CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The former head of a federal mine safety school alleges that Bush administration appointees halted an investigation of a coal mine sludge spill that polluted about 100 miles of creeks and rivers along the Kentucky-West Virginia state line.
The bottom of a coal mine waste impoundment collapsed into an abandoned underground mine near Inez, Ky., in October 2000. An estimated 250 million to 300 million gallons of water, coal and rock particles poured out of the mine, killing fish and fouling drinking water supplies.
Jack Spadaro, former superintendent of the federal Mine Health and Safety Academy at Beckley and member of the team that investigated the spill, says the investigation showed Martin County Coal Corp., a Massey Energy Inc. subsidiary, knew its containment was weak.
Spadaro, who has been a frequent critic of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration operations, told CBS' ``60 Minutes'' for a report airing Sunday that the agency interfered with the investigation.
In 2001, Spadaro resigned from the team investigating the spill in eastern Kentucky's Martin County because he felt that MSHA, a division of the Department of Labor, was trying to cover up its own role in overlooking previous violations at the impoundment.
``The Bush administration came in and the scope of our investigation was considerably shortened,'' Spadaro said. ``I had never seen something so corrupt and lawless in my entire career ... interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern United States.''
Spadaro told CBS that Massey Energy was going to be cited for serious violations that could have resulted in large fines and criminal charges, and that MSHA itself was going to be accused of failure to regulate Massey's impoundment.
MSHA officials did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Saturday.
Last year, MSHA dropped six of eight proposed citations against Massey Energy, the Department of Labor's Inspector General said.
MSHA told Spadaro earlier this year that he was being demoted from his superintendent position at the mine academy and transferred to the agency's technical center in Pittsburgh.
The demotion followed an MSHA investigation into allegations that Spadaro had abused his authority, failed to follow orders and proper procedures and misused a government credit card by taking unauthorized cash advances that cost the government $22.60 in bank fees.
MSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary John Correll upheld 13 of the 15 allegations against Spadaro, saying he had ``flouted government regulations and agency policies in a variety of issues,'' The Charleston Gazette reported in February.
Spadaro said he was punished for not going along with the shortened spill report and because he complained about training contracts MSHA awarded without following proper bidding procedures.
A Massey Energy spokeswoman said the company had no role in any action MSHA took against Spadaro and declined to comment further.
The company agreed to pay Kentucky $1.75 million in civil penalties, $1 million for environmental damages and $500,000 for the state's costs to clean up the spill. It also was fined $225,000 by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Service and $110,000 by MSHA, and agreed last year to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by West Virginia.
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