Owner of W.Va. coal mine agrees to pay a $209 million penalty for fatal explosion [View all]

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"The owner of a rogue coal mine in West Virginia — where sparking machinery and built-up gases led to an explosion that killed 29 men last year — has agreed to pay a record $209 million penalty and make historic changes to protect miners from harm, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The settlement with Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, which bought the parent company of the mine, Massey Energy, is more than 40 times larger than any previous fine for a coal disaster. It came 20 months after the blast at the Upper Big Branch mine, the worst U.S. mining disaster in 40 years.

Also Tuesday, a new government report detailed the world inside the mine on April 5, 2010 — where modern men went underground to face problems out of the 19th century. Miners worked amid pockets of neck-high water and buildups of explosive methane and coal dust. Their bosses kept two sets of safety logs, a real one and a fake one to show government inspectors.

“If basic safety measures had been in place,” said the report, from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, there would have been no loss of life.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/owner-of-wva-coal-mine-agrees-to-pay-a-209-million-penalty-for-fatal-explosion/2011/12/06/gIQA166xaO_story.html