Safety violations found in mine
The operator of a collapsed coal mine where nine men died last August violated safety protocols by cutting pillars that should have been left standing to prevent cave-ins, federal regulators said.
Mine Safety and Health Administration officials said a subsidiary of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. undermined other pillars by excavating coal from tunnel floors. Officials also faulted the engineering firm, Agapito Associates Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo.
Murray Energy chief Bob Murray has insisted that an earthquake caused the collapse of the mine, near Huntington. Mine agency chief Richard Stickler disagreed.
“First of all, it was not -- and I’ll repeat not -- a natural occurring earthquake, but in fact it was a catastrophic outburst of the coal pillars that were used to support the ground above the coal seam,” he said at a news conference.
The agency is fining Murray Energy affiliate Genwal Resources Inc. $1.6 million and Agapito $220,000 for the disaster -- the largest penalty ever imposed on a U.S. coal mining operation, Stickler said.
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