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Utah agency will release collapsed mine records

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  1. Freedom of Information
Amazingly, even after six miners and three rescuers died in the Crandall Canyon mine out in Utah last August, one…

Amazingly, even after six miners and three rescuers died in the Crandall Canyon mine out in Utah last August, one of the mine’s owners has had the gall to suggest that records relating to the mine’s operation should not be disclosed to the public.

As Robert Murray — one of the mine’s owners — sees it, releasing such records would not serve the public interest to an extent that would outweigh the corresponding harm suffered by the mine’s ownership.

Since it would seem reasonable to believe that how the Crandall Canyon mine was operated would, in fact, relate directly to the type of tragedy that occurred within the mine in August, one then wonders how many people must die, in the mine owner’s estimation, for the public’s interest to be sufficiently at issue?

In sweeping aside this hogwash of an argument, the general manager of the Intermountain Power Agency, a Utah state agency that possesses the records requested by The Salt Lake Tribune, noted the Crandall Canyon mine is closed and therefore will not suffer any harm if the records are released. 

The IPA’s rebuke almost seems beside the point, given the tragic loss of life that occurred as a result of the accident and the dire need to investigate every detail that may have led to the mine’s collapse. While the IPA’s decision to release the records is not only sensible but imperative, it is nonetheless appalling that Murray would take such an obstructive posture given the circumstances.

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