SOMERSET, Pa., July 27 (UPI) -- Rescue workers made better progress Saturday drilling shafts to reach nine miners trapped since Wednesday night in a Pennsylvania coal mine, state officials said.
Betsy Mallison, of the state Department of Environmental Protection told CNN Saturday morning drilling had reached 169 feet in both rescue shafts.
Earlier Saturday morning, Gov. Mark Schweiker told a news conference workers at Rescue Shaft 2, begun when a broken drill bit shut down Rescue Shaft 1, had made substantial progress overnight to the 161-foot mark. Rescue Shaft 1 continued to have problems overnight getting through limestone layers but Mallison updated that report, saying both had reached 169 feet Saturday mid-morning. The miners are estimated to be located at the 237-foot level.
Schweiker said rescue teams at around 207 feet will slow down, "having to make an assessment of the life sustaining chamber that is below that."
Schweiker said rescue workers anticipate they may reach that chamber level by early Saturday afternoon if drilling continued without problems. At that point, officials would decide on a strategy to break into the chamber and bring up the miners. Schweiker said workers also continued to pump thousands of gallons of water out of the mine shaft.
"We're also hopeful that by then, water levels will have receded to the point where they no longer have to be concerned about the water hampering the rescue effort," the DEP's Karl Lasher said earlier.
Mallison said, however, there had been no recent contact with the trapped miners.
"We haven't heard from them for some time but the site is incredibly noisy," she said.
Drilling resumed in Rescue Shaft 1 after the drill bit broke early Friday 105 feet deep into the mine. Workers had to wait nine hours to replace the 30-inch 1,500-pound drill bit that had to be flown to the mine, located about 55 miles Southeast of Pittsburgh.
The drill not only broke but was stuck in the drill and while rescuers worked to free the broken bit, Rescue Shaft 2 was started about 75 feet from the original rescue hole.
To hedge their bets, rescuers resumed drilling both holes Friday evening after Rescue Shaft 1 again was operational.
The U.S. Navy joined the rescue effort, conducted by several Pennsylvania state agencies. The Navy sent underwater medical experts and nine hyperbaric decompression chambers to the site.
Because the miners have been about 150 feet underground, decompression will be necessary when they are brought up because they could experience the bends, according to U.S. Navy Capt. Henry Schwartz, a specialist in underwater medicine.
The air pressure on the miners is similar to that experienced at 40 feet underwater, Schwartz said.
Schweiker said earlier much of the rescue effort had been based on deductive reasoning, guess work and luck because no one has seen the miners since Wednesday night, when they were trapped by a wall of water that flooded the mine after the miners dug too close to an adjacent abandoned mine.
"The team really got lucky when they were able to find the chamber -- enabling them to pump in air and increase the miners' chances of survival," Schweiker told reporters. "I mean that 6-inch drill hole -- we shouldn't overlook this -- I mean that getting that down there and hitting the chamber where they are represents just tremendous good fortune."
While rescuers had been waiting for a "superdrill" to arrive from West Virginia Thursday, they drilled a 6-inch hole to pump oxygen to the miners.
"The miners are about 8,000 feet from the mine entrance, and oxygen is being pumped to them," Lasher said. "It's hoped that the compressed oxygen is helping to keep the water at bay and warm the men because it's being pumped at 100-degrees Fahrenheit.
Rescuers were encouraged when they heard tapping on the 6-inch drill, but state officials said they have heard no more tapping since Thursday. But they said the noise of the rescue effort might have masked any tapping.
Pennsylvania officials estimate 50 million to 60 million gallons of water may have entered the Quecreek Mine since Wednesday at around 9 p.m. when the mine was first breached after workers dug too close to the Saxman Mine, abandoned since the 1950s.
A 250-kilowatt generator was brought to the mine to power several of the water pumps. Water temperatures are estimated to be between 50-60 degrees.
"We don't know how long it will take to drill down to reach the miners, but the men have been exposed to cold water so hypothermia is a concern," Lasher said.
