Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090180
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MINE COMPANY NEARLY LOST VA. PERMITS IN '91
A company whose Wise County coal mine exploded Dec. 7, killing eight men, nearly lost state mining licenses in 1991 because of uncorrected environmental violations by one of its managers, state records show.And at Norton this morning, a special task force of citizens and industry and union representatives, named by Gov. Douglas Wilder to look into the explosion at Southmountain Coal Co.'s No. 3 mine, is to hold its first meeting.
During a hearing in November 1991, Southmountain Coal - headquartered in the Wise County town of Coeburn - avoided the loss of its surface-mine permits.
The company successfully argued that W. Ridley Elkins of Clintwood was not in charge at the mine but was a "consultant" to W. Jack Davis of Coeburn, the company's president. Elkins had ties to companies that had uncorrected violations of environmental laws.
Federal and state law prevents companies or people in charge of them who have a history of uncorrected environmental violations from obtaining mining permits.
Elkins was listed as general manager of Southmountain Coal Co. in records of the State Corporation Commission for 1990 and 1991 and in a 1990 legal identity report filed with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Elkins also had signed an application for a state license for the mine as the mine's operator.
Because of this and other evidence, the Virginia Division of Mined Land Reclamation ordered Southmountain in May 1991 to show why three permits it held to conduct surface-mining operations should not be revoked. Although the company mined coal underground, it couldn't operate without the permits for the surface area of the mine outside its entrance.
The state acted after the federal Office of Surface Mining's Big Stone Gap office alerted the reclamation agency, also headquartered in Big Stone Gap, in April 1991 that other companies in which Elkins had a controlling role had uncorrected violations of mine reclamation law and unpaid civil fines.
In December 1991, hearing officer John Lamie said evidence was insufficient to establish that Elkins either owned or controlled Southmountain Coal Co. and that the company's surface-mine permits had not been wrongly issued.
Lamie noted that SCC records and state and federal regulatory agency records showed Elkins as an officer of Southmountain Coal. He also noted that the minutes of the company's annual shareholders' meeting for 1988 through 1990 indicated Elkins had been elected an officer.
Various mine inspectors also had testified that they had talked with Elkins and were under the impression he exercised authority at the mine.
But Davis, owner of Southmountain and its parent companies, testified that Elkins did not own any of the company and said he had never told Elkins that he had been listed on SCC records as general manager.
Elkins testified he didn't know he had been listed as an officer of the corporation and said he hadn't read an application for a mine license that he signed as the mine's operator.
Lamie said he was disturbed that Elkins had signed the license application as the mine's operator, possibly an illegal act, but that Elkin's statement that he had not read what he had signed "was credible."
Elkins didn't have financial authority over the corporation nor authority to make final decisions about the mine's operation, Lamie said. "The evidence as a whole only indicated that William R. Elkins was a consultant for the mine operation of Southmountain Coal Co.," Lamie said in explaining his decision.
But in the wake of the explosion, investigators also were hearing that Elkins had played a management role at the Southmountain Mine. Part of the investigation of the explosion would involve determining exactly what Elkins' role at the mine was, said Mike Abbot, a spokesman for the Division of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
Elkins was out of the state Monday and could not be reached for comment. In the past, he has declined comment about the blast.
Davis testified that Elkins - whom he paid $200,000 to $240,000 a year from the account of another mining company he owned - advised him on the operation of Southmountain and other mining companies that he owned.
While Southmountain Coal's No. 3 mine had less than 50 employees and was considered a small mine, the corporation of which it was a part was by no means a small business.
Southmountain Coal Co. is owned by Apple Coal Co., which, in turn, is owned by Davis Mining and Manufacturing Co., Davis testified.
Davis owns 90 percent of Davis Mining and Manufacturing. The company is in explosives, equipment, wood and coal businesses and has roughly 30 subsidiaries, including Austin Powder Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, and Rish Equipment Co. of Charleston, W.Va.