In brief: Rock fall kills worker in Teck Cominco mine
A 43-year-old worker died Thursday in an underground accident at the Teck Cominco mine near Metaline Falls, Wash.
Phillip Markhart, of Red Lodge, Mont., was killed about 1:15 a.m. in a rock fall while doing development work in the Pend Oreille mine, according to a Teck Cominco American spokesman.
“There was a piece of rock that struck him,” said David W. Godlewski, vice president for environment and public affairs. The accident remains under investigation.
Markhart was an employee of Redpath, a company that contracts with Teck Cominco, headquartered in Spokane.
Thursday’s accident was the first fatality since the mine reopened in 2004. It was closed in 1977.
The company was preparing an area to begin mining for zinc, Godlewski said. Zinc from the mine is shipped to Trail, B.C., and eventually zinc concentrate from the mine is used as a galvanizing agent to protect steel from corrosion.
The mine was shut down after Thursday’s accident, and federal and state agencies were notified, Mark Brown, general manager of the mine, said in a press release.
“It is an inherently hazardous profession, and we take these hazards very seriously,” Godlewski said.
Staff reports
Spokane
Sinking boat ruled insufficient as bribe
A sinking boat doesn’t make a good bribe, the Washington Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The Spokane branch of the court said Ferry County Superior Court Judge Al Nielsen properly dismissed a bribery charge against a drunken man who ran his jet boat aground on Lake Roosevelt.
Court documents in the 2004 case say Richard Steven Henjum, 36, didn’t want to go down with his sinking ship when he wrecked it after getting drunk and getting into an argument with his girlfriend.
She jumped overboard, but Henjum sent an unusual SOS to the astonished occupants of a passing houseboat: They could have his boat if they would take him and his girlfriend to a marina and not tell police.
The rescuers had already called authorities, and Henjum was convicted of reckless boating and obstructing an officer.
– John Craig
Avista spilling water from Long Lake Dam
Avista Utilities announced Thursday that it was spilling water from Long Lake Dam to reduce the level of Lake Spokane.
The drawdown was expected to lower the level 5 to 6 inches a day for a total of 8 to 10 feet by mid-February, when the reservoir is to be at its maximum summer elevation of 1,536 feet above sea level.
The company said the reservoir would be drained further, by as much as 14 feet, if the weather remains cool and dry.
The company warned residents and lake users to take necessary precautions, such as removing boats and securing docks and boathouses.
Avista offers recorded messages on the lake’s current level at (509) 495-8043.
– John Craig