Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. . Buffalo Creek Flood, 1972, Online Exhibit /Special Collections, Marshall University, 2002. Six years later, it added a second dam, 600 feet further upstream. Pittston announced in 1999 that it was leaving the coal business. United States Army Corps of Engineers. Nader had sent one of his investigators, a young West Virginia lawyer named Davitt McAteer (who years later would head up the U.S. I love it, said Jacob Turkale, 25, who caught a rainbow trout Tuesday. But it brings back memories. A Buffalo Creek native, Victor M. Depta, gets at this idea of recurring tragedy in a 1973 poem, written not long after the flood. In addition to its coal debris, the slurry wave picked up an abrasive and destructive mixture of semi-rotten trees, rocks, and sediment as it went, gouging out the land and becoming a more lethal force capable of battering and sweeping away all in its path. Buffalo Creek Disaster is not just about heroes but a dramatic tale that involves the loss of lives and property and the legal war containing a litigation drama that resulted in the payment of the settlement. However, in this case, Dam No. Pittston announced in 1999 that it was leaving the coal business. Williams wasnt alone in pointing to the ravages of strip mining. I'm interested in (please check all that apply). August 16, 1971WVDNR Inspector recommended an emergency spillway on Dam Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. Tom Nugent, Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, New York: Norton, 1973. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster 50th Anniversary The Buffalo Creek disaster, however, did galvanize concern about strip mining and coal safety in Congress, and helped to spur passage of regulatory bills on the House side during Congressional debate in the early 1970s. Share Buffalo Creek Flood. Young ranks the spill as but one more state crime in a long list of state crimes, a list on which Buffalo Creek is also included. Then I fell off in the water. AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. This mining activity, though in the past, had stripped away the water-absorbing forest undergrowth, thus increasing surface run-off during heavy precipitation. Ive got uranium and all kinds of radioactive stuff in my bedroom. Engineers Say Buffalo Dam Doomed at Start, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), May 30, 1972. A Town Stood Here, Life, October 10, 1972. The tragedy resulted in a $13.5 million class action settlement, and led to the 1973 Dam . Three days later, on February 25, with heavy rain, the water behind dam No. Vintage. In 1977, Governor Moore, with three days left in office, accepted a settlement offer of $1 million for a suit in which the state sought $100 million from the coal company. 2/3 (152/153) (2018), pp. February 28, 1972. Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? The state filed a $100 million lawsuit against mine owner Pittston Coal; then-Gov. 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. A helicopter hovers over one location in the Buffalo Creek valley, surveying the damage in the aftermath of the coal dam failures and devastating flood of February 26, 1972. Restockings now happen several times a year. In an out of court settlement, the survivors were awarded $13.5 million, $6 million of which was distributed on the basis of a point system as compensation for the psychological damages. Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". On Feb. 26, 1972, at approximately 8 a.m., a coal slurry impoundment dam owned by Pittston Coal Company burst . "$1, 000, 001 Settlement in Flood Suit," Charleston Gazette, 11-15-1977. 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. Among officials and Senators shown are, from left: Dennis Gibson, Buffalo Mining Co.(22) Garth Fuguay (21, with pointer), Army Corps of Engineers; Sen. Harold Hughes (18); Sen. Jennings Randolph (17); Sen. Jacob Javits (16); Sen. Harrison Williams (15); Sen. Richard Scheiker (19), and Sen. Robert Stafford (20). There was a gold trout out there I was trying to catch, he said. In addition, coal wastes have also been dumped into abandoned deep mines and used to reclaim strip mines. Murder in Appalachian, The Nation, March 20, 1972. Its nine members, however, were either sympathetic to the coal industry, or government officials whose departments might have been complicit in the dams failures. 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. Because of the downpour, nearly 50 acre-feet of fresh water filled the pool of Dam No. Congressman Ken Hechler (D-WV)), who also came to the area on Sunday, February 27th, told reporters that the U.S. Bureau of Mines and state agencies had failed to demonstrate sufficient concern for the protection of the safety of the people who work in the mines and live in the mining communities. Hechler also pointed to what he believed was a contributing cause of the flooding: As I looked through Buffalo Creek valley yesterday, it struck me again that the entire valley is honeycombed with strip mines and the waste from deep mines so that the soil can no longer hold the [rain] water. Hechler also slammed the coal industrys power in the area, saying, the people are prisoners of the coal industry And with some irony, he added, the only building left intact in one Buffalo community was the company store., On Monday, February 28th, U.S. Choose wisely! spillway on Dam #3. Dam No. Hall agreed and the documents It took just over 15 minutes. The "suspenseful and completely absorbing story" (San Francisco Chronicle) of how survivors of the worst coal-mining disaster in history triumphed over corporate irresponsibilitywritten by the young lawyer who took on their case and won.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 . the burning refuse pile before wiping out the Buffalo Creek valley. The lawsuit and the book provide the George Vecsey, Homeless Thousands Await Future in Flooded Valley, New York Times (front page), February 29, 1972. document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); JSTOR Daily provides context for current events using scholarship found in JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and other material. Jack Spadaro, a mine safety investigator and environmental specialist, has made it his lifes work to prevent such disasters from happening again. University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Appalachian Studies Association, Inc. Journal of American Studies, Vol. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. The Citizens Commission found Pittston Coal reckless and negligent and the state negligent in ensuring safety compliance. Local high school students were brought in by the busload, helping them to fulfill the 40 hours of community service required to graduate. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report from the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (PDF of actual report at Marshall University). June 26, 1974The plaintiffs and Pittston settle for $13.5 million. with little windows and doors and a small latch on PopHistoryDig.com, January 31, 2019. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; 344.754 S839. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. Thomas N. Bethell and Davitt McAteer, The Pittston Mentality: Manslaughter on Buffalo Creek, Washington Monthly, May 1972. Still highly regarded today, a 2011 paper in the Asian Journal of Social Science refers to Eriksons book as a classic piece on the sociological study of post-disaster societies., Some, however, have taken issue with Eriksons work and, on a larger scale, with outsiders views of Appalachia. Three coal waste dams in West Virginia failed, killing 125 people and injuring 1,100 more in communities downstream of the dams. He said his family washed off and cooked chickens that were killed in the aftermath of the flood. Depta writes: Theyre bringing in trailers so the next time theres a Governor Moore, however, acting to protect the Pittston Coal Company, tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress his own commissions report. I watched them crumble. The three dams also served as something of a crude pollution-prevention system: filtering, settling out, and retaining the dirty prep plant particles and toxins found in the coal wastewater, also enabling some reuse of the water in processing. Jack Doyle, Buffalo Creek Disaster: 1972, The Buffalo Creek that survives today is calm in places and flows briskly in others, its rapids gurgling. The New York Times ran an Associated Press wire story on the front page of its Sunday, February 27th, 1972 edition, above the fold, bearing the headline, 37 Killed as Flood Sweeps A Valley in West Virginia. The opening sentence of that story read: A huge, coal-slag heap serving as a dam burst under the pressure of three days of torrential rains early this morning, sending a wall of water through a narrow valley dotted with small impoverished mining towns. The Times own reporter, George Vecsey, based in Kentucky, managed to reach Man, West Virginia on February 27th, filing his story (above) which appeared in the next days edition. It goes between the hospital and the high school and I remember when we got off, these people run up to us and they was writing down our names to get a recovery list for people that made it, and needless to say, there was groups of people that were sent there.. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. 417-424, Appalachian Journal, Vol. Army personnel, the Red Cross, state and county officials were all on the scene by then as well, trying to feed, clothe and comfort survivors. "one acre of area covered by water to a depth of 300 feet", OR The state later had to pay the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers more than $9 million for recovery work along Buffalo Creek. G. ERALD . Today is the 40th anniversary of the dam bursting which was owned by Pittston Coal Company. Eriksons book was a finalist for the National Book Award the year of its release. Click for copy. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. His words paint a picture of a bleak future for a people suffering from a cyclical system of abuse. Pittston had made only one payment for $4,000. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. It brings back old memories of being in Vietnam, he said. Arnold and Porter noticed Pittstons president and vice-presidents depositions In 2002, Alpha Natural Resources purchased what remained of Pttstons coal business. Black water was pumped into pools behind the dams and dams filtered the deposits so that relatively clear water could run out their downstream face. Half of its downstream side slumped but Last month the Environmental Protection Agency ordered utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites. 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. November 20, 1968: Farmington coal mine disaster Titchener, F.T. The Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972 One of worst floods in US occurred here 26 February 1972, when Buffalo Mining Co. impoundment dam for mine waste broke, releasing over 130 million gallons of black waste water: killed 125; property losses over $50 million; and thousands left homeless. the front to drag them to paradise california. Eventually, she and her husband, Arthur, rebuilt on the same spot as the old house. Since the impoundment regulations were implemented in 1975, there have been no incidents of dam failures at coal waste impoundments. In a 2012 interview, Porterfield said: [I]t looked like a battlefield. Harry Caudill's "Theirs Be The Power". These cracks were a clear indication of the saturation and subsequent destabilization of the structure, but no evacuation order was issued. Associated Press, Pittstons Federal Flood Suit Settled Out of Court, Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV), July 6, 1974, p. 1. Click for copy. 45, No. Bridges were smashed to bits. and made decisions on future trial structure. He said the impoundment failure at Buffalo Creek was accompanied by multiple warnings. You have permission to edit this article. The sociologist Kai Erikson was brought in for the latter suit as an expert witness on behalf of the survivors. Strip mines williams wasnt alone in pointing to the 1973 dam in communities downstream the! More in communities downstream of the dams her husband, Arthur, rebuilt on the same spot as old... On Feb. 26, 1974The plaintiffs and Pittston settle for $ 4,000 2019. amzn_assoc_placement = `` adunit0 '' ; S839! 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