CHARLESTON — Apart from the emotionally charged hearing in Upshur County, a select panel of legislators faces a yearlong study of what went wrong at the Sago Mine — and how to make sure there is no repeat of the disaster.

In fact, two committees of lawmakers were set up shortly after an explosion rumbled through the non-union mine Jan. 2, trapping 13 miners and killing all but a lone survivor.

One panel, composed of three members each from the House of Delegates and Senate, took part in the Sago hearings.

A second one, headed by Delegate Steve Kominar, D-Mingo, plans to stay at its task all during this year’s interims, probing into the explosion and its aftermath.

“I think we’re going to stay together in force,” says Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, who sits on both committees.

The second panel was appointed by virtue of a special House resolution and is limited to delegates.

“We want to find some avenues to make mines safer for coal miners across West Virginia,” says Caputo, an official of the United Mine Workers of America.

“We feel it’s our duty to do that. We will get all the facts. If there’s some type of legislation we need to work on, we’ll be doing that.”

Gov. Joe Manchin steered through the Legislature in one day last winter a three-pronged bill aimed at responding to mine disasters such as Sago.

While Caputo lent the proposal his full support, the veteran miner wants to see if lawmakers can head off potential tragedies with enhanced safety measures.

“I don’t want to lose sight of prevention,” he said.

Caputo was struck by the closing remarks of UMWA President Cecil Roberts that any miner who manages to survive an underground blast should get out alive.

“That’s absolutely true,” Caputo said. “And they shouldn’t have to worry about not having enough oxygen to be able to make it out.

“If he survived the initial blast, he ought to be able to make it outside.”

Caputo found the hearings valuable, first and foremost in allowing families of the victims an opportunity to directly question the coal owner — International Coal Group — and federal and state regulatory officials.

One touching moment came when an official acknowledged his gaffe in assuming all 13 men were alive and triggered a rumor that falsely raised hopes.

After the man’s frank admission, family members surrounded him with a massive hug.

“There were a lot of tears,” an impressed Caputo recalled. “You could see a lot of forgiveness. It was as emotional as anything you ever heard. That was certainly worth the effort put forth n the hearings.

“It was certainly an emotional time. I think that family members may have received a great deal of satisfaction out of being able to face the company and question them.”

On a note of disappointment, Caputo found it incredible the mine owner stood by its theory that a bolt of lightning touched off the explosion.

Never in his 20 years as a miner did lightning ever strike without a gas well for a bolt to travel down inside a mine.

“Quite frankly, I think the company came out with that very early to sway public opinion and make it look like an act of God and focus on that,” the delegate said.

That way, he suggested, the underlying issues of how the mine had been maintained and what procedures were pursued to provide a safe work environment could become secondary.

Caputo found it puzzling that the company released its findings before the regulatory agencies even had an opportunity to do so.

“That was kind of a move to sway public opinion,” he said. “Quite frankly, I don’t believe the lightning theory.”

To believe a bolt could travel so far down a track, then jump across from one side of a sealed area to another, is “so far-fetched,” he said.

“There has not been enough research to determine the exact cause,” he said.

Just what course the first panel of six will follow in the Legislature hasn’t been decided. But one member, Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, has indicated it likely will do some follow-up work on its own, possibly with a hearing to question state regulators.

At the Upshur hearings, Kessler and Caputo pointed out, lawmakers weren’t allowed to interrogate any officials directly, but were limited to handing over written queries to the moderator, Davitt McAteer, the former head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“We want to make sure these brave men did not die in vain,” Caputo said.

“I think we owe it to the families because their members made the ultimate sacrifice. We must do all we can to make mines as safe as possible for the miners so their families don’t have to go through what these families did.”

— E-mail:

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