MSHA and Stickler represent the minining industry and corporate greed. This insulting finding was a foregone conclusion.



Sago report blames lightning
Family members reject conclusion, have lost faith in MSHA itself
Thursday, May 10, 2007

By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



BUCKHANNON, W.Va. -- Federal investigators yesterday presented an intricate theory that lightning created a magnetic field that penetrated deep into the earth and generated the spark that touched off the explosion that caused the deaths of 12 men at the Sago mine near this town.

They presented elaborate research, replete with calculations and a video of a laboratory experiment demonstrating their theory, to family members of the miners who died after the Jan. 2, 2006, explosion.

Most rejected the conclusion in the 8-pound, 4-ounce report. Still others said no explanation from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration would satisfy them.

"They're staffed with industry insiders and they police themselves and they're no longer effective," said Sara Bailey, whose father was among the men killed.

Among major conclusions from the investigation:

A lightning strike, possibly as high as a half-mile in the air and possibly not even detected by monitors, sent a pulse through the ground. It traveled laterally another mile underground and then created a spark on a pump cable left behind when a section of the mine had been sealed weeks earlier. The spark ignited an explosive level of methane that had accumulated in that area.

The explosion was five times above the federal standard for blast resistance by mine seals. At the time, MSHA regulations required that a seal withstand a blast of 20 pounds per square inch. The explosion at Sago was estimated at 93 psi. MSHA officials said yesterday they will seek to revamp those standards.

The 10 walls built to seal off the abandoned area likely met the minimum standard, but were nonetheless improperly constructed. The mine's owners were cited yesterday by MSHA for failing to properly assemble the walls, which had been constructed of lightweight Omega Block. New federal standards have effectively banned Omega Block for the construction of seals.

Six of the miners who died were using self-contained self-rescue breathing devices -- called SCSRs -- that had not been tested within the 90-day period called for by federal regulations. One miner's SCSR was more than 10 years old. But MSHA said all the devices produced oxygen.

Even if the miners had had fresh air available in the section in which they barricaded themselves to await rescue, the oxygen supply would have run out six hours before rescue teams found them.

MSHA cited the mine's owner, International Coal Group, with failing to immediately notify the agency after the accident, and failing to have lightning arrestors installed in Sago, although their absence was not thought to have contributed to the accident.

The accident frequency rate was twice the national average, leading Richard Stickler, deputy labor secretary in charge of MSHA, to comment: "I would conclude that safety was not a top priority at this operation."

Yesterday's presentation marks the third time an official investigation has pointed to lightning as a likely cause of the Sago blast. A report by the West Virginia office that oversees mine safety ruled lightning as the likely source of the blast. Similarly, a report by J. Davitt McAteer, who conducted an independent probe on behalf of Gov. Joe Manchin III, said lightning could not be ruled out.

Mr. McAteer attended yesterday's briefing. He called the lightning-to-electromagnetic pulse theory "quite interesting."

"I think that as we said in our presentation, you don't have an easy answer," he said. "You don't have an answer that comes straightforward, but there is an amount of energy here that can't be disregarded."

The theory of an electromagnetic pulse was first put forward by Monte Hieb, a West Virginia state engineer.

The United Mine Workers union, however, has issued its own report, citing sparks from a roof fall as the likely source of ignition. The sealed area had been the site of frequent roof falls -- part of the reason the mine owners closed it. Yesterday's report, however, said the roof in the area where the blast originated was largely shale, a rock unlikely to trigger sparks, and that no roof fall was evident at the scene.

UMW President Cecil Roberts said the union continues to reject the lightning theory, calling it "a far-fetched theory and is unsupported by physical evidence found and examined in the mine."

"We do not believe MSHA or anyone else has conclusively or satisfactorily demonstrated how a charge from a lightning strike over two miles away entered the sealed area of the mine without a conduit from the surface," Mr. Roberts said.

One family member, Linda Anderson, called the lightning theory "kind of far-out."

Steve Goodwin, an attorney representing the lone survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., was similarly skeptical.

"I don't get it. I don't know what it means," he said. "It's kind of hard to believe."

Mr. Goodwin said the families left yesterday's briefing frustrated.

"They're not getting any answers to their questions," he said.

Mr. Stickler, in remarks to reporters after the briefing, acknowledged the skepticism.

"It's easy for people with Ph.D.s to understand. For other people, it may be difficult," he said.

Mr. Stickler said MSHA now plans to issue new standards for sealed areas of mines, including higher blast resistance -- some agency officials suggested 120 psi might become the new standard.

A higher blast resistance, Mr. Stickler said, "is something we should have required for years, in my opinion." The agency could also require mine owners to pump nitrogen or carbon dioxide into sealed areas if monitoring shows methane levels approaching the explosive range.

MSHA officials' presentation included a video in which scientists at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico turned such a pulse into a spark.

One of those scientists, Marvin Morris, said a 101 kilo-ampere lightning strike that hit a tree on a farm 11/2 miles from the mine mouth, would not have generated enough voltage to trigger the spark. He said, however, that the pulse created above ground by the bolt -- if it originated as far as a half-mile overhead -- could have created enough of a spark to trigger the blast.

"The MSHA report seems to be consistent with the findings of three earlier investigations of the Sago accident in concluding that the explosion was most likely caused by a lightning strike rather than human error," said Ben Hatfield, president and chief executive officer of International Coal Group.

"In three separate investigations, a diverse group of mining, electrical, combustion and structural experts has now reached many of the same technical conclusions about the cause of the accident. We hope this report provides some of the answers that the families of the accident victims need and deserve."




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(Dennis Roddy can be reached at droddy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1965. )


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