Madisonville will house the nation’s fourth Mine Safety and Health Administration emergency response center.
MSHA’s Kevin Stricklin says the new center starts operations in early spring. Stricklin says having those capabilities in Madisonville reduces mining disaster response time in the Midwest by around eight hours.
A published report says Kentucky coal operators owe more in delinquent fines to federal authorities for mine safety violations than any other state. The Louisville Courier-Journal reports the finding from an analysis of records from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Records show Kentucky mine operators owe MSHA just over 29 million dollars, 40 percent of the total seventy-three and a half million owed to the agency in mine safety fines.