CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As the search for three missing people in an abandoned Raleigh County mine continues, Senior Vice President of the West Virginia Coal Association Chris Hamilton was adamant at the West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety meeting that something needs to be done to try and buck the recent trend of individuals heading in abandoned mines.
Hamilton suggested at the meeting in Charleston on Wednesday to take ideas to federal prosecutors and the legislature of increasing the consequences for someone found breaking into unused mining land.
“We’re very serious about approaching the legislature to try to raise the penalties associated with this,” Hamilton said. “It’s basically a crime that is being committed here.
“I don’t know if felony penalties are in order here or some kind of incarceration but we are going to talk to prosecutors or legislatures and see what can be done.”
The discussions are heating up following a recent string of abandoned mine break-ins, including the most recent incident over the weekend in Raleigh County that has left two women and one man missing inside the Elk Run Coal Company’s Rock House Powellton Mine near Clear Creek. One man that entered with the missing three, came out of the mine on Monday.
According to Raleigh County Sheriff Scott Van Meter, Eddie Williams, 43, of Artie exited the mine on Monday night after entering with Erica Treadway, 31, of Pax, Kayla Williams, 25, of Artie, and Cody Beverly, 21, of Dorothy on Saturday. Williams is working with law enforcement in the search for the other three.
In a release by Governor Jim Justice on Wednesday, he stated that multiple teams of rescuers from Miners’ Health, Safety and Training and Alpha Natural Resources have reentered the mine Wednesday morning. He continued by saying a four-man team had entered the main portal on the Boone County side of the mine, aided by four team members who are guiding the effort from the surface, and two four-man teams have entered the mine from the Rock House entrance in Raleigh County, with support on the surface.
“We are very concerned as an industry and our board is concerned about these individuals,” Hamilton said. “We are also concerned about the mine rescue teams that are placed in harm’s way that are called upon to search and locate these individuals.”
Hamilton noted that there are already strict federal and state standards for sealing closed mines to try and prevent situations like the one in Raleigh County from happening.
“These regulations deal with the thickness of the Earth material or the construction and design of the seal and a lot of instances it is the combination of the two,” he said. “If you have shaft or slope, for instance, you’ll find that it is virtually caved in intentionally and a thick concrete pad then is placed.”
Less than a month ago, mine rescue teams went looking for a man suspected to be in an abandoned Blackhawk mine near Wharton, Boone County.
The board meeting takes place every month but not everyone was at the meeting on Wednesday due to circumstances near Clear Creek. Hamilton said they will discuss more of the abandoned mine issues at the next meeting once they have a full boardroom.