Salt Lake Tribune on Mining Wireless Deviceshttps://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6705638
Tragedy to hasten work on devices that can save lives
Messages of hope sent to miners on pager-like devices
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/24/2007 01:05:26 AM MDT
In the hours and days after the Crandall Canyon mine collapse, rescuers sent repeated messages to the pager-like devices carried by the six miners trapped in the mountain: We're coming.
No one knows, or will likely ever know, if the messages were received. And after more than two weeks of guesswork and punching a half-dozen holes, the miners still have not been found.
Emerging technology, however, could allow real-time tracking of miners' locations and potentially allow two-way wireless communication with miners underground. Such advances, in this case, could have wiped away any uncertainty.
"First, you would have been able to pinpoint the location of the miners," said Davitt McAteer, the former director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. "That would have been able to focus your energy and efforts right there. Second, you could have made a more informed judgment [about the rescue]."
Without that information, mine operators and federal regulators spent painful days punching hole after fruitless hole in a practice that mine co-owner Robert Murray referred to as "trial and error." And three rescuers were killed with six others injured trying to dig through caved-in tunnels without any idea where the miners were trapped or whether they were alive.
"If you knew where those fellows were, that would have created a whole different dynamic," McAteer said.
Last year, in the wake of the Sago and other mine disasters, Congress passed the Miner Act, which set a three-year deadline for all U.S. mines to install some sort of communication system - ideally a two-way wireless system - that could withstand a mine disaster.
West Virginia set tighter deadlines, with companies expected to start installing systems by the end of the year.
The Crandall Canyon miners were equipped with personal emergency devices - or PEDs - one-way text message devices that have proven life-saving.
In 1998, a fire broke out in the Willow Creek mine near Price and the entire crew was evacuated within 45 minutes. Less than two years later, a series of explosions erupted in the same mine. Two men were killed in the initial explosions, but evacuation alerts allowed the rest of the miners to escape.
Despite the success, there was no requirement that mines use the system and few mines have them today, although they could have been life-saving in both Sago and the Aracoma Alma mine disasters in West Virginia.
In Utah, mining coal under 3,000 feet of mountain makes communicating difficult. So, rather than trying to blast signals through the earth, several companies are looking at relaying signals along the mine tunnels.
Helicomm Inc., based in Carlsbad, Calif., has built a system similar to an underground cell-phone network, which relays wireless signals from receiver to receiver until it reaches the servers outside the mine. The display shows a miner's location within 100 feet and updates every 30 seconds.
"What we can do is actually look down in the mine and see what's going on, know where everyone is with some pretty good precision," said Ken Hill, director of sales for Helicomm.
The technology is installed in a demonstration mine in West Virginia.
Virginia-based InSeT Systems' chief technology officer, Russell Breeding, who spent years on Navy submarines, developed a wireless tracking device using the same technology in the sub's missile guidance systems.
The system can pinpoint the location of miners within three meters at any second, and works on a "mesh" system with multiple lines of communication designed to help it withstand potential disasters.
"We expect to have damage and our system is designed for worst-case operations," said Breeding, who last month conducted an underground demonstration at American Century mine in Ohio, which is owned by Murray. "The goal in this whole thing is to get something on these guys to make sure stuff doesn't keep happening."
J. Brett Harvey, president of Consol Energy Inc., which operates 20 mines, including several in Utah, said that communication technology is one area Congress should look at after Crandall Canyon.
But his company has been working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to test systems and, "Our main conclusion was that there was no silver bullet technology yet available - meaning no one technology worked in all situations," Harvey said at the annual Utah Mining Association conference Thursday.
NIOSH has tested more than 60 communication and tracking designs and reported that "presently no system has been demonstrated that meets the most basic requirement for emergency communications."
There is reason for optimism, the agency said, but it's unlikely that any system will be able to reach all parts of the mine or survive the worst disasters, and implementation could take two to three years.
"I think everyone understands there is a compelling need for this and it's an area where we've been trying to put a lot of emphasis," said Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association. "I think in the interim, everyone is looking and is improving what they have already. So it's certainly better than it was; it's not as good as it could be."
But McAteer says that mine operators shouldn't wait to install the best system just because no perfect system is available.
"The problem one has is that the amount of information you have from underground is quite limited," he said. "The more information you can get, the better your chances of being successful or knowing when to stop."
gehrke@sltrib.com