Many of the federal mine safety regulations passed into law go into effect soon and mine operators are working to make sure they comply.

Several mines are already paying fines for violations under the Federal Miner Act, and with several more regulations about to go into affect; mine operators are working to comply with them.

“To where we can be ahead and safe as we can throughout the four states we mine in,” Rick Shelton said.

Carroll Engineering held an expo to help coal companies get up to date with equipment approved by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“One of the miner act requirements is going to be personnel tracking and tagging to be able to find people in emergency situations underground,” Clark Johnson said.

“Our beacon light, plus a large horn that goes off,” Connie Hendren said.

Soon all mines will be required to have a refuge chamber that will allow miners to survive longer during an emergency.

As federal regulators get ready to implement all of the new safety rules, this expo gave coal operators a chance to get ready for them.

Coal operators say this is just one more step in their effort to be prepared for the worst.

The deadline for M-SHA to implement all of those new safety regulations is June of next year.