Panel considers fines against Quecreek Mine

WASHINGTON — A mining company attorney defended its operations Thursday as the legal wrangling continued nearly seven years since the rescue of nine trapped coal miners in Pennsylvania’s Quecreek Mine.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission heard arguments about whether a judge last fall fairly assessed $110,000 in fines against two companies, PBS Coals Inc. and Musser Engineering Inc., cited for negligence in the 2002 accident. The companies are challenging the fines.

A federal safety panel had previously recommended lesser fines of $5,000 against each company.

The miners became trapped in a flooded tunnel July 24, 2002, after digging into an adjacent mine full of water. They had relied on outdated maps showing the mine was 300 feet away.

PBS attorney R. Henry Moore said the best available map was used at Quecreek Mine. He added there were not final, certified maps available of all abandoned mines and that in western Pennsylvania at the time, that was the norm.

“It was the best that was available,” Moore told the panel.

Commissioner Mary Lu Jordan said the map used was undated.

“Why is it reasonable for a company to rely on an undated, uncertified map to depict a potential hazard,” Jordan said.

The miners were pulled from the ground in a dramatic rescue 77 hours later, after several had scrawled emotional goodbye notes to loved ones. The Quecreek Mine is in Somerset, Pa., about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

In November 2008, Administrative Law Judge Robert Lesnick fined each of the companies $55,000, saying they should’ve had better maps. Lesnick said the companies played “Russian roulette” with the lives of the miners and exhibited a “very high level of negligence.”

Musser was hired to help prepare maps that were used to determine where to mine at PBS Coals’ Quecreek Mine.

Lesnick found that the companies “knowingly mapped the Quecreek No. 1 Mine based on questionable information, knowingly placed their production agenda ahead of caution, and then directed their miners into areas that tragically turn out to be ‘undiscovered country.’”

In levying the fines, Lesnick rejected a recommendation from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration that the companies each be fined $5,000.

In August 2003, the safety administration blamed the accident on inaccurate mine maps and said the companies could have done more to ensure the miners’ safety. The safety administration had suggested PBS Coals and Musser Engineering were moderately negligent, but Lesnick found both companies “grossly negligent.”

Commission Chairman Michael Duffy said he was having “serious problems” with characterizing the actions of the companies as “gross negligence.” He asked why the panel should not be influenced by considering what was standard operating procedures by companies involved in mining in Pennsylvania during the time period in question.

“We have to take ourselves back,” he said.

Eight of the nine trapped miners reached undisclosed settlements with companies involved in the accident. A ninth miner didn’t sue.

On the Net:

Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission: www.fmshrc.gov/