Three workers killed, six injured in Utah coal-mine rescue effort
Three rescue workers were killed and at least six others injured when a section of Utah's Crandall Canyon coal mine caved in Thursday night. The workers were involved in the nine-day effort to reach six miners trapped deep within the mine. Seismic activity has caused the operation to halt several times; a seismic "bump" caused the latest collapse. The injured included two officials from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. "The seismic activity underground has just been relentless," said Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., which co-owns the mine. "The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving, and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners." As of last night, all rescue workers had been evacuated and the operation put on hold. "It's a devastating blow to what was already a tragic situation," said Joe Piccolo, the mayor of nearby Price. "It's a very stressful part of the way of life that's been known here for years."
source: Los Angeles Times, Nicholas Riccardi, 17 Aug 2007
source: Forbes, Associated Press, Paul Foy, 17 Aug 2007
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snowyowl Posted 3:03 am
17 Aug 2007
"The seismic activity underground has just been relentless," said Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp., which co-owns the mine. "The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving, and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners."
Murray continues to try blaming the Earth for this event, while all preliminary scientific evidence says otherwise. The quote you extracted was from the Forbes piece; notice the LA Times didn't take the bait and refused to allow the mine owner to imply again that a natural earthquake is to blame for the originating event and now current events.
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jeffrossini Posted 3:05 am
17 Aug 2007
I think that was a tasteless and arrogant choice of headlines, and in the words of the most trustworthy tv pundit, Stephen Colbert, "that deserves a wag of my finger."
Otherwise, keep up the good work.
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ivy hill Posted 4:51 am
17 Aug 2007
Just today, AP reporter Beth Rucker filed a story about the heatwave in the south and midwest being responsible for dozens of heat-related deaths...which will only increase as the temperatures rise due to global warming. Here's what caught my attention:
"The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility, shut down one of three units at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Athens, Alabama, on Thursday because water drawn from the Tennessee River was exceeding a 90 F average over 24 hours.
"We don't believe we've ever shut down a nuclear unit because of river temperature," said John Moulton, spokesman for the Knoxville-based utility.
The shutdown posed no safety threat, but it came as TVA hit records for power consumption in the last two weeks in its service area covering most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
The utility will compensate for the loss of power by buying it elsewhere."
Clearly, it's time to get serious about safe, sustainable energy sources.
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Jumperl Posted 7:06 am
17 Aug 2007
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danielbarker123 Posted 7:22 am
17 Aug 2007
In 1998 I rented a car and drove through Price and Helper. When I got to the bottom of the canyon I noticed a black vein in the rock where they blasted through to widen the road. I parked my car and found some black shiny rock on the side of the road. It was native coal.
I believe all coal mines should be unionized! If a miner reports a safety violation in a unionized mine operations are shut down until it is fixed. If a violation is reported in a non-union mine the worker is told to keep his mouth shut or lose his job.
Boycott all nonunion coal!
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