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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,951 posts)
Mon Oct 23, 2017, 04:36 PM Oct 2017

Wyoming mine had dozens of violations for safety before miner's death -- but what that indicates is

BRIDGER COAL MINE

Wyoming mine had dozens of violations for safety before miner's death -- but what that indicates is still unclear

Heather Richards 307-266-0592, Heather.Richards@trib.com Oct 21, 2017 Updated 3 hrs ago



Cliffs tower over the entrance to the underground mine at the Jim Bridger Coal Mine northeast of Rock Springs in 2008.
File, Star-Tribune

The southwest Wyoming mine where a worker died last month after being buried in coal has been fined for roof and wall safety issues more than 60 times since 2010, federal mine safety data shows.

Regulators most recently fined the Bridger underground coal mine in May, when inspectors discovered a collapse in a region of the mine where no miners were present.

Jaime Olivas, a 39-year-old father of two, died Sept. 28, an hour and a half after being buried in coal that rolled from the wall of an underground mine near Rock Springs, a state mining regular said.

Bridger, owned by the utility Rocky Mountain Power, is the only underground coal mine in Wyoming. Federal inspections found 80 violations at the underground mine so far in 2017.
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