the mine. Seismic readings provide data on the location of faults, fractures and voids, which often fill with water. Ed Blott, a consultant with the Littleton, Colo., company ExplorTech, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the cost for such a profile for a mine the size of Quecreek would be only about $80,000.

Another, even less expensive method, is to have miners drill a test hole in front of where they plan to dig. These probe holes are usually less then 2 inches in diameter, but up to 30 feet long. They can expose dangerous pockets of underground water, and then be quickly and safely plugged.

The operation at Quecreek reflects the depression that has hit the US coal industry since the late 1970s and devastated entire sections of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Somerset County has seen scores of mines close down and thousands of miners lose their jobs.

As a result, a number of small non-union mines such as Quecreek have opened which employ miners at only a fraction of what unionized miners received and with far lower benefits. They specialize in reaching coal seams, using mainly human power, that were unprofitable for the larger mines to dig.

The Quecreek mine is less than two years old and employs some 60 miners who work the mine in three shifts around the clock. Quecreek produced 15,000 tons a month last year with about 40 employees, and currently produces 50,000 tons a month. Larger mines average 500,000 tons.

Since opening, Quecreek has been cited 26 times for safety violations, but has been only fined $859. Of the 26 citations, 16 were levied in 2001 and were considered “significant and substantial.”

This year, the company has received no fines for its 10 citations, even though five violations were considered “significant and substantial” and six took place below ground, including misuse of combustible materials and insufficient guards for mechanical equipment.

The Pennsylvania mine rescue and the human cost of coal

By Paul Sherman and Bill Vann
3 August 2002

The rescue last week of nine coal miners trapped underground for 77 hours in a flooded mine shaft brought cheers of joy from people not only in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, but throughout the US. Millions had anxiously followed the successful race to reach the miners.

This tireless effort to save human life struck a deep chord nationwide. The display of solidarity and cooperation among the rescuers, the trapped Quecreek miners and the Somerset community—in a common social effort driven by human concerns rather than the drive for private profit—contrasted sharply with the prevailing news of the day, dominated by revelations of criminality and greed within the US corporate elite.

Predictably, the media shaped the saga of the rescued miners according to time-worn journalistic methods, massaging it into a “good news” story, while working to turn the miners themselves into momentary celebrities. For all the attention paid by the major broadcast and print outlets, however, virtually no one in the national media has bothered to seriously examine the background of this accident and the dangers that miners like these face every day they go underground.

To probe the conditions underlying this near fatal accident would present a very different picture from that of the rescue effort. As opposed to the mobilization of advanced technology and engineering expertise seen in the effort to bring the nine miners out alive, considerable sections of the mining industry, including the Quecreek mine, seek to realize a profit by relying on primitive methods and unsafe practices. The result has been an increase in the number of coal mining deaths in the US for three consecutive years, with the death toll reaching 42 in 2001.

The erosion of safety conditions and rise in mine fatalities are the result of a relentless offensive against coal miners and the working class as a whole over the course of more than two decades.

Located some 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, with a population of 80,000, Somerset County has undergone a social transformation as a result of these attacks. Often described as a rural and farming community, Somerset is, in fact, heavily working class, and its history is bound up with the development of coal mining, which has dominated the region for more than 100 years.

In 1979, one in every four workers in the county was a coal miner. There were 84 mines employing 6,237 miners. Many others worked in related industries that supplied or provided transportation for the mines.

By 1984, the number of mines had fallen to 55 and the number of coal miners to 1,945. By 1992 there were only 41 working mines employing 1,001 miners, and by 1998 the total had declined to just 803 miners working in 31 mines. A virtually identical decline took place in the surrounding counties of Indiana, Cambria, and Westmoreland, while in Pennsylvania as a whole, the number of miners declined from over 60,000 in 1979 to less then 17,000 today.

The destruction of mining jobs was largely the result of conscious decisions taken by the coal operators and the government in the wake of the 1977-78 national miners’ strike, which saw unionized miners humiliate the government of then-President Jimmy Carter by defying a Taft-Hartley injunction. In response, there was a concerted drive to shift coal production to non-union facilities, first in the Western strip-mining areas and then in formerly unionized mining districts.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) responded to this assault on jobs by seeking to prove to the coal operators that the union could be a trusted partner in making the mining industry competitive in the global market. In a series of contract concessions, the union leadership agreed to cuts in wages, job losses and changes in work rules that jeopardized miners’ safety.

In West Virginia and Kentucky, the drive to expand non-union mining provoked a series of strikes during the 1980s and early 1990s in which the coal bosses, backed by the government, returned to the use of scabs and violent attacks, including murder, against the miners. The UMWA leadership isolated these struggles, and most of them were defeated.

In Pennsylvania, the UMWA leadership did nothing to oppose the destruction of jobs and signaled its willingness to collaborate with the coal operators when it allowed Consolidated Coal, one of the nation’s top ten mining companies, to open the non-union Bailey mine in Green county in 1981. A second non-union mine, Enlow Fork, opened in the same county in 1990.

The union gave its blessing to these operations by working out a deal with Consol calling for laid-off union miners to be given a certain percentage of job openings at the non-union facilities. In addition, the UMWA was allowed to receive dues deductions from these miners’ paychecks, even though they were no longer covered by a union contract.

For those miners still working, real wages declined. According to figures collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, Somerset miners’ earnings fell 15 percent between 1984 and 1992, while in neighboring Cambria County they plummeted by a staggering 37 percent. By 1998, earnings had dropped another 8 percent in Somerset. Since earnings take into account overtime and bonuses, hourly wages probably fell even further. The fall in earnings reflected both the concessionary contracts of the UMWA and the far greater proportion of workers employed in non-union mines.

The destruction of jobs and the lowering of earnings affected the whole community. In the 1980s unemployment soared, reaching a high of 21.7 percent in Somerset County in 1983, with similar figures in Cambria and Indiana. From 1980 to 1989, average household income declined by 12.1 percent in Somerset, 14.1 percent in Indiana, 13.7 percent in Westmoreland, and 18.8 percent in Cambria. The number of people living in poverty increased and the proportion of young children living in poverty reached 20 percent.

During the stock-market-fueled boom of the 1990s, job growth in the region was largely due to hiring by low-wage employers. No longer do steel mills and mining companies top the list of the largest employers in the area. Today the biggest employers are retailers like Wal-Mart and Revco, and Seven Springs, a ski and golf resort. Many of these jobs are low-wage, part-time, and seasonal.

In those mines that continue to operate, the deterioration of working conditions has proven even more dramatic than the fall in wages or decline in jobs. With the closing of the larger, unionized mines, a number of small non-union mines have sprung up, targeting pockets of coal that the larger mines found unprofitable. These mines, once dismissed contemptuously as “dog holes” by union miners, are among the most dangerous.

Quecreek, the site of last week’s accident, is one such mine. With a low capital budget, it can raise or lower production as quickly as the market requires. Quecreek began mining operations in 2001 with fewer than 20 workers. By the middle of the year, it had grown to about 35 miners, who dug approximately 15,000 tons of coal a month. This year the workforce increased to 69 miners and was producing 50,000 tons a month until last week’s accident.

To keep capital investment down, the company uses the older, but still common practice of “room and pillar” mining, in which large chambers of coal are removed, but pillars of coal are left standing to hold up the roof.

While the wages of miners have fallen, the pay is still higher than that offered by other employers in the community. At the same time, miners are constantly under the threat of layoff if a seam runs out or the price of coal falls.

This puts enormous pressure on miners to go along with whatever the operators demand, so as not to lose their jobs. For younger workers, scarce mining jobs may be the only chance to scratch out a tolerable living for themselves and their families. For the older workers, who have only known mining, the loss of the job would be a catastrophe. Fear of being fired for not being a “team player” intimidates many from raising safety concerns.

It has now been confirmed that Quecreek did not conduct either of the two standard procedures that would have detected the underground water that flooded the shafts and trapped the nine miners. Either a two-dimensional seismographic study of the area or the practice of drilling probing holds would have safely alerted the miners that they were working only four feet from the flooded abandoned mine. Nor did the Pennsylvania department for mine safety require either procedure in approving the company’s request to operate so close to abandoned mines.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is working closely with the mine operators to gut what little protection current safety regulations provide. It has proposed an additional six percent cut in the budget of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, most of it to come from the agency’s coal enforcement division. It has also issued a policy change that reduces the number of times coal operators must test for dust levels inside a mine. The effect will be to allow operators to flout rules on dust contamination, resulting in more accidents and more miners stricken with black lung disease.

To ensure the subordination of safety concerns to corporate interests, the Bush administration is continuing to pack mine safety agencies with industry hacks. Most recently it nominated Stan Suboleski, an executive from Massey Energy, which has one of the worst records for mine injuries and deaths, to serve on the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Committee. Last year, David Lauriski, former general manager of the Utah-based Energy West Mining Co., was tapped to head the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, where he has promoted policies favoring the mine operators.

Most of the rescued Quecreek miners have said they will not go back underground. They are well aware that the flooding of their mine was not a freak accident, but indicative of how dangerous mining has become as a result of the drive by the employers and the government to boost profits.

See   Alabama Mine Explosion - Sept. 27, 2001

NEWS

Rainy Season Produces Sinkholes in Pittsburgh Area

April 11, 2005

Months of record-setting rains that caused an abandoned coal mine to burst forth with more than 200 million gallons of water are now causing a rash of mine-related sinkholes in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Four sinkholes have been reported in Pittsburgh and its suburbs, according to Betsy Mallison, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. One of them is four feet wide and about 12 feet deep, giving a clear view of an abandoned mine shaft and a ladder leading to it.

The holes are dangerous because people, especially children, sometimes explore them and could be trapped, overcome by poisonous gases or suffer from a lack of oxygen. Two children and a police officer who tried to help them were killed in such a hole in the late 1970s, said a federal mining official.

"It's the weather. We see batches of these (sinkholes) after we get a real series of wet weather. It's just the water moving through the ground,'' Mallison said.

And it's rarely been wetter in the region.

The National Weather Service says 68.88 inches of rain — 22.79 inches more than normal — fell at Pittsburgh International Airport from January 2004 through the end of last month. Last year was so rainy that the annual record of 50.61 inches set in 1890 was eclipsed by the end of October.

Most of the region's towns are built on or near hills that once contained coal mines. When the ground is saturated with water, the old mines can cause three key problems, said Bill Ehler, an official with the federal Office of Surface Mining.

The land above shallow mines can open up with sinkholes. The land above deeper mines can sink, a phenomena known as subsidence that sometimes damages buildings. Finally, mines filled with decades of groundwater can burst forth suddenly if the ground is weakened.

"These problems are all related to a mine somehow,'' Mallison said. "It's a legacy of those years when people mined in their own back yards — and it's made its way back up to the surface.''

On Jan. 25, the former entrance of an abandoned mine ruptured, sending more than 10,000 gallons of water a minute rushing down streets and across yards in McDonald, a small town about 10 miles west of Pittsburgh. Officials controlled the initial deluge by hiring a contractor to pump the acidic water into two large temporary pipes that emptied into a creek for about three weeks.

The water is still being pumped out at about 1,200 gallons a minute, Mallison said. The Department of Environmental Protection has hired an environmental contractor to study the problem and develop a permanent solution.

The Office of Surface Mining uses Abandoned Mine Reclamation Funds, which come from tonnage fees paid by mining companies, to fix sinkholes and to help pay for other damage, like the deluge in McDonald. It's unclear how much longer it will be able to pay for such emergencies, however, because Congress hasn't voted to continue the fund.

The program, which that has collected more than $7 billion in tonnage fees since it was created in 1978, was set to end June 30, but has been extended through Sept. 30 while Congress debates whether to end or change it, Ehler said.

Meanwhile, state and federal officials are bracing for more sinkholes, and hoping to avoid costly disasters. The McDonald mine flood caused about $375,000 damage to the city's streets, sidewalks, curbs and storm drains, according to Mayor James Frazier.

"If it's a shallow shaft and weathering hits it, maybe the extra rain we've had in the past year runs through that valley and weakens the rock,'' Ehler said. "Basically, the ground wants to reach its lowest level and, if it's unstable, that's just what it does.''

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Judy Hua

BEIJING (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through a state-owned colliery in northeast China, killing 68 miners and trapping 79 underground, just days after Chinese leaders called for vigilance to prevent major accidents.

The blast late on Sunday was the latest disaster to strike Heilongjiang, whose capital city, Harbin, was held hostage for five days by a toxic spill coursing through the Songhua river that provides its water supply, forcing a shut-down of tap water.

Li Yizhong, head of the country's top work safety watchdog, urged about 270 rescue workers to spare no effort to save 79 miners trapped at Dongfeng coal mine.

Sixty-eight of 221 miners working underground at the time have been killed, while 74 have been rescued, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Investigators blamed the blast on coal-dust explosion, which knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit. The main system resumed operation on Monday.

The accident came about two weeks after an explosion at a chemical plant in nearby Jilin province poured 100 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene compounds into the Songhua river.

An 80-km (50-mile) slick passed through the Songhua River and out of Harbin at the weekend.

Making no mention of the toxic spill, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called last week for vigilance to prevent major accidents which cause huge casualties and property losses.

Hu and Wen urged law enforcement agencies to implement stricter inspection measures and punish those responsible in accordance with the law, state media said without elaborating.

Taps were turned back on in Harbin, home to nine million people, on Sunday and Heilongjiang provincial Governor Zhang Zuoji drank tap water to prove it was safe.

Officials have warned residents to be on the lookout for symptoms of benzene poisoning, which can cause anaemia, other blood disorders and kidney and liver damage.

'WHITE LIE'

Governor Zhang defended a government decision to delay announcement of the toxic spill by 10 hours, saying it was a "white lie", the Legal Evening News reported.

"We rectified this 'white lie'...to protect the right of the people to know," he was quoted as saying.

The Harbin crisis has raised wider questions about the costs of China's breakneck economic boom. Around 70 percent of its rivers are contaminated and the cabinet recently described the country's environmental situation as grim.

Water was discharged from nearby reservoirs to dilute the toxic spill and 1,000 soldiers installed charcoal filters at water plants to ensure water would be drinkable.

Environmentalists have complained that China is not sharing enough information about the spill to protect Russia's residents and rivers downstream from the Songhua.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has expressed regret to Russia's ambassador over the incident.

WORLD'S DEADLIEST MINING

China's mining industry is the biggest and the deadliest in the world. Accidents killed more than 2,700 miners in the first half of this year alone.

The country has launched safety campaigns to clean up and shut down illegal mines in the hope that consolidating China's thousands of tiny and primitive operations will improve safety.

But booming energy demand and high coal prices has driven some mine owners to ignore regulations and Sunday's blast, at a state-owned mine, shows that larger players are not immune from disasters.

Dongfeng coal mine is run by a branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd. -- a conglomerate of four state-owned major coal businesses in the province, with a registered capital of 13 billion yuan (940 million pounds).

China's worst coal mine accident this year killed 214 people at a state-run mine in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

Accidents and disasters cause more than 1 million casualties annually in China. They also bring economic losses of 650 billion yuan each year, equivalent to 6 percent of gross domestic product, according to Wang Jikun, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security.

(Additional reporting by Brian Rhoads and Lindsay Beck)

~~~~~~

12 Trapped Coal Miners Found Alive After Long Search Body of 13th Miner Was Found By Rescuers Earlier Tuesday By ALLEN G. BREED, AP

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (Jan. 4, 2006) - Twelve of the 13 miners trapped in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive late Tuesday after more than 41 hours underground, turning a community's worst fears to unbridled joy. Family members streamed from the church where they had kept vigil, shouting "Praise the Lord!"

First Joyful News, Then a Tragedy About Miners

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (Jan. 4, 2006) - In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead -- three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive.

The sole survivor, Randal McCloy, was in critical condition but showing no sign of brain damage or carbon monoxide poisoning after being trapped for 1 1/2 days, a doctor said. At 27, McCloy was the youngest in the group.

The devastating new information about the others shocked and angered family members, who had rejoiced with Gov. Joe Manchin hours earlier when a report began to spread that 12 miners were alive. Rescue crews found the first victim earlier Tuesday evening.

"I can only say there was no one who did anything intentionally other than risk their lives to save their loved ones," Manchin told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"No one can say anything about that would make anything any better," he said. "Just a horrible situation."

	CNN Anchor Learns of Reversal Mayor Receives Misinformation One Survivor Critical Mine Had 96 Violations

McCloy was unconscious but moaning when he arrived at a hospital, the hospital said.

McCloy was transferred to the intensive care unit of West Virginia University's Ruby Memory Hospital at Morgantown, where he remained in critical condition. Doctors said he was under sedation and on a ventilator to aid his breathing and there was no immediate sign of brain damage.

"He responds to stimuli and that's good," Dr. Lawrence Roberts said at a briefing. There was no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning, he said. Most of the other miners were in their 50s, and doctors said that McCloy's age may have helped him.

Charles Green, McCloy's father-in-law, told ABC that when he found out his son-in law was the only survivor, "I was still devastated. My whole family's heart goes out to them other families."

Thirteen miners had been trapped 260 feet below the surface of the Sago Mine since an explosion early Monday. The mine is located about 100 miles northeast of Charleston. As rescue workers tried to get to the men, families waited at the Sago Baptist Church during an emotional two-day vigil.

But late Tuesday night, families began streaming out of the church, yelling "They're alive!" The church's bells began ringing and families embraced, as politicians proclaimed word of the apparent rescue a miracle.

As an ambulance drove away from the mine carrying what families believed was the first survivor, they applauded, not yet knowing there were no others.

Though the governor announced that there were 12 survivors, he later indicated he was uncertain about the news. As word buzzed through the church of survivors, he tried to find out what was going on, he said.

"All of a sudden we heard the families in a euphoric state, and all the shouting and screaming and joyfulness, and I asked my detachments, I said, 'Do you know what's happening?' Because we were wired in and we didn't know," Manchin said.

''We had a miracle, and it was taken away from us.''

-- Anna Casto, who lost her cousin

International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield blamed the wrong information on a "miscommunication." The news spread after people overheard cell phone calls, he said. In reality, rescuers had only confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs. At least two family members in the church said they received cell phone calls from a mine foreman.

"That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center," he said.

Three hours later, Hatfield told the families that "there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived," said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners.

"There was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the door," said Nick Helms, son of miner Terry Helms.

Chaos broke out in the church and a fight started. About a dozen state troopers and a SWAT team were positioned along the road near the church because police were concerned about violence. Witnesses said one man had to be wrestled to the ground when he lunged for mining officials.

Company officials waited to correct the information until they knew more about the rescue, Hatfield said.

"Let's put this in perspective. Who do I tell not to celebrate? I didn't know if there were 12 or one (who were alive)," Hatfield said.

The explosion was the state's deadliest mining accident since November 1968, when 78 men -- including the uncle of Manchin -- died in an explosion at Consol's Farmington No. 9 mine in Marion County, an hour's drive north of here. Nineteen bodies remain entombed in the mountain. It was that disaster that prompted Congress to pass the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

It was also the worst nationwide since a pair of explosions tore through the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 mine in Brookwood, Ala., on Sept. 23, 2001, killing 13.

Federal Department of Labor officials promised an investigation. Acting Assistant Secretary David Dye, who heads the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said it will include "how emergency information was relayed about the trapped miners' conditions."

The 12 miners were found together behind a barrier they had constructed to block carbon monoxide gas. They were found near where the company had drilled an air hole early Tuesday in an attempt to contact the men.

The miners had stretched a piece of fabric across an area about 20 feet wide to block out the gas, Hatfield said. The fabric is designed for miners to use as a barrier. Each miner had carried a breathing apparatus and had been able to use it, according to mining officials.

The hole also was used to check air quality in the mine, which revealed high concentrations of carbon monoxide. The odorless, colorless gas can be lethal at high doses. At lower levels, it can cause headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea, fatigue and brain damage.

Manchin, who had earlier said that the state believed in miracles, tried to focus on the news that one had survived.

"We're clinging to one miracle when we were hoping for 13," he said.

Associated Press writers Vicki Smith, Allen G. Breed and Mark Williams in Tallmansville contributed to this report.

1/4/2006 07:58:24

By DAVID DISHNEAU Associated Press Writer

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. Jan 11, 2006 — Footprints inside the Sago Mine indicate the trapped miners tried to use a mechanized mine car to force their way out after the explosion, family members of the sole survivor said.

Rick McGee, the brother-in-law of survivor Randal McCloy Jr., said Tuesday that International Coal Group Inc. chief executive Ben Hatfield had shared the information with the family.

"They found footprints," McGee said. The men "tried to go back out of the mine. This ain't hearsay. This came from Hatfield's mouth."

Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for Gov. Joe Manchin, said Tuesday that it's also the state's understanding that the men tried to escape. When they couldn't, "they then, being trained, turned around and went back to the face, where they barricaded themselves," she said. In a mine, the "face" is where miners are removing coal.

By the time rescue workers reached the 12 trapped miners more than 41 hours after the Jan. 2 explosion, all but one had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. It was West Virginia's worst coal-mining accident in more than 35 years.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration released documents Tuesday related to 17 of the 208 alleged safety violations at the mine in 2005.

In the details of one report, dated Dec. 14, an MSHA inspector said a failure to address coal dust and excessive amounts of loose coal in some places 29 inches deep "showed a high degree of negligence for the health and safety of the miners."

That area of the mine was not involved in last week's explosion and the problem was corrected by scooping up the loose coal and covering the area with rock dust.

According to the documents released Tuesday, the company contested nine of the 17 violations, which included accumulation of loose coal and coal dust, and problems with ventilation and roof supports.

Calls to an ICG spokesman were not immediately returned.

McCloy, 26, remained in critical condition Wednesday morning, said a spokeswoman at West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. His doctors said Tuesday that tests showed a lot of activity on both sides of McCloy's brain.

It is probably too early for us to tell what that means, but it is very important to us that he has a lot of brain activity," said Dr. Julian Bailes.

Hatfield did not return repeated requests for comment about whether the miners made an escape effort. In a statement issued to The Associated Press, he said it was probable the miners believed a fire or debris from the explosion was blocking their path.

In the days since the accident, Hatfield has said it's possible the men could have walked to a section of the mine with clean air, and then made their way out.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Hatfield said if the trapped miners had wireless communication devices, it would have been possible to tell them of a safe way out. The only method of communication at Sago, a wired phone, was destroyed in the blast.

Hatfield told USA TODAY his company would consider issuing radios to miners. In response to questions from the AP, the company declined to say if it has made changes in safety procedures at its other mines.

Richard Gates, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's lead investigator into the accident, said he hoped the venting at the mine, including the removal of methane gas in a section of the mine where the explosion apparently occurred, would be complete within a week. Until then, no one will be allowed inside.

Federal investigators were also on the scene of a partial coal-mine collapse in Kentucky that killed one miner Tuesday near Pikeville.

Cornelius Yates, 44, was operating a roof bolting machine when a section of the roof fell inside the Maverick Mining Company mine, killing him. He was the only miner harmed, said Chuck Wolfe, spokesman for the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing. The fallen roof section measured approximately 20 feet wide, 4 1/2 feet thick and 10 feet long.

In West Virginia, two more funerals were held for the Sago miners, 59-year-old Fred Ware was remembered at Sago Baptist Church, the small church near the mine where families gathered to await word on the fate of their loved ones. A funeral for Terry Helms, 50, followed later in Masontown. Other funerals were held Sunday and Monday.

Associated Press Writer Jennifer C. Yates in Morgantown contributed to this report.

Feb. 20, 2006, 4:52AM
MEXICAN MINERS TRAPPED
Crews struggle to reach dozens after gas explosion

By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The governor's office described their prognosis as "guarded." And mining company officials refused to even guess how long it might take to reach them. Rescuers had not established any communication with the miners late Sunday afternoon.

While local reports disagreed on the location of the miners, one of the most detailed versions was that they had gone down a vertical shaft that is less than 500 feet deep, then ventured into one of several horizontal shafts.

Then, according to this report, by Mexico's El Universal newspaper, the miners had traveled more than a half-mile from the mine shaft entrance when the explosion occurred.

Specialists from the mining company launched a rescue operation and had been unsuccessfully trying to reach the trapped men since 3 a.m., Escudero said.

Teams of volunteers from miners' relatives and government agencies had not been allowed to join in the rescue.

Progress was slowed by concerns about other explosions or collapses in the mine shaft trapping the rescuers themselves.

Relatives worry

"We want them to get precise, objective information so they can pass it along to their other loved ones," Moreira said.

The miners trapped Sunday are employed by Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, one of the world's largest mining concerns and a construction subcontractor.

Coahuila produces some 12 million tons of coal per year.

The coal fields around Sabinas supply fuel for three-quarters of Mexico's electrical plants and feed steel and other heavy industries in nearby Monterrey.

A history of problems

A municipal official in Sabinas was quoted on Mexican radio Sunday afternoon saying that the No. 8 shaft at Pasta de Conchos mine did not meet safety standards.

"For that reason these type of accidents always happen in the coal zone," said Ernesto Cabral, identified as the technical support official in San Juan de Sabinas.

Tragedy in U.S.

Separate mining accidents killed 14 people in West Virginia this year.

David Dye, acting administrator of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, announced plans last week to boost fines against unsafe mining operators.

He also urged mine companies to focus on safety.

"I encourage all mine operators to talk with their miners and managers about the importance of safety in their operations to ensure that their miners return to their families safe and healthy at the end of their shifts," he said in a statement.

dqalthaus@yahoo.com

August 17, 2007

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