Published: Wednesday, 5th December, 2007 09:30
Consortium wants study into mine flood
By Jamie MacDonald
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THE Scottish Mineworkers Consortium is claiming that miners lives could be at risk due to a continued lack of research into the flooding of Longannet Colliery, near Kincardine.
Longannet flooded over five years ago, on Saturday 23 March 2002, and since then it has remained closed, with millions of gallons of water lying in the colliery.
Fortunately, the flooding at Longannet occurred whilst the mine was empty.
But it is still unclear exactly what caused the flood – theories include water escaping from one of the dams in the mine – and the consortium believe that establishing what happened is crucial to preventing future floods.
Jim Parker, of the Scottish Mineworkers Consortium, told the Advertiser, “There are many mines where miners are working daily in underground areas which are protected from major flooding by dams installed to hold back huge quantities of water at high pressures.
“Any responsible politician should be demanding that Longannet mine be de-watered, if for no other reason than to prevent a similar, and perhaps much more serious, incident hap-pening elsewhere in the industry.”
During the flood, it is believed that 3.6 million gallons of water rushed into the pit within a 20-minute period.
In last week’s Advertiser, Mr Parker spoke of his wish to see Longannet mine re-opened to take advantage of the massive coal reserves in the area.
He said, “With the force the water rushes in miners wouldn’t have a chance. Even if you don’t agree with re-opening the mine finding out what happened could save lives.”
The consortium have written to a number of politicians including Gordon Brown, Alex Salmond and Annabel Goldie but it appears the cost of de-watering and making the mine secure for a comprehensive study is not an appealing one to many politicians.
Longannet lies in the constituency of Jim Tolson the MSP for Dunfermline West.
He said, “I can understand where Mr Parker is coming from but if it wasn’t feasible to do the study at the time I’m not sure what would have changed.
“I’d expect it to be very, very costly and if taxpayers money is to be spent on it we would want to see a return.”
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