Mine Investigation to Start Next Week

None by KCPW

Rescue Efforts Continue in Hopes of "A Miracle"

(KCPW News) Rescue efforts continue at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Huntington, and federal mine safety officials say there's still a slim hope of finding the trapped miners alive. Meanwhile, Mine Safety and Health Administration Official Kevin Stricklin says he has asked for an investigation of the mine to start next week:

"We don't want to give anybody the impression we're pulling our rescue efforts back," says Stricklin. "We just think we need to get some people on site to start reviewing the records. One of the problems we have is that as time goes by, what is fresh in your memory of what happened two weeks ago sometimes changes."

Stricklin says investigators will start "with a clean slate" in reviewing all of the Crandall Canyon mine records, including quarterly safety evaluations. He says they will also speak with miners and management to verify those records.

Next week Congress has scheduled hearings on the mine, and in Utah the newly-formed Mine Safety Commission is beginning its own evaluation. One member of the commission - former U.S. Senator Jake Garn - says the group should wait for the federal investigation to be finished before drawing conclusions:

"And to do it right will probably take several months - in order to come up with really good, meaningful suggestions so we don't have to go through this again," says Garn.

Stricklin says he has also ordered a review of every mine deeper than 15-hundred feet, which includes many in Utah. He says current technology does not seem sufficient to guarantee safety in such deep mines. Rescuers at the Crandall Canyon Mine continue to work above ground only, drilling bore holes in search of the missing miners.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2009 KCPW