BEAVER, W.Va. -- Federal investigators have proof that Massey Energy kept fake safety records to throw off inspectors at a southern West Virginia mine where 29 men died in an explosion last year, the fiancee of one of those victims said late Tuesday night.In a private briefing for the families, officials with the Mine Safety and Health Administration showed relatives of the Upper Big Branch miners side-by-side comparisons of books that purported to document the same shift.
In one authentic production report, underground miner Bobbie Pauley said, Massey reported that its mining machine was shut down because of problems with ventilation and a potentially explosive accumulation of methane gas. The on-shift inspection report, meanwhile, indicated no problems with gas.
"You put in an inspection report what you wanted the inspectors to see," said Pauley, whose fiance Howard "Boone" Payne was among the men killed in the April 5, 2010, blast near Montcoal. "The books, they told two different stories. But I already knew that because I worked there."
Pauley returned to Upper Big Branch only briefly after the explosion and now works at another former Massey operation bought out in a recent takeover by Alpha Natural Resources. She was among about 30 people – nearly half of them lawyers – who attended the briefing for several hours at a mine safety training academy in Beaver.
The nation's deadliest coal mine explosion in four decades remains the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, and MSHA has said it won't release some information to avoid hindering that probe. It largely reiterated its past public statements, offering detail but no blockbuster revelations, family members said.
MSHA contends the explosion started with a small, naturally occurring release of methane gas that was then fueled by coal dust into a devastating inferno that tore through the mine in a series of explosions over a few minutes. The agency has blamed a poorly maintained cutting head on a piece of mining equipment for sparking the blast and a malfunctioning water sprayer for failing to douse it.
An independent investigation commissioned by former Gov. Joe Manchin reached the same conclusion last month.
A public presentation for MSHA's latest findings is set for Wednesday morning. But Pauley and two other relatives, Gary Quarles and Clay Mullins, say the federal team offered nothing new and pushed back the timeline for completion of its final report for at least four more months. They'll now have to wait until October, at the earliest, for a comprehensive report, they said.
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Source: Huffington
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