The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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May 5, 2010

MSHA team to monitor anonymous tip line

Upper Big Branch mine

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

BECKLEY — A supplemental team to help the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s main one looking into the Upper Big Branch mine explosion has been organized to give families of the 29 victims and the general public a confidential means of providing information so they would be free of potential intimidation.

The idea is to give the additional team the opportunity to monitor and respond to any information fed to it via an anonymous tip line that could prove helpful in solving the mystery behind the explosion. The agency can be reached at 877-827-3966.

Heading up the team is Robert Phillips, a 27-year veteran of MSHA, who managed the agency’s district in Vincennes, Ind., shortly before his retirement.

Meantime, MSHA remains uncertain as to just when the investigation can move from interviews into an actual on-site inquiry within the Raleigh County mine, scene of an April 5 blast in the nation’s worst mining disaster in four decades.

Authorities have said they cannot go inside the sprawling Raleigh County complex in Montcoal until it is free of noxious gases that continue to hold sway.

Upper Big Branch is operated by Performance Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy.

“We need to use every available tool to establish the cause of this tragedy that took 29 coal miners’ lives,” said Joseph Main, assistant labor secretary for Mine Safety and Health.

“The work of this special team will be part of MSHA’s investigative process and it will give family members and others the opportunity to share information they might otherwise not feel comfortable passing along.”

MSHA also is looking inward with the aid of an internal review team to evaluate the performance of the agency before the explosion and to make any suggestions it feels are needed.

Jack Kuzar, manager of the district in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is to examine MSHA’s actions to see how they stack up against the requirements of the 1977 federal health and safety act.

Last week, Gov. Joe Manchin called for prevention squads at every coal mine, totally free of pressure, comparable to the “Untouchables” under Eliott Ness in the crackdown by Treasury Department agents on Prohibition-era bootleggers.

“Why shouldn’t we have a certified prevention team in every mine, the most experienced miners, who are basically untouchable?” he had asked.

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