Massey’s foray into Pennsylvania causes worry
0 Comments | Tribune – Review / Pittsburgh Tribune – Review, Jul 25, 2010 | by Chris Togneri
Through fires and floods and financial woes, Ron Mason toiled underground for 29 years in the old Mathies Mine in northern Washington County.
Then in 2002, Mon View Mining Co. filed for bankruptcy, locked the gates and told miners as they showed up for work that there was no more work.
“And that was all they said,” said Mason, 61, of Monongahela. “It was hard. You just lost a job you worked at all those years, making good wages. Now you had nothing.”
For miners like Mason, who is retired, cutting coal is a way of life. The camaraderie, the good pay, the sense of purpose that comes from working in an industry that provides America with half its energy — all are part of the allure, he said.
Yet, with the Mathies Mine poised for a comeback, Mason and others aren’t sure if that’s a good thing.
Their concern lies with the new owner.
Massey Energy Co. bought the mine in May in federal bankruptcy court in Pittsburgh. Mathies has 10 million to 13 million tons of recoverable coal, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and Massey officials said they will apply for required operating permits immediately.
It will be Massey’s first mine in Pennsylvania.
The Richmond, Va.-based company operates 35 mines in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia — including Upper Big Branch in Montcoal, W.Va., where an April 5 explosion killed 29 men and injured two, making it the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. Over the past decade, Massey has amassed an industry-leading 54 deaths.
“I’d go back and work in that mine, without a doubt, but not if it’s Massey. They have a history of unsafe conditions,” Mason said.
The cause of the April explosion is undetermined, and Upper Big Branch remains closed.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship declined interview requests. He and other Massey officials have defended Massey’s safety record, and a company spokesman said Massey will become a good neighbor in Washington County.
“Massey Energy is committed to supporting the people in the communities in which we work and live,” spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said in an e-mail. “We live here, we work here, we give here — and that’s why we support education, health and wellness programs, as well as strengthen the local economy.”
Not everyone is sold.
Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, said Massey’s arrival in Pennsylvania is worrisome. The committee last week approved legislation aimed at protecting miners and cracking down on rogue mine operators who flout the law.
“Massey has a demonstrated record of safety violations that exceeds — far exceeds — anyone else in the industry,” Altmire said after a recent hearing in Washington on the mine safety bill. “I’d be very concerned.”
In places such as Union Township, Finleyville, New Eagle and Monongahela — small towns tucked into heavily-wooded valleys wending through the coal-rich hills to the shores of the Monongahela River — residents, former miners and political leaders acknowledge they, too, have concerns. But the area is starved for jobs, they said, and any investment is welcome. Pennsylvania’s June unemployment rate was 9.2 percent; officials with the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee did not know the unemployment rate there.
“Any industry or business that creates jobs, that has to be a boost to the local economy,” said Tim Kegel, Finleyville Council president who owns a funeral home. “Let’s just do it right. This could be a win-win situation, if it’s operated the right way.”
Massey officials did not give a timeline for reopening the mine. It is seeking required permits from state and federal regulators and will “begin operations when the market dictates,” Gillenwater said.
Left unattended, the mine flooded. Most buildings once on-site were demolished. The gate, fronting Route 88 between New Eagle and Finleyville, is padlocked. A barbed-wire-topped fence surrounding the property has several signs warning would-be trespassers that “Mines are not playgrounds.” A few hundred feet away, two ponds are visible from the shoulder of the highway
filing for bankruptcy
