But unlike some other states, Utah does not have a certification procedure to ensure that a miner really learned what he or she needs to know to work safely in the hazardous depths.

That could be one of the changes that emerges from the Utah Mine Safety Commission's deliberations to determine what role the state should play in making its coal mines safer.

The commission, created by Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. following the Crandall Canyon mine disaster that claimed nine lives and injured six others in August, focused heavily on training issues during a meeting and public hearing Tuesday in Price.

While much of the day's talk centered on what training is and isn't being done, and of an emerging alliance between the College of Eastern Utah (CEU) and industry to satisfy training desires through the one-year-old Western Energy Training Center, the public hearing also served as an outlet for some of the painful emotions lingering from the Crandall Canyon tragedy.

Colleen Byrge of Carbonville, a community between Helper and Price, fought back tears as she told the commission of her three great-grandchildren who are growing up without their daddy, Brandon Kimber, one of three miners killed Aug. 16 when the mine's walls imploded on rescuers digging their way toward six others trapped by a catastrophic cave-in on Aug. 6.

"I wanted to represent them," said Byrge of Kimber's kids, adding that she has lived with mining men for more than 60 years and has two sons in the business. "Every day I pray for their safety."

Despite the tragedy, Byrge stood solidly behind coal mining, asking the commission to encourage more expenditures on clean-coal technology research. "God had a reason when he built this world on top of coal," she said. "Put money into research to make it cleaner . . . so we can use the coal."

Forty-year veteran miner John Palacios also recommended several measures to improve safety underground.

He favored limiting the size of longwall mining machines, which often are nearly 800 feet wide, and said more attention should be placed on keeping open "bleeder" tunnels developed at the back of working sections to vent dangerous gases, such as methane, away from potential ignition sources.

Palacios also said the state should encourage the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to put Westerners, or people with Western mining experience, in charge of the district office that includes Utah because mining conditions here are much different from in the East.

The Western Energy Training Center (WTEC), which CEU opened a year ago with assistance from extraction industries in the Southeastern Utah Energy Producers Association, is trying to become the centerpiece of the training effort, not just to improve safety, but also to develop a qualified work force to replace a generation of miners and oil and gas-field workers approaching retirement.

The WTEC hopes to expand the training provided in past years by CEU's Mining and Industrial Technology Program (around 1,800 in each of the last two years) and to work closely with federal safety agencies and the Utah Labor Commission to develop a practical regimen that will better prepare people to fill mid- and entry-level positions in energy-oriented businesses.

But more money, naturally, is needed to fulfill these ambitions.

CEU officials Miles Nelson and Dave Nelson noted that their training was performed by two full-time and four part-time instructors. Rick Hackford, who runs the Labor Commission office in Price, said his testing program for certifying mine foremen, fire bosses and electricians has a budget of just $25,000 and is run by a part-time employee.

Adding a requirement to certify new miners would require a sizable funding boost, Hackford said.

Robert Topping said WTEC needs an additional $1.5 million to $2 million to develop high-tech programs that simulate actual working conditions in underground coal mines, power plants and oil-and-gas well sites.

But, he added, "a contribution of this magnitude will improve industry safety performance and help maintain the competitive viability of Utah's energy industry."

mikeg@sltrib.com