SALON

Friday, Jul 27, 2012 11:45 PM UTC

W.Va. dedicates Upper Big Branch Miners Memorial

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WHITESVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — On the heels of a West Virginia coal mining death, families of the 29 men killed in the Upper Big Branch mine dedicated a memorial Friday to their fallen relatives and those injured in the April 2010 explosion.

An outpouring of support helped complete the memorial a year ahead of schedule, according to the project’s volunteers. But still ongoing is a federal criminal investigation into the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in four decades.

The ceremony, which drew public officials along with scores of area coalfield residents, also came as party-line disagreements continue to sideline safety legislation in Congress meant to respond to Upper Big Branch.

Kanawha County coal miner Mark Haynes believes his industry has become safer since Upper Big Branch. The 52-year-old man is part of a motorcycle contingent that ride in parades to honor those killed.

“I know this, that other companies, including the company that I work for, have straightened up their act on a lot of things because of the explosion,” Haynes said.

The memorial features a 48-foot long black granite monument with life-size reverse silhouettes of each of the 29 miners. The back of the monument lists their names along with panels that describe the history of coal in West Virginia.

It sits in a small park-like plaza bordered by the Big Coal River on one side and W.Va. Route 3 on the other. Those attending the ceremony sat or stood in the road’s northbound lane, with coal trucks frequently passing by.

“It’s an honor to be here, and it’s an honor to see that they actually recognized the fallen miners,” said Doug Griffith of Dry Creek. His brother William Griffith, 54, and his 52-year-old brother-in-law, Carl Acord, were among those killed.

For several, the tears began to fall with the opening invocation by State Police Chaplain James Mitchell, who had ministered to them immediately after the explosion during rescue efforts. Mitchell cited the Gospel passage that appears along the bottom of the monument, “Come to me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest.”

Representatives of the rescue teams removed the monument’s shrouding. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin began his remarks with a moment of silence for Johnny Mack Bryant II, who died at an underground mine about 20 miles from the memorial.

Another speaker, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has introduced mine safety legislation prompted by Upper Big Branch for the third time since the disaster.

As in earlier versions, the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act launched Thursday proposes further whistleblower protections, harsher penalties for criminal safety violations and a revamped system for declaring a pattern of violations at a mine with chronic safety problems. Upper Big Branch had been cited by federal regulators repeatedly before the explosion.

One of the bill’s new provisions also draws from the ongoing federal investigation of the disaster, by barring coal operators from keeping two sets of pre-inspection logs. Massey maintained two sets of such books — an accurate, production-focused record for itself, and a sanitized version to throw off inspectors, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration found.

The bill now also calls for a stricter limit on breathable coal dust, and a revisiting of that standard every five years. This dust causes black lung, an irreversible disease that has contributed to the deaths of more than 70,000 miners since 1970. MSHA’s investigation found that at least 17 of the miners killed at Upper Big Branch — nearly two-thirds of those whose remains had enough lung tissue for testing — had signs of black lung.

____

Online:

Upper Big Branch memorial Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ubbminersmemorial

Follow Lawrence Messina at http://twitter.com/lmessina

More Lawrence Messina.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
137 points138 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
123 points124 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
111 points112 points | 84 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
103 points104 points | 28 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
75 points76 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations