Many Pressures Led to Cave-In

Ryan Wilson, 27-year-old property manager, shovels dirt as he removes obstructing plants in front of a sign supporting six trapped miners inside the Crandall Canyon Mine on Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007, in Huntington, Utah. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) (Jae C. Hong - AP)

Moore has been the public face of Murray Energy since bluff, bald chief executive Robert E. Murray retreated from the media following the deaths of the three rescuers. To observers struggling to understand the dynamics that led to the cave-in -- a rarity in a region where most mining disasters have involved methane explosions -- Murray's absence is significant.

"There's been a lot of talk about how his mind-set may have played a role in this disaster," said Martell.

Murray, a vocal opponent of environmental regulations, has a reputation for insisting on his view of reality. In the first hours after the mine collapse, he went before cameras declaring, "The whole problem has been caused by an earthquake." He cited University of Utah seismographs that experts said merely picked up the massive shock wave of the mine's thundering collapse. Such measurements are common in the ranges laced with rich bituminous seams, but Murray's loud insistence muddled public understanding of "seismic events," a term that in many places refers to an act of God but in coal country means that the mountain is closing its wounds.

Tony Oppegard, an adviser to the MSHA during the Clinton administration, said Murray's manner and standing hover over the question of the agency's June approval of his plan for Crandall Canyon.

"MSHA probably gave it cursory review, and you have to wonder if they gave it cursory review because of who they were dealing with: Bob Murray," Oppegard said.

The agency's commitment to safety enforcement has been a recurring question under the Bush administration. Dave D. Lauriski, a former mine operator from Price, Utah, who headed the MSHA from 2001 to 2004, shifted the agency's mission from regulation to "compliance assistance" -- persuading mine owners to make changes rather than fining them for infractions.

Mine inspectors were even renamed "compliance assistance specialists" until an outcry forced a reversion to the original job title.

"Every minute you spend on compliance assistance is a minute you're not spending on enforcement," Oppegard said. "My view is compliance assistance took a few years to take root, and now we're seeing the effects of it."

Washington plays one more role in the tension between financial returns and safety. Mine operators note that, in the West, most mineral rights are leased from the federal Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service. Those agreements mandate "a maximum economic recovery" of the leased resource, a prod to mine as aggressively as possible, one operator said.

In Crandall Canyon, the money was in the coal the previous owner had left to hold up the roof. Removing it is known as "retreat mining," because the miners retreat toward the entrance as they "pull the pillar." Although hazardous, it is standard practice. Almost all modern coal mining involves allowing the roof to collapse behind extraction machinery.

"It's dangerous, unless you do it right," said Don Kelley, a former miner in Huntington who spent much of his career performing retreat mining.

The process is especially treacherous in the West, where Murray was new to mining. In Utah the mountains dramatically increase the weight, or "overburden," that looms over the mine. The greater the overburden, the harder it is for a mined mountain to achieve what amounts to equilibrium.