Results from 5th borehole at Utah mine site awaited
But Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is not waiting that long to call for inspections of other mines owned by Crandall Canyon's parent company.
A fifth borehole being drilled nearly 2,000 feet down into the mine is expected to break through by 5 a.m. today, mine officials said. Rescue crews then will lower audio and visual equipment into the mine and attempt to make contact with the miners for several hours.
Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration officials and representatives from Murray Energy Corp., which owns the mine, then will meet with families of the trapped miners before briefing the media on the rescue operations.
Four previous drilling operations have shown no signs of miners Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez, who have been trapped since a 3.9-magnitude seismic event Aug. 6 collapsed the west-central section of the mine where they were working.
Huntsman told federal mine safety authorities Tuesday that two other Murray Energy mines in Carbon County should be inspected immediately.
Huntsman spoke directly to Richard Stickler, head of MSHA, Roskelley said. The governor "does feel that this request will be honored," she said, adding that inspections already may be in the works for those mines.
What Huntsman wants inspected appear to be the Aberdeen and West Ridge mines. A seismic event was recorded at the Aberdeen Mine on Aug. 7, the day after a larger event at the Crandall Canyon Mine, 30 miles away, trapped the six miners.
Huntsman already has announced that the state will conduct its own investigation into the mine disaster to determine if Utah should be involved in mine safety or should continue to leave it up to the federal government.
Roskelley said the governor expects to appoint members of the state panel in the next several days. She said the state investigation will be conducted in tandem with MSHA's efforts.
Huntsman said in a statement that the inspections he called for Tuesday "are only the beginning of a larger investigation that needs to be conducted in Utah's deep mines to secure safety for our miners.
"We must do all we can, at every level, to be prepared for a catastrophe like this one," the governor said of the Crandall Canyon disaster. "This is the least we can do to ensure that the lives lost have not been in vain."
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I feel horrible for these families. I feel though that if I was placed...
Michelle | Aug. 22, 2007 at 7:07 a.m.
