Crandall Canyon disaster: Not a word from Labor secretary

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WASHINGTON - Seven months since the Crandall Canyon mine disaster and two damning investigative reports later, the head of the federal department overseeing the Mine Safety and Health Administration isn't talking.

Labor Department Secretary Elaine Chao hasn't commented publicly about the Utah disaster - or criticisms of MSHA's actions before and during the disaster - since she set up an independent panel in August to investigate the agency.

Just this week, the Labor Department's independent Inspector General released an audit deeming MSHA "negligent" regarding the Crandall Canyon disaster and its role in protecting miners nationwide. It also said MSHA could not prove it hadn't been unduly influenced by the mine's owner, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp.

An earlier Senate probe said the agency ignored ample warnings that the mining plan for Crandall Canyon was flawed and unnecessarily risky, enough to warrant a criminal investigation.

Has Chao read the reports? Held meetings or talked with MSHA boss Richard Stickler? Is she concerned with the flaws ticked off in those reports? Does she plan to change any of the leadership of the agency, or leave those under fire as is? Those questions, for now, remain unanswered.

"Throughout her seven-year tenure as Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao has been missing in action when it comes to keeping workers, including miners, safe on the job," House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., charged in a statement this week. "Sadly, the secretary's lack of leadership in addressing the Crandall Canyon disaster is consistent with the overall lack of leadership she has shown on mine safety issues."

The Labor Department this week declined interview requests for Chao. But Assistant Secretary David James said she showed her level of concern on Aug. 30, when she took the "unprecedented step" of naming an independent panel of experts to evaluate MSHA's actions before and after the Crandall Canyon disaster.

James said Chao will not speak to the disaster or the reports issued so far until that Labor-appointed panel reports its findings, which is expected in the next three months. MSHA is expected to release its own report on the disaster at about the same time.

"While MSHA is implementing the recommendations of the Inspector General's report, reviews by the outside independent panel and the official accident investigation team are ongoing and any comment at this time would be speculative and headline- grabbing," James said in a statement.

"Election year partisan attacks go with the territory, but this zeal for exploiting tragedy; politically interfering with enforcement investigations, and making baseless smears ignores the truth," James said. "Worker fatality, injury, and illness rates are at record lows under this administration's leadership."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, also defends Chao. "Given the gravity of this situation, I can understand why Secretary Chao believes it is premature to make a final determination prior to the completion of the report from MSHA," he said this week.

The White House continues to back Chao, who has held her Cabinet role since 2001.

"The secretary has the president's full support and confidence," Bush spokesman Trey Bohn said Thursday.

MSHA said it has crafted or is implementing new protocols to heighten safety in the nation's underground coal mines and will be fielding a full team of mine inspectors this year to ensure 100 percent compliance with routine inspections.

Additionally, MSHA said in its March update of actions that it has filed four "unprecedented" lawsuits seeking injunctions against mine operators who have repeatedly failed to pay civil penalties. And since June, MSHA has issued eight "pattern of violations" notices to operators, and six of those operators have significantly improved their safety records.

But Sen. Edward Kennedy said MSHA still needs to improve how it does business, a point he said is underscored by the Inspector General's audit this week and Kennedy's committee report of last month.

"The lives of the nation's miners depend on prompt reform at MSHA," said Kennedy, chairman of the Senate committee probing the disaster.

Six men died in an Aug. 6 collapse at the mine, and three would-be rescuers were killed and six injured in another collapse 10 days later. Chao issued a statement of tribute at the time and attended the funeral of a rescuer who was also an MSHA inspector.

tburr@sltrib.com