PRICE — The bureaucratic and political phase of the tragic Crandall Canyon Mine collapse will proceed in earnest Wednesday with a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., and a group of Utah legislators visiting Price.
Utah legislators are scheduled to arrive in Price at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday as part of a bus tour of central and southern Utah. The group will discuss coal issues generally and plans to meet with both Carbon and Emery county commissioners about the Crandall Canyon collapse that, in addition to the human tragedy, is expected to have a significant economic impact on the two counties.
About 170 miners have lost jobs because of closures of mines operated by Murray Energy, operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine where six miners have been entombed since an Aug. 6 collapse and where three additional mine workers perished 10 days later while attempting a rescue.
Mine owner Robert Murray is an invited witness at the hearing. The United Mine Workers' international president, Cecil Roberts, is also a scheduled witness. The mining union has a unique role in the Crandall Canyon disaster, as its members were part of the rescue effort, and the union offered some representation on behalf of families of the lost miners.
The union also seeks forums to voice its objections to the way investigations are being structured by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Miners' families asked for the union to be a participant in the investigation, but that petition was denied.
Salt Lake lawyer Colin King is the families' legal representative and has been the media spokesman for the lost miners' families. He said Monday the union has a different role in representing family members.
"I see this as a goodwill effort on their part," he said of the union. "They obviously have their own agenda."
The union does not have an official role representing Crandall Canyon miners, who are nonunion, but it has a keen interest in MSHA's investigation, UMW spokesman Phil Smith said Monday.
Murray, a visible spokesman for the mine and miners' families immediately after the collapse, has recently removed himself from the public eye. Smith said he and likely many others are interested to see if Murray attends Wednesday's hearing in Washington.
"He said he would attend if his schedule allowed it," Smith said. "It will be interesting to see if he is there."
E-mail: sfidel@desnews.com