JENNIFER TALHELM, AP
At least three years before the deadly August accident at Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine, Bureau of Land Management inspectors noted serious structural problems that they feared could cause the mine’s roof to collapse, Congress was told Tuesday.
Yet the government’s mine safety office didn’t know of the bureau’s concerns until after the accident, Kevin Stricklin, a coal mine safety administrator for the department, testified during a Senate hearing.
The Labor Department oversees the mine safety office and approved the Crandall Canyon mining plan. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees how much coal is mined from public land, is governed by the Interior Department, a separate agency.
“This is like the CIA not getting information from the FBI when we’re getting attacked by terrorists,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., whose committee is investigating the oversight of the mine by the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration.
(Original Article )