Massey firm to plead guilty in mine deaths

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Massey Energy subsidiary has admitted to criminal safety violations that caused the deaths of two Logan County coal miners in a January 2006 fire, federal prosecutors revealed Tuesday.

Massey's Aracoma Coal Co. has agreed to plead guilty to 10 criminal charges, including one felony, and pay $2.5 million in criminal fines, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Aracoma agreed to plead guilty to not providing a proper escape tunnel out of the underground mine, to not conducting required evacuation drills, and to faking a record book so it appeared the drills had been done.

Aracoma is at least the fourth subsidiary of Massey to plead guilty in the last five years to criminal violations of federal environmental or safety laws.


In 2003, Independence Coal Co. and Omar Mining Co. each paid $200,000 in fines after pleading guilty to criminal Clean Water Act violations related to illegal spills of mining waste into Boone County streams. And in July 2007, White Buck Coal Co. agreed to a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of not making sure a mine was safe before workers went underground.

Also, in January 2008, Massey agreed to a record $20 million civil fine to settle a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawsuit that accused the company of thousands of water pollution violations across the Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky coalfields.