Bush Administration Mining Deregulation Program and Stickler recess appointment killed people in Crandall Canyon

Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.
But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray's assertion, and show that Murray's company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers - thick walls of coal that run on both sides
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America, the Undeveloping Nation

Several times a day, Roger Thacker hauls 5-gallon buckets of water about 50 yards uphill to his mobile home so his family can bathe and do laundry.

It's a grueling daily chore that keeps local families like Thacker's trapped in a 19th century time warp, years after the rest of the country stopped considering running water a modern convenience.

About 85 households along an 8-mile stretch called Ridgeline Road have electricity and phone lines but lack running water. The wells many once relied on for clean water are no longer usable, local residents say, because they have dried up or been contaminated by nearby coal mining.