Massey Energy Saga Continues, And So Do the Lessons We Can Learn

Epilogue: There's almost always a price to pay for ignoring smoldering crises. Or in this instance, actually inviting a sudden crisis.

Case in point is Massey Energy and its Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 men died in an explosion in 2010. I've written the story to death in this blog for some 18 months. One manager awaits sentencing, an investigation into other possible arrests continues, and the company was sold cheap early this year to Alpha Natural Resources. Massey's CEO was forced to retire a year ago and, if he's not trembling in his boots, he should be. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration released its final report on its investigation of Massey yesterday. Alpha will have to pay a $210 million settlement.

"The report by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration found 369 safety violations at the Upper Big Branch mine, though most weren’t considered contributing factors in the April 2010 explosion. Fines related to the violations account for $10.8 million of the settlement, which also includes compensation for victims’ families and funds to improve underground mining safety." (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111206/NEWS01/312060120/West-Virginia-coal-mine-violoations)

The investigation found “systematic, intentional and aggressive efforts” by Massey and its subsidiary, Performance Coal Co., to hide safety problems from regulators. "It did that by maintaining two sets of safety inspection record books, one with faked data giving the impression there were minimal concerns, and a more accurate, production-oriented record the company used to keep the coal flowing."

The report also accuses the company of intimidating workers who reported safety issues.


"Performance Coal President Chris Blanchard told one miner, 'If you don’t start running coal up there, I’m going to bring the whole crew outside and get rid of every one of you,' the report recounts. MSHA says interviews also revealed that a top company official suspended a section foreman who delayed production for one or two hours to make safety corrections."

“Massey knew or should have known about all of these hazards but failed to take corrective action to prevent a catastrophic accident,” the report says.

Now there's a great quote! Read it again. How many of our organizations know about a problem but fail to correct it? And how many don't know about problems because they don't have "sniffers" in place to identify them? That's what a smoldering crisis is.

Failing to obey laws and standard operating procedures should be pretty easy to spot. The issue is, what are you going to do about it? And for harder-to-spot smoldering crises, your organization needs a system in place to identify them and a management resolve to correct them.