Waiting for the other shoes to drop

The Upper Big Branch mine disaster took place on April 5, 2010.  On this date, 29 miners lost their lives in the worst mining accident since 1970.  For its part, from the very beginning, Massey officials cautioned that we didn’t know the cause of the explosions so we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions. 

Unfortunately, on April 27, 2010, MSHA released a report in which it stated “blasts of this magnitude have involved propagation from coal dust”, then noted that “explosions from these sources can be prevented.”

In plainer English, it would seem that MSHA thought Massey management could have been at fault.  In other words, if the ventilation plans for this mine had been followed, and if the coal dust had not been allowed to accumulate, there might not have been any bad news to report on April 5, 2010.

Massey had its spin doctors working at about the same time, though.  It has always denied that coal dust played any part in the explosions that ripped apart the Upper Big Branch mines.  The first explanation offered up was there was a sudden massive release of methane from a crack in the floor of the mines near the working face.  When this proved to be untenable, the next explanation offered up by Massey was that there was a sudden unforeseeable inundation of natural gas and methane and that this was the cause of the explosion, and again, coal dust played no part in it.

Well, you can speculate all day on the cause of things, but until you conduct an investigation into them, they will remain just that, speculations.  To find the answers, there have been at least three teams investigating this disaster.  One is the federal effort led by MSHA, another one by a team appointed by then WV Governor Joe Manchin, and a third one by the company in charge of Upper Big Branch, Massey.

Of course we all know that the first report on the cause of the explosions has already been released by the group appointed by Gov. Manchin, and it does not contain any good news for Massey.  In fact, it validates what MSHA said in its preliminary report to President Obama, that this was the result of “the combustion of accumulations of methane, combined with combustible coal dust mixed with air.”

Worse still for Massey, this report addresses the explanation that methane and natural gas were the sole cause of the explosions.  If, as Massey maintains, “one million cubic feet of methane had been suddenly released at the tailgate of the longwall”, this would have produced “a five million cubic foot flame going across the face and throughout the tailgate entries in both directions.”  Evidence this team collected does not support this theory, this report says.

So what does this team think happened?  In their words, this was caused by “an explosion that gained strength and size as it traveled from the longwall tailgate, fueled by coal dust along the way.”

Well, there are at least two more reports to come.  Not that MSHA’s report offers any hope, but in the third one, to be released by Massey, they may at least validate themselves, even if they started with a conclusion and then went looking in vain for evidence to support it.