HUNTINGTON — As rescuers drilled what will likely be a final hole bored into a mountain to search for six missing miners, the U.S. Senate added its voice Thursday to a growing chorus of questions raised over the safety of the coal mine.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees labor issues announced plans to hold the first oversight hearing about the mine collapse when Congress returns from its summer break Sept. 5.
Among those the subcommittee hopes will attend: mine co-owner Bob Murray and Mine Safety and Health Administration chief Richard Stickler.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also on Thursday demanded a laundry list of documents from the Labor Department about the Crandall Canyon Mine and its operators.
The documents Kennedy requested include several petitions Murray made to MSHA for changes in his mining plans at Crandall Canyon. Experts have said those changes were risky and could have led to the collapse that trapped six miners.
Company officials did not immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
Meanwhile, efforts to punch a sixth test hole into the mountain continued in central Utah. Officials have little hope it will find the men, who have not been seen since Aug. 6, and have little to go on: grainy video images, air sample readings and a bit of guess work. If there's no luck, Murray has said the mountain will be closed.
Also Thursday, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said the bodies need to be removed from the mine. "I do think the way the families have been treated is unconscionable," Huntsman said.
Relatives the men are holding out hope the sixth borehole will provide the miracle they've craved for more than two weeks. Other holes drilled into the Crandall Canyon mine have failed to reveal signs of life.
Jackie Taylor, whose daughter Lacee dates one of the six men missing since an Aug. 6 cave-in, said relatives and friends are insisting that more be done. Even though three men died trying to tunnel toward the miners, she said area mine workers are willing to continue the work.
"They're here, they'll help the mine rescuers, they're waiting to help if they'll let them," Taylor said Wednesday. "And we are so grateful for the rescuers and everyone that has helped us. We are so grateful, don't get us wrong."
Punching through the fifth borehole Wednesday, rescuers found only a 6-inch void in the mine 1,500 feet down, federal officials said.
No noise was heard from the hole after a microphone was lowered and workers banged on the drill steel, said Jack Kuzar, a district manager for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. A video camera had not yet been put down the hole, nor had oxygen readings been measured, Kuzar said.
Attempts to tunnel through the broken mine shaft toward the miners were halted after a second cave-in killed two miners and a federal safety officer. Six others were injured.
Sonny J. Olsen, a lawyer and spokesman for relatives of the miners, said the families don't want the search to end until the men are found.
"Regardless if it takes three months to wait for the seismic activity to stop, they want some method to go down and get their families," Olsen said.
Taylor, who said she had a shouting match with Murray during a Monday night meeting with families, said the mine owner is reneging on his promise to return the men to their families dead or alive.
"I didn't desert anybody," Murray told The Associated Press. "I've been living on this mountain every day, living in a little trailer."
Families are also angry at Murray over the suspended tunneling and the decision against digging a hole big enough for a rescue capsule to be lowered. Other critics and mine experts have questioned whether mining should have been conducted at Crandall Canyon at all because of the potential for collapses.
Murray said it's up to federal officials to decide when the mine can be sealed after it completes its investigation.
He said he would not resume mining at the Crandall Canyon mine. "I can tell you right now, we are not going back into that mountain," he said.
If investigators can't get to the point of the collapse's origin, Kuzar said, "we will never really know what happened."
Associated Press writers Jennifer Talhelm in Washington, Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City and Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Rubinkam and Jessica Gresko in Huntington contributed to this report.