HATCH, ENZI, ISAKSON TROUBLED BY FINDINGS OF CRANDALL CANYON PROBE

Washington, D.C. – Top members of a Senate committee that oversees minesafety regulations reacted today to the findings of a Labor Department report on the MineSafety and Health Administration’s response to the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy.Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), seniormembers of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), say thereport, which was released today by the department’s Inspector General, raises someissues that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) must address. “Mining is a dangerous enterprise under the best of circumstances, which is whyregulatory agencies must do all they can to prevent the worst from happening,” Sen.Orrin Hatch said today, following the release of the report. “It is incumbent on MSHA toimplement the Inspector General’s recommendations outlined in the report.”“While not the final word on Crandall Canyon, this report is another piece of the puzzlethat gives us a clearer picture of the tragedy and outlines some steps that MSHA can taketo make mining safer,” Hatch added. “Clearly, the report indicates MSHA must do abetter job documenting how it approves, monitors and enforces roof-control plans. Theprocess must be transparent as possible.” Sen. Enzi, ranking member of the HELP Committee, said: “I appreciate the efforts by theInspector General to compile this report on MSHA’s handling of the tragedy at CrandallCanyon. The IG has provided valuable recommendations to enhance mine safetyplanning across the country, and MSHA must fully and immediately address theserecommendations to be more vigilant about the safety of our nation’s miners. Roof-safetyplans are essential to mine safety, and the IG’s report raises a number of serious concernsabout how MSHA reviews and approves these plans. MSHA must attend to theseconcerns and, where necessary, develop policies to ensure a thorough, rigorous anduniform process for the approval of roof-safety plans. Protecting the safety of minersmust be our highest priority.” Sen. Isakson said: “The Office of Inspector General has presented us with a very detailedset of suggestions, which I urge the leadership of MSHA to consider thoroughly. Thereport demonstrates that a top priority of MSHA should be to target its finite resources aseffectively as possible. Clearly, there are a number of areas that must be addressed,including research into better technology, the acquisition of additional technical expertiseand the development of better safety equipment. This, combined with a regulatory systembased on performance standards, can better focus MSHA’s efforts.” Documentation also was a key deficiency noted in the IG report. MSHA’s District 9officials lacked the documents to show if they carefully reviewed the roof-control planfor Crandall Canyon, followed proper procedures in approving the plan and were notunduly influenced by the mine’s operator, according to the report. Documentation aboutimplementing the plan and monitoring the condition of the mine was similarly lacking.While the IG’s report finds fault with MSHA, the senators noted, it does not pinpointwho or what is responsible for the August 2007 tragedy that ultimately claimed nine lives– six miners and three rescue workers. The senators said that is beyond the scope of thisreport. For that reason, the senators said, now is not the time for partisan finger-pointing. A fulldetermination of responsibility can’t be made until other ongoing investigations arecompleted. “We owe it to the courageous miners and rescue workers who perished, as well as to theirfamilies and to miners across the nation, to be as fair and thorough as we can inexamining Crandall Canyon,” the senators said. “The best way to honor them is to findout precisely how and why this tragedy happened and to do all we can to make sure it isnot repeated.” ###