A United States Attorney has charged another former supervisor and safety official of Armstrong Coal, in addition to the original 8 indicted by a federal grand jury, in relation to dishonesty of dust testing in the Parkway Mine of Muhlenberg County.
According to a news release, the indictment alleges that the conspirators sought to deceive federal mine safety regulators as to the daily levels of breathable dust at both the Parkway Mine of Muhlenberg County—which is now closed—and Kronos Mine of Ohio County. Breathable dust is the primary cause of “Black Lung” in miners. A federal grand jury also charged the nine Armstrong Coal officials with making false statements as to results of tests required to be conducted every 60 days.
A federal Grand Jury has now indicted Glendal “Buddy” Hardison, the former manager of all Armstrong Coal western Kentucky mines.
He joins the 8 officials previously indicted, which include 63-year old Charley Barber of Madisonville, 60-year old Brian Casebier of Earlington, 48-year old Steven Demoss of Nortonville, 42-year old Billie Hearld of Russellville, 50-year old Ron Ivy of Manitou, 62-year old John Scott of South Carrollton, 40-year old Dwight Fulkerson of Drakesboro and 46-year old Jeremy Hackney of White Plains.
Some of the allegations against them include that Armstrong officials removed dust testing devices early in the miners’ shifts and placed the devices in less dusty or “clean air”, that during a testing period, officials replaced miners who ran the most dust-causing machines with miners who were not wearing the dust testing devices, so that the company would pass the tests, that officials ordered that testing devices be run in “clean air,” to skew the test results toward passing and that a mine superintendent twice mandated to a safety official to take whatever action necessary to ensure that the company passed dust sampling tests.
The Kronos Mine remains in operation under different ownership.