SOMERSET, PA. Bad maps trapped miners, officials find

The one-year anniversary of the miners being trapped is Thursday.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Faulty maps were to blame for an inundation that trapped nine miners underground for 77 hours last summer near Somerset, and state investigators found no evidence that mine operators should have known beforehand the breach of a flooded, abandoned shaft was imminent, a report says.
The state Department of Environmental Protection released its final report on the Quecreek Mine inundation Tuesday, two days before the anniversary, with officials criticizing their own permitting and mapping protocols as outdated and dangerous.
DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty called for legislation giving her agency more authority to regulate mine operations and said changes already have been made to require more accurate maps of mine voids.
She also said the report shows the need for Pennsylvania mine safety personnel to have an active role -- and even veto power, in some cases -- when it comes to deciding whether mining permits should be issued.
What happened
Last July 24, the miners -- Randy Fogle, Mark Popernack, John Phillippi, Dennis Hall, Ronald Hileman, John Unger, Robert Pugh, Blaine Mayhugh and Thomas Foy -- were trapped when they breached the adjacent Saxman Mine, which maps showed to be 300 feet away, flooding Quecreek with more than 50 million gallons of water.
It took three days for rescuers to drill a man-sized hole 270 feet underground to the miners as an expectant nation watched the drama unfold outside Somerset, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. All nine survived.
Almost immediately, questions were raised about underground maps used to secure the mine permit for Quecreek in the late 1990s. Those maps of mining in the area dated to the late 1950s -- even though it was known that mining continued at Saxman until the early 1960s.
A map found later at a coal museum showed extensive mining in Saxman in the neighborhood of the breach.
The report noted a certified final map of Saxman was not required for a permit but still found Quecreek's maps in violation of state rules because they were inaccurate.
What's in dispute
Despite comments from some miners to the contrary, no evidence was found that wet conditions in the mine before the breach should have warned operators an inundation was imminent, investigators said. They said conditions were not out of the ordinary for mining in the area.
"In order to reach that conclusion, they needed to ignore the testimony of the miners, which obviously they've done," said Howard Messer, a lawyer who represents seven of the nine miners.
"For them to say they didn't have enough information at the time [to prevent the inundation] ... is ludicrous."
Six of the seven represented by Messer have filed lawsuits against past and present owners and operators of the mines, saying they knew or should have known about the danger. The lawsuits do not name Black Wolf Coal Co., the company contracted to mine Quecreek, which is protected under workers' compensation laws, or the state.
McGinty said production records need to be taken into account when coordinating permit reviews. She also says mining should be limited for companies "who cannot demonstrate that maps of adjacent, abandoned mines are reliable."
The agency already has increased the buffer required between active and adjacent mines and is the process of completing a database of mine maps.