is not a proper party, to strike certain allegations in the complaint, and in the But his youngest son and daughter and his wife were among the missing. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. Clearly and simply, said the report, people living downstream from the Buffalo Mining Companys coal refuse dam at Saunders were the victims of gross negligence.. (3) U.S. Congress. Ben A. Franklin, New York Times News Service, Dam Failures Common: Whos Liable for Flooding, Charleston Gazette, February 28, 1972. But following a bitter labor strike in 1989, and the declining profitability of its minerals division throughout the 1990s, Pittston began to wind down its coal operations. In 1960, Buffalo Mining had constructed its first gob dam, or impoundment, near the mouth of Middle Fork in 1960. . During the meeting, the Railroad rails were twisted, cars were everywhere, bridges were on the roads instead of over the creek.. Nader commented, shortly after the flood, that the Buffalo Creek massacre is only one more in the long series of tragedies which coal corporations have perpetrated upon the people of Appalachia, especially of West Virginia. Note that Nader did not mince words, labelling the event a massacre.. He said his family washed off and cooked chickens that were killed in the aftermath of the flood. A few years later, construction began on water and sewage systems, and some permanent housing was built. Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his lifes work to prevent such disasters from happening again. 27, No. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. Privacy Policy Contact Us Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement at the end of his second term. In the early days of the European settlement of Australia, especially during the 1800's, it was common for large numbers of Aboriginal people (men, women and children) to be massacred by the white settlers, including by police and soldiers. We saw the water lift up our house, said Enda Baisden Short, recalling for. The owner of this site is using Wordfence to manage access to their site. There had been emergency relief, but little community redevelopment. 3 was under construction and about 50 percent completed. The legal teams on both sides also are discussing a settlement. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. West Virginia: Disaster in the Hollow, Time, Monday, March 13, 1972. All Rights Reserved. #3 in his inspection report. Arnold and Porter gave Pittston a $32.5 million written settlement proposal. Hearing before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate July 20, 1972. You have permission to edit this article. You know, its not like your house burned down, Hall said. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; Or something else altogether? One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book. George Vecsey, Homeless Thousands Await Future in Flooded Valley, New York Times (front page), February 29, 1972. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. The first was an ad hoc commission established by West Virginia Governor Arch Moore. According to one assessment at the time: These impromptu structures were hardly dams in any technical sense They were simply piles of coal waste, clay, shale, red dog, and other by-products of the coal preparation process, dumped off the back of trucks and bulldozed to an even height. 2 had ever been formally approved by the state. Williams explained that such mining was only viable because the state allowed it to externalize costs i.e., impose its pollution, mine wastes, and environmental damage on landowners and the general public. Restockings now happen several times a year. ), 400 Still Missing in West Virginia Flood, February 28, 1972. amzn_assoc_linkid = "40258c095eb99c570bd3ec58d7f0a3fb"; The first restoration, however, came with the railroads, rebuilt to serve the mines, which were operating again within a week of the flood. Headlines from 'The Springfield Republican' of Massachusetts, report on the 'W.Va. In 1973, the West Virginia Legislature passed the Dam Control Act, regulating all dams in the state. Support JSTOR Daily! In the early morning hours of Saturday, February 26th, 1972, after three days of rain, a series of coal slurry impoundments in the upper reaches of the Buffalo Creek watershed in Logan County, West Virginia, were beginning to weaken. The Buffalo Creek Disaster of 1972. 3 had been built on top of coal slurry sediment that had collected behind the earlier dams 1 and 2, not on solid bedrock. Arch Moore accepted a settlement offer of $1 million from the Pittston Coal Company. 344.754 S839. That year, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association was formed. February 26, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most devastating mine disasters in U.S. history. Senator Jennings Randolph (D-WV) visited Man High School, a temporary refugee location for Buffalo Creek survivors. But it brings back memories. The Buffalo Creek Flood was a disaster that occurred in 1972 in West Virginia. By that time he had stopped screaming and drunk so much water and everything I dont what happened to him.. The toxic coal slurry poured into Kentuckys Coldwater and Wolf creeks, then to the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, traveling more than 70 miles downstream, and eventually reaching the Ohio River, with blackwater visible at Cincinnati. And I aint never seen God up there driving no bulldozer dumping slate on that dam. Her remarks won applause from most everyone in the room. 45, No. From 1962 to 1972, three dams were built in on the middle fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County. Logan Flood Toll 66; 400 Missing, Hundreds Search Disaster Area; Cause of Break Gets Attention, Charleston Daily Mail, February 28, 1972. Newman, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. Brittany Patterson, The Cautionary Tale of the Largest Coal Ash Waste Site in the U.S., AlleghenyFront.org, June 22, 2018. Nader was also quoted saying: The Buffalo Creek massacre is only one more in the long series of tragedies which coal corporations have perpetrated upon the people of Appalachia, especially of West Virginia.. ensued. The governors acquiescence proved costly for the state, as West Virginia ended up forced to reimburse the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $9 million for recovery work. Senator Ed Muskie (D-NH) in one photo, then running for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, shown campaigning ahead of the New Hampshire primary. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines (W. A. Wahler & Associates), Analysis of Coal Refuse Dam Failure. 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. Vintage. At a protest meeting held in the Buffalo Grade School in Accoville a month after the flood, an older woman stood up and shouted out: Ive lived up at the top of the hollow for a long time. Pittstons Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Many Coal Sludge Impoundments Have Weak Walls, Federal Study Says, Washington Post, April 24, 2013. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. There was a gold trout out there I was trying to catch, he said. The next day, February 26th, at 1:30 a.m. the water was twelve inches from the dams crest and oozing through the dams surface. alternative for a more definite statement as to plaintiffs states of citizenship But the water-soaked engine would not start, and as he reached for his wife, the flood just carried her away. Adkins did manage to hold onto one daughter and two sons, but his wife and two other children could not be located. For decades after that, fishing of any kind was no longer an option on the southern West Virginia waterway. Chronology of a Disaster, BuffaloCreek Flood.org. 79-100. Young draws parallels between Appalachia and the colonialist exploitation of Third World countries, as well as the exploitation of communities of color, such as Flint, Michigan. "A Town Stood Here," Life Magazine, 10-10-1972. Engineers Say Buffalo Dam Doomed at Start, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), May 30, 1972. But the company challenged each of the violations and paid only $275 of the $1.3 million in fines originally proposed. Later accounts from survivors would describe some of the horrendous moments that families faced as the coal flood tore through the valley. studied the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in WV. Titchener, F.T. Stern asked Judge Hall to help him get access to the West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission of Law Dean Willard Lorensen) brings no criminal indictments against Pittston. Chance of rain 100%. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. . 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. These cracks were a clear indication of the saturation and subsequent destabilization of the structure, but no evacuation order was issued. Stern meets with Pittstons counsel concerning settlement. Kai Erikson's book, "Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood". In addition to the two West Virginia reports, there were also several others, including the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing record already mentioned; a U.S. Geological Survey report; a U.S. Department of the Interior Report; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report all of which, in one form or another, found fault with the design, integrity, and lack of oversight of the dams, and how regulators and the Pittston Coal Company failed to meet their responsibilities for public health and safety. Men and women, children and animals were floating in that high wall of water.. . 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 . 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