Cause of disaster still unresolved

Without bodies, the state of Utah has refused to declare the six trapped miners dead.

HUNTINGTON, Utah (AP) — A lone watchman guards Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine, protecting what is more a tomb than a coal operation.

The shaft has been walled off with cinderblocks, and makeshift memorials and Christmas wreaths serve as reminders of the twin disasters that took place there last summer.

On Aug. 6, six miners were caught in a thunderous cave-in. Then, on Aug. 16, three men were killed in another collapse while trying to tunnel through the quivering mountain to the victims. After that, the rescue was abandoned.

Nearly five months later, the cause of the original disaster is still under investigation, and the fate of the mine — and the miners — is unresolved, officially at least.

The state refuses to declare the six miners dead without bodies.

The mine’s co-owner, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., will not say whether it plans to reopen it. But such a move — which would require the approval of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — appears unlikely.

The mine doesn’t have much coal left, and since the accident, the company has stripped it of conveyer belts, power lines and other equipment and let shafts fill with water, said James F. Kohler, a BLM official in Utah.

“Obviously it would take a significant expense to reopen the mine,” Kohler said.

Nor is it known whether the six bodies can ever be recovered.

The twin disasters are under investigation by federal regulators, a state commission and various congressional committees.

Lawyers for the families of the men killed in the initial disaster contend that at the time, the company was pulling down pillars of coal supporting the ceiling.

Murray Energy chief Bob Murray has insisted that retreat mining, as the practice is called, had nothing to do with the collapse. He argued from the start that it was caused by an earthquake.

Huntington is a hardscrabble town of 2,000 where coal mining is considered an honorable profession, and it’s hard to find anything that pays more.

Mayor Hilary Gordon said many residents are conflicted over the disaster: They hate federal regulation but want the mines kept safe. They worry about unsafe mining, but won’t speak publicly for fear a family member will lose a job paying $50,000 or more a year.