Owners of the Hidden Treasure mine that held 10-year-old Joshua Dennis captive for five days have promised state officials they will once again seal the mine to prevent further accidents.
"It was sealed three years ago but obviously not well enough," said Mary Ann Wright, administrator of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. Sharon Steel, the owner of the mine, also posted no trespassing signs about the property. A small hole in the top of the tunnel was breached either by erosion or persistent explorers.Wright said the state has no immediate plans to seal any of the other hundreds of mine shafts and tunnels in the Oquirrh Mountains. "It's a massive proj-ect," she said. "But we haven't even begun to inventory the mines there yet."
Utah is in the midst of a $384,000 proj-ect to seal 600 mines along the Wasatch Front. "Those mines have a much higher visitation (than the Tooele County mines) and are a higher priority," she said.
Joshua Dennis was among about 30 Boy Scouts and adult leaders who began exploring the mine tunnel the night of Sept. 22. When the boys exited the tunnel, Joshua was not among them.
He was pulled from the mine five days later by a crack Utah Power & Light mine-rescue team.
Utah coal production companies, like UP&L, pay a 15-cent per ton royalty on coal that is then used for mine reclamation. Most of that money is earmarked for coal mine reclamation, but the governor can request the Secretary of Interior to transfer the royalty payments to mineral mine reclamation, as was the case with the Wasatch Mountain reclamation project.
Utah receives about $750,000 a year in royalty payments. There are about 5,000 abandoned mines in Utah and about 10,000 mine openings.
Closure of the mineral mines is primarily for safety considerations. "We closed up some of the worst ones last summer," she said. "Until then, search and rescue teams were pulling people out all the time."
A Utah law in effect since 1975 requires that mine openings be sealed upon abandonment. However, the law is not retroactive to those thousands of mines already abandoned and posing safety hazards.
Meanwhile, the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed its position Thursday discouraging Scouts from any and all activities considered hazardous, including mine exploration.
"We do not want our boys to enter unknown or unsafe environments like caves or mines, except for operating mines and caves open to the public," said Hart Bullock, Council Scout executive. "Our policy as far as mines go is to stay out of unsafe or abandoned mines."
While there are certain activities that are categorically prohibited, Bullock said the Boy Scout organization is flexible about its activities. Activities that are banned under all conditions include motorized speed racing, demolition derbies, skydiving and operating mechanical log splitters or all-terrain vehicles.
Prohibition of other activities, including mine and cave exploration, fall under the more subjective policy of what leaders consider hazardous. "We can't say to kids, `don't go hiking, don't go camping, don't float rivers.' The leaders make a determination whether activities are high risk."
The Boy Scouts of America also require that Scout leaders be experienced in the activities they and the Scouts are involved in, and to have adequate adult supervision, Bullock said.
In the Treasure Mine incident, the Scout leaders met both requirements. "They more than exceeded what we would have asked," he said. "They had about two leaders per boy, and they had been in the mine before. It (Joshua's disappearance) wasn't the mine's fault. It was just something that happened."
Bullock believes that mine exploration is not a common activity in Utah, adding the Boy Scout Council has always discouraged it. "I don't know of any that have done it. But I'm not saying it doesn't happen. After all, we have 3,000 Scouting units in this state," he said. "Tunnels have an attractiveness to some people."
Bullock added that Cub Scouts like Joshua almost never participate with older Boy Scouts. Joshua accompanied the older Scouts only because he was son of one of the Scout leaders.
"Normally, you would not see 10-year-old kids going into mines under any conditions," he said. "Even in a safe cave environment, the younger Boy Scouts, the 11-year-olds, don't go in."