Mining company agrees to pay $209M for Upper Big Branch disaster

Alpha Natural Resources agreed to pay $209 million in connection with a 2010 explosion at a West Virginia mine that killed 29 workers, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

“While we continue to investigate individuals associated with this tragedy, this historic agreement – one of the largest payments ever for workplace safety crimes of any type – will help to create safer work environments for miners in West Virginia and across the country,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

Alpha, one of the country’s largest mining companies, merged earlier this year with Massey Energy, the operator of the Upper Big Branch mine that exploded on April 5, 2010.

{mosads}The agreement addresses Alpha’s “corporate criminal liability,” the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday. But it leaves open the possibility that former Massey executives could be brought up on criminal charges.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis praised the agreement Tuesday, but vowed to continue working with the Justice Department to address criminal wrongdoing by Massey executives.

“While this agreement covers corporate prosecution, my department will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice to address any individual criminal wrongdoing uncovered by ongoing federal investigations,” she said. “Anyone determined to have violated a criminal statute in connection with Upper Big Branch should be brought to justice.”

Under the agreement, which the Justice Department called “the largest-ever resolution in a criminal investigation of a mine disaster,” Alpha will spend $80 million to improve safety at its mines and put $48 million in a trust for mine safety research.

The company also agreed to pay victims’s families $1.5 million each, as well as $34.8 million in fines to federal mining regulators.

The settlement comes on the same day that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is expected to unveil its investigation into the Upper Big Branch disaster.

A panel of independent experts blamed Massey Energy, the operator of the Upper Big Branch mine at the time of the explosion, for the disaster in a report released earlier this year.

“Ultimately, the responsibility for the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine lies with the management of Massey Energy,” said the report, which was conducted by J. Davitt McAteer, who served as the assistant secretary for MSHA during the Clinton administration.

“The company broke faith with its workers by frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices while creating a public perception that its operations exceeded industry standards.”