Why Theyve Got West Virginians Worried, YesMagazine.org, April 23, 2015. Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Many Coal Sludge Impoundments Have Weak Walls, Federal Study Says, Washington Post, April 24, 2013. In reaction to the flood, Hechler said: The people are prisoners of the coal industry., Hechlers quote is included in the media theorist Rita Colistras article in the Journal of Appalachian Studies, which also includes a quote from Ralph Nader. In 1977, Gov. Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. On Feb. 26, 1972, at approximately 8 a.m., a coal slurry impoundment dam owned by Pittston Coal Company burst . But West Virginia newspapers in the area were covering the tragedy closely, as the grim business of accounting for the dead, injured, and homeless continued. 2 held and halted the water. Coal Co. v. De Wese, 30 November 14, 1970: Marshall University football team killed in plane crash. . Jacob Turkale holds a rainbow trout he caught Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, along Buffalo Creek in his hometown of Man, W.Va. Fifty years ago in West Virginia, the collapse of an coal-waste impoundment unleashed a torrent of black water into a narrow valley. May 1, 1974Discovery deadline. At the time of Pittstons acquisition of Buffalo Mining, Dam No. Governor Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement from the Pittston Coal Company related to the 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood. a claims office in Buffalo Creek.Pittston moved for summary judgment because Pittston . Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. Twenty-seven years of follow-up research by teams of both . West Virginias Secretary of State at the time, Jay Rockefeller (D) who became a candidate for Governor running against Arch Moore in the 1972 fall election also favored banning strip mining. Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". 1942Buchanan County coal refuse pile explosion covered the railroad tracks It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. West Virginia has the most with 108. But the company challenged each of the violations and paid only $275 of the $1.3 million in fines originally proposed. Some residents in the area, especially those who lived in the town of Saunders, located in the valley directly below the dams, had worried for years about the dams strength. October 5, 1973Plaintiffs filed supplemental more definite statement He was heavily involved in writing federal regulations and beefed-up criteria for the construction of coal waste dams and their maintenance. The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. Spadaro also wrote the bulk of the states report debunking Pittstons claim that the disaster was an act of God. An investigation found the company built the dam on top of coal slurry that had been deposited by an earlier dam, then more material went on top of that. Thank you. The people he encountered, Breiding said, were thankful that somebody still remembered, because its something that has been buried in many peoples memories and buried in the past. As William Faulkner wrote in Requiem for a Nun: The past is never dead. Afterward, the survivors informally sit and talk about their memories from the flood and how it affected their lives. #3 in his inspection report. Jack Doyle, "Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972,"PopHistoryDig, January 31, 2019. wvculture/history/buffcreek . July 5, 1973Judge Hall granted plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Mannix Porterfield, a reporter who covered the events of that tragic day, later recalled the destruction left in the floods wake. and submitted other discovery requests to Pittston. The first restoration, however, came with the railroads, rebuilt to serve the mines, which were operating again within a week of the flood. But before the acquisition, Pittston engineers had reportedly surveyed the Buffalo Mining property, and according to company officials who later testified: Our reports had no indication that there was any danger, or that anything was wrong with the impoundments . 1945The Lorado Coal Company opened a coal mine at Buffalo Creek and began This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. When forced to give up these long-standing ties with familiar places and people, the . From 1962 to 1972, three dams were built in on the middle fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County. This mining activity, though in the past, had stripped away the water-absorbing forest undergrowth, thus increasing surface run-off during heavy precipitation. At one point, West Virginia Governor Arch Moore, complaining that the states image was getting a bad rap from the media, closed the Buffalo Creek area to reporters. By March 2, Republican Governor Arch Moore announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry to investigate the flood. They also worried about the mining practice of dumping coal mining slag or gob coal mining waste into the dams. 0 ratings 0% found this document useful (0 votes) amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; 16, No. The citizens commission report, formally titled. West Virginia Governor's report: "The Buffalo Creek Flood And Disaster". Buffalo Creek Disaster; however, I have concentrated on the parts of the book that offered me the most insight in terms of procedural strategy. Buy Now. [I]f you dont do some-thing, were all going to be washed away., By June 1970, Pittston had acquired the Buffalo Mining Company. February 26, 2022, was the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia that killed 125 people and left 4,000 homeless. Brittany Patterson, The Cautionary Tale of the Largest Coal Ash Waste Site in the U.S., AlleghenyFront.org, June 22, 2018. High around 75F. Today is the 40th anniversary of the dam bursting which was owned by Pittston Coal Company. The Buffalo Creek Disaster February 26, 1972, LoganWV.US (website), History and Nostalgia/ Preserving Logan County History. And it also continued dumping its coal wastes in the area as well, absent the use of watery waste dams. Report of the Citizens Commission to Investigate the Buffalo Creek Disaster, Disaster on Buffalo Creek: A Citizens Report on Criminal Negligence in a West Virginia Mining Community, Charleston, West Virginia, 1972. Robert C. Withers, The Disaster of Buffalo Creek, Report of the West Virginia Adjutant General, Charleston, WV, 1972. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; I told you this was going to happen, he said, I told you. He had voted for Randolph, but was frustrated with the political process and how the locals were regarded by most politicians. Coal waste dumping had gone on there for decades, up in the hills, at the headwaters of the Buffalo Creek. Pierson said he was flown out by helicopter. Jack Doyle, Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972, A few years later, construction began on water and sewage systems, and some permanent housing was built. problems with implementation. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. I just got done buying a Geiger counter and rebuilding it for someone because everybodys getting afraid of Russia right now.. Leading off the testimony before the Senate Subcommittee was Garth Fuquay of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (shown in above photo), who had been detailed to the subcommittee to help guide the committee in its investigation. One resident had even written to the governor a few years earlier saying if something wasnt done about the dams, were all going to be washed away.We saw the water lift up our house. September 30, 1870: Harpers Ferry flood. Rita Colistra, The Rumble and The Dark: Regional Newspaper Framing of the Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster of 1972, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. Pittston was also the fifth largest corporate landowner in the Appalachian region at the time, holding nearly 375,000 acres. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history. I teach it. First Lieut. May 1, 1971Pittston acquiredBMCand assumed sole management Our lives, our communities the coal company created it, the coal company destroyed it.. The Buffalo Creek that survives today is calm in places and flows briskly in others, its rapids gurgling. If a person is so often treated as trash, they may come to believe they are nothing but trash. The news of the Buffalo Creek Disaster broke variously across the nation the next few days, in part due to the difficulty of getting to the site. 1970Pittstons London insurance underwriters inquired about all of its The floods aftermath was widespread property destruction and the deaths of 125 people three of which were babies who were never identified. .In 1971, Pittston was cited for over 5,000 safety violations at its mines nationally. Published opinion, Am. Then in December 2008 a second major impoundment breach occurred this time, a failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in eastern Tennessee (photo above). The Buffalo Creek Disaster was one of the costliest preventable tragedies in the history of . "Coal: A Human History", 2016 edition. Another survivor and eye witness recounted what he saw to a Logan Banner reporter: It was throwing houses around like matchstems and it was picking up cars like they were eggshells, Two other witnesses reported to the Logan Banner that they saw bodies getting hung in trees The water was black and it was carrying homes and timber Another man added: I just didnt believe I would see that much water and houses floating down the creek. In the end, more than 125 people were killed, at least 1,000 injured, and some 4,000 left homeless. to a federal court which would require the court to allow a piercing of the Buffalo Mining Company's corporate vail Needed a way to circumvent the $110,000 max wrongful death settlement in West Virginia -$110,000 is the cap for compensatory damages -if it could be proven that Pittston's conduct was "willful, or reckless or wanton then the Robert Shy, among those in the West Virginia Army National Guard who helped during the crisis, flew helicopters up and down the valley delivering water and milk and picking up dazed and injured survivors. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Most of Buffalo Creek was previously owned by the Popp family, who ran a dairy farm before converting to grain crops such as soybeans, wheat and corn. More than 507 homes were destroyed, along with 44 mobile homes and 30 businesses. should not be material in relation to [Pittstons] consolidated financial position.. Arch Moore accepted a settlement offer of $1 million from the Pittston Coal Company. It brings back old memories of being in Vietnam, he said. Some residents in higher hilltop homes overlooking Buffalo Creek, watched as entire houses floated down the hollow, some later crashing into a small bridge downstream. I didnt have no fear for water, Id just jump right in any lake or river and swim. One lawsuit was filed by the state of West Virginia, while another class action lawsuit was filed by survivors of the flood. The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. May 1972, Wash., DC. The pool was within three feet of the crest of the dam, and ominous cracks appeared. Stern asked Judge Hall to help him get access to the West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission It took just over 15 minutes. As a result many possible . Each failure added millions of gallons to the monstrous wave of water bearing down on the residents of the countryside and towns below. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. John G. Morgan, Angered Citizens Plan Own Logan Flood Probe, Charleston Gazette, March 7, 1972. He said the impoundment failure at Buffalo Creek was accompanied by multiple warnings. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster: Feb. 26, 1972. 3 was under construction and about 50 percent completed. 1967The U.S. Department of Interior releases its Report on Condition The Buffalo Creek disaster : how the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history brought suit against the coal company -- and won. I was so scared. It also held coal reserves of 1.5 billion tons, mostly high-grade metallurgical coal used in steel-making. Children walk along the tracks in what remains of their community along Buffalo Creek, in West Virginia, on Feb. 27, 1972. Governor Moore, however, acting to protect the Pittston Coal Company, tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress his own commissions report. A separate settlement for survivors amounted to about $13,000 per plaintiff. amzn_assoc_region = "US"; The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors' Unprecedented Lawsuit, New York, Random House, 1976. G. ERALD . its motion to dismiss. dam will hold. I was thrown from side to side and crushed, he recounted, my insides was crushed so hard it just seemed my eyeballs was trying to pop out, and I couldnt get my breath at all. 2023 West Virginia University. How much was the settlement? Jules Loh, Associated Press, A Lie About God From Paradise to Hell: The Morning When False Alarms Turned to Reality, The Sunday Messenger (Athens, OH), front page, March 5, 1972. Chad Motrie's 2003 history of Appalachian strip mining. 36, No. with little windows and doors and a small latch on Map of Buffalo Creek communities in 1972 shown with disaster summary inset. You know, its not like your house burned down, Hall said. Hundreds of families lost everything their homes, their belongings, their memorabilia. George Vecsey, West Virginians Living in Hollows Fear That Mine Waste Piles in Their Areas Will Cause Next Flood, New York Times, March 6, 1972. But it brings back memories. Fact stipulations, exhibit lists, and pretrial Pittston, meanwhile, would inform its investors that the 1974 settlement that had come with one of the survivors' lawsuits did not impact the company's profit margin. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Gertie Moore recalls a personal story about the Buffalo Creekduring a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. 12, No. Recent history suggests that a number of these facilities and practices hold public safety risks and/or environmental threats. dams. 2's slurry pool. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. Children of Disaster: Clinical Observations at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp.306-12. At the outset of the hearing, Fuquay was the first witness, and the subcommittee chairman, Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ), submitted for inclusion in the hearing record, Fuquays 225-page report, titled An Engineering Survey of Representative Coal Mine Refuse Piles as Related to the Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, Disaster. That two-part report, focusing on the failed Buffalo Creek dams and a sampling of other dangerous coal refuse dams in the region, made headlines in a few places on May 30th, 1972, the day the Senate hearings began. I found the use of . In the year 2000, increased attention was focused on the regulation of coal waste impoundments following a failure near Inez, Kentucky. 3) was built over Dam No. (AP Photo/John Raby). At approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, a man-made coal slurry impoundment dam, which was operated by the Pittston Coal Company, burst following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. Long after the Feb. 26, 1972, disaster, the poisoned creek had no life. plaintiffs. Dam Break'. Buffalo Creek Disaster Gerald M. Stern 3.68 2,196 ratings176 reviews One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. February 1972. Wallace Adkins of Robinette, tried to escape the on-rushing wall of water by loading up his family car. Its worth noting that, following Buffalo Creek, two commissions were launched. Pittston objected to Arnold & Porters more definite statement, asking the Moore would prevail in the election, campaigning heavily in West Virginias coal mining regions, impugning Rockefellers position on strip mining. 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