By Ellen Smith, Mine Safety and Health News
 
     Surviving miners and their families, the press, or any citizen for that matter, will probably  not be able to get very much information from the Mine Safety and Health Administration on the Sago Mine tragedy.

     There will be limited details available, but for anyone looking to delve into what really happened on

Jan. 2, 2006 , the full details of that day or what happened in the months preceding the mine disaster, may never fully be brought to light.

     This is because under the Bush administration, things are different when it comes to getting information from MSHA. 

     Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),  miners and their families, mine operators, reporters, concerned citizen were once able to obtain factual information as an accident investigation progressed. Under the Pre-Bush MSHA, which includes the administrations of Clinton , Bush Sr., and Reagan, “matters of record” had been made public during accident investigations. 

     This information, including witness interviews, laboratory results, MSHA-approved mine plans, inspector notes and inspection memos from before the accident is important. You can’t avoid a mine tragedy in the future if you don’t know what went wrong.

     In the past, as information became available, MSHA released factual records after the 1984 Wilberg Mine fire in Utah, the 1989 Pyro Mine explosion in Kentucky, the 1992 Southmountain Mine explosion in Virginia, the 1993 Magma Copper raise collapse in Arizona, the 1999 Kaiser Aluminum plant explosion in Louisiana, and some information from the early phases of its investigation into the 2000 Martin County coal mine impoundment failure in Kentucky.

     The first time that MSHA would not release miner witness interviews came after the Sept. 24, 2001 Jim Walters Resources Mine explosion, which killed 13 miners – a mine tragedy over-shadowed by the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks. At that time, perhaps the press did not understand the change in MSHA’s FOIA policy or what it would mean in the future.

     Then, two years ago, without public comment or input, MSHA secretly changed its long-standing policy of routinely releasing MSHA inspectors’ notes, and information from noise and dust surveys made at mine operations.

     While this secret policy change has drawn ire from both the mining industry and labor, and needless to say, the press, MSHA refuses to change its policy, claiming that releasing this information would “interfere with law enforcement.” MSHA has asserted it can withhold this information “until all possibility of litigation has been exhausted.”

     What this means is that concerned individuals outside of MSHA will likely have no chance to examine raw evidence from the Sago disaster, and reach their own conclusions.

     But even if we wait until all legal proceedings have concluded to see the full factual record, the record still may not be made public, as the nation witnessed when the Labor Dept.  redacted (blacked out) 50% of an Inspector General’s report on issues surrounding an alleged cover-up into the MSHA investigation of the Martin County Coal Impoundment failure.

     MSHA claims that it has changed its policy so it  “does what OSHA and other enforcement agencies in DOL do.”  In fact, OSHA attorneys say this information that MSHA withholds is in fact made available.

     Even if other agencies do withhold factual information, why not make those agencies more FOIA friendly as MSHA had been in the pre-Bush years? Why not make “the pre-Bush MSHA” the model for freedom of information?
     A return to the former practice would be right, healthy and help keep the government up to the mark through greater public scrutiny. It would also help to restore the trust of a public increasingly unhappy with government secrecy and especially upset about mismanagement of the bad news at the Sago Mine.

     This nation has a right to know what happened at Sago. This nation, and the mining community, has a right to know what happened in the months preceding this disaster and how MSHA inspectors and the mine operator made decisions. This nation has a right to know, or have experts view, the factual records that may show engineering problems or ventilation problems that played a role in the explosion. This nation has a right to know on what basis MSHA made a decision – any decision. 

     We the people have a right to know.