OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING
For Release November 16, 1989
Jerry Childress

OSM TO OPEN EMERGENCY RESPONSE OFFICE IN ASHLAND, KENTUCKY

The Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) today
announced that it will open an emergency response office in
Ashland, Kentucky, to handle requests for assistance at abandoned
coal mine emergency sites in Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern
Ohio.

The office located in the Carl Perkins Federal Building in Ashland,
will be staffed by two OSM engineers, who will be on call to
respond to a wide range of possible abandoned mine lands (AML)
emergencies.

An AML emergency exists when an abandoned coal mine causes imminent
danger to life and/or property, such as a slide from and old
surface mine blocking a highway or subsidence from a collapsing
underground mine damaging a home.