Dan Froomkin has a good write-up of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) failure to release certain notes related to violations that Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine was cited for in the past year. The Upper Big Branch Mine was the site of the worst coal mining disaster in the United States in the past forty years.

The Charleston Gazette's award-winning mining beat reporter Ken Ward Jr. first reported about the inspector's notes late Tuesday, describing them as being among a "dribble" of documents that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, pronounced em-sha) is finally releasing to the public "as federal and state officials begin a long and complex effort to figure out what caused the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in 40 years."

The violation the inspector described in his notes was fixed later that same day; the company was cited for "unwarrantable failure" to follow safety rules and fined a hefty $70,000.

But the inspector's notes -- a particularly valuable source of information that the government used to routinely make available on request -- weren't released to members of the public or to journalists until more than a week after the mine exploded.

If those notes had been available, journalists like Ken Ward or Ellen Smith (the managing editor of Mine Safety and Health News) or someone else just might have brought some much-needed attention to Massey's evidently casual attitude toward such a life-threatening issue. And maybe a disaster would have been averted.

"This is life and death stuff," said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists. "And by withholding this information from the public domain, the government's capacity to spur corrective action was blocked."

Ken Ward, Jr. points to a statement by Sen. Jay Rockefeller calling for Senate hearings on the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster and asks if Rockefeller or other West Virginia lawmakers will call for an open Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigation:

Will members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation take the important step of demanding that MSHA and the state hold this investigation out in the open, so everyone can see what is said, what questions were asked, and why 29 men had to die?

And if they do and MSHA refuses, will the delegation force Congress to convene field hearings that will serve that same purpose?

Rockefeller would like to convene hearings in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). This report from MapLight.org highlights another reason to call for open MSHA hearings in addition to congressional hearings. The mining industry has showered HELP Committee members with campaign contributions over the years:

Members of the Senate HELP Committee received 122 percent more from the mining interests than from the unions (see table below). Only three Committee members represent states that have a significant mining industry. Sen. Murray received more than twice as much money from mining interests than any other Democrat on the committee, although her state of Washington is not ranked as a top mining industry state.

In the comments section on yesterday's post, Arasmus gave another good reason for holding open MSHA hearings:

One good reason to televise the investigation is to expose the details to class-action plaintiff lawyers. In the event that the investigation reveals corporate culpability, redress for the workers can be achieved by litigation taken on their behalf. Workers usually have less resources to finance litigation than the corporation. Exposing the facts of the case as determined by the investigation would allow plaintiff-law firms (which take cases on contingency based on their estimation as to the probability of victory) to quickly and at a low cost determine whether this is a case that they would be willing to finance until a final judgment. Accordingly, transparency in this case would play a role in raising the cost of non-compliance with health and safety regulations in the future.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="274" caption="Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, WV"][/caption]

The Upper Big Branch Mine that suffered the most serious mining disaster since 1984 on Monday has received the most serious citations from the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in 2009 of all Massey Energy-owned mines in West Virginia. Data collected from MSHA shows that over the course of the last year, the Upper Big Branch Mine received 48 "unwarrantable failure orders," far exceeding Massey Energy's number two recipient of serious citations in West Virginia.

On Monday, 25 miners were killed and left four others trapped underground at the Upper Big Branch Mine. It is the worst mining disaster in the United States since 1984 and, if the four trapped miners are not rescued, would become the worst since 1970. The Washington Post reports, "[t]he cause of Monday's explosion has not been determined, but a buildup of methane or coal dust was considered the likeliest culprit."

The Upper Big Branch mine received 39 violations in 2009 citing a failure to plan for ventilation to extract methane and other chemicals. Fifteen of these were considered "significant and substantial." In July of 2009, the mine received its largest monetary fine of the year ($66,142) for allowing the accumulation of combustible materials in working spaces. Upper Big Branch received 34 similar violations citing accumulation of combustible materials, 20 of which were determined to be "significant and substantial."

Massey Energy has contested nearly all major citations issued against the Upper Big Branch Mine in 2009 and has paid less than 20% of the fines levied against them. Of the top 100 fines levied against the Upper Big Branch Mine in 2009, Massey Energy has contested or are delinquent in paying 85% of them. Upper Big Branch was also cited for 202 violations that were considered "significant and substantial." Seventy-six percent of those have either been contested or Massey Energy is delinquent in paying them.

The only West Virginia mine owned by Massey Energy with a recent problem with MSHA violations that even compares to the Upper Big Branch mine is the Ruby Energy mine in Mingo, West Virginia. Where Upper Big Branch received a total of 515 citations for fines totaling $897,325 in 2009, Ruby Energy received 573 citations with fines reaching $1,668,408 over the same period. The key difference is that Ruby Energy received 15 "unwarrantable failure orders" while Upper Big Branch received 48.

Serious violations have continued to occur at Upper Big Branch this year. The Charleston Daily Mail reported after Monday's mining explosion that, "Two citations from January for not having a proper plan to ventilate the mine, extracting methane and other chemicals from the air, could cost Massey more than $130,000 in fines."

All data was obtained from the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Web site. Data on mines, ownership and location were made available under the Open Government Directive (OGD). Mine safety data, while available online, was not available in an easily downloadable format.