up their acts, but the number of citations and the significance, it gave the indication that the mine operator would have been better suited to comply rather than us fining them. reporter: it s an emotional issue, saved is a huge concern, but massey mines provide thousands of fences. roan wootan is the west virginia state mining director. reporter: are they a good operator or bad operator, in your estimation? i don t have an opinion. i ve seen them do good things, some things not so good. reporter: one person that told me that you were one of the worst operators in terms of the violations and severity. we would disagree in terms of the condition of our mines, the number of violations can depend on what area you re operating in, who the inspectors are and the whole host of issues.
this mine was even operating. the reason it was operating is all of the people who were very knowledgeable, whether it be at the federal government, the state government or massey had concluded that the mine was safe to operate and these violations and the efforts on the ventilation are efforts to improve it. but the man in charge of keeping america s coal mines and coal miners safe, kevin struckland doesn t see much room for argument. is it your sense, kevin, that this is a mine that needed to clean up its act? well, we think all mines need to clean up their act, but the number of violations issued here and the significance of them gave the indication that the mine operator would have been better suited to just comply with the regulations rather than us fining them. it s an emotional issue in this one-industry land. safety is a huge concern, but massey mines provide thousands of jobs and pour money into the legal community. john wooten is the west virginia state mining direc