SALON

Friday, Nov 30, 2012 11:45 PM UTC

1 dead, 1 missing in separate W.Va. coal accidents

By

Topics: From the Wires,

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Separate accidents at two West Virginia coal operations Friday left one worker dead, two others injured and a fourth worker missing, company and state mine safety officials said.

An electrician was killed when he became caught between a scoop and a continuous mining machine around 1:30 a.m. at the Pocahontas Mine A White Buck Portal near Rupert in Greenbrier County, said Leslie Fitzwater of the state Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training.

The mine is owned by White Buck Coal Co., a subsidiary of Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources. Alpha identified the victim as Steven O’Dell, 27, of Mount Nebo, an employee of its Alex Energy subsidiary. It’s the sixth mining fatality in West Virginia this year.

“We are all saddened by the loss of a talented colleague and friend,” Alex Energy President Craig Boggs said.

In north-central West Virginia, emergency officials were draining a coal slurry pond to search for a bulldozer operator who was unaccounted for after an embankment collapsed, sending three into the water.

U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration spokeswoman Amy Louviere said a “massive failure” occurred around 12:15 p.m. Friday at the Nolans Run impoundment of Pennsylvania-based Consol Energy’s Robinson Run mine in Harrison County.

One dozer operator and two engineers were on the platform when it collapsed. Both engineers were rescued and were in non-critical condition.

Governor’s office spokeswoman Amy Shuler Goodwin said sonar detected an object in the pond and that officials were considering sending in divers. The water is about 12 feet deep.

Consol Energy spokeswoman Lynn Seay said the cause of the failure was unclear.

Preparations plants wash raw coal to help it burn efficiently before it is shipped to customers. Coal slurry ponds contain both the solid refuse and the wastewater byproduct known as slurry.

White Buck Coal made news earlier this week when a former president, David C. Hughart, was charged with criminal conspiracy.

Hughart is cooperating with federal prosecutors in their continuing investigation of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 men. It was the worst U.S. mining disaster in four decades. At the time, the mine was owned by Massey Energy Inc., before the company was bought by Alpha.

Prosecutors say Hughart worked with unnamed co-conspirators to ensure miners at White Buck and other, unidentified Massey-owned operations got advance warning about surprise federal inspections many times between 2000 and March 2010.

Those illegal warnings allegedly gave workers time to conceal life-threatening violations that could have led to citations, fines and costly shutdowns.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Hughart was prepared to plead guilty to the charges, which carry the possibility of six years in prison. No hearing dates have been scheduled.

___

Associated Press Writers Lawrence Messina and John Raby in Charleston contributed to this report.

More By Vicki Smith.

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

From Around the Web

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

Recommendations