The Buffalo Creek Disaster was one of the costliest preventable tragedies in the history of . Peter Galuszka's "Thunder on the Mountain". Through the 1940s coal mining and coal washing including dumping coal refuse and coal wash water occurred in the area of the Middle Fork, one of three headwater streams that formed Buffalo Creek. The dams were intended to leak and serve as filters. Senator). That summer, Brunty cried in fear with every storm and strong wind gust that shook her temporary trailer. 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.. 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). It wasnt long after the flood that lawsuits were brought against Pittston Coal, the company responsible for the slurry dams. Field Foundation proposed a resolution that Pittston should spend more money to to Logan, W.Va., line making Logan Countys coal easily transportable to national June 12, 1964Buffalo Mining Company (BMC) incorporated. Dam No. The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3, located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia, burst, four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector. Still, the reported number of dead and missing varied with each days news reports, a reflection of the difficulty in finding and identifying bodies in the aftermath. spillway on Dam #3. Richard Martin's 2015 book, "Coal Wars". For outsiders, these stereotypes dehumanize the exploited individuals. Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster: Feb. 26, 1972. Many coal waste impoundments had to be either modified or closed to eliminate hazardous conditions. Public Service Commission and Water Logan County West Virginia Man, 1997. State of West Virginia sued Pittston in both state and federal court for the states about her fears that the dam would collapse. /08. Immediately following the failure at Buffalo Creek, representatives from the Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey formed a task force to study coal waste hazards. This mining activity, though in the past, had stripped away the water-absorbing forest undergrowth, thus increasing surface run-off during heavy precipitation. I was so scared. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history. According to the U.S. EPA, there are over 1,000 operating coal ash waste ponds and landfills, plus many hundreds of retired coal ash disposal sites. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. amzn_assoc_title = "Additional Reading"; Buffalo Creek, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, 2012. Chance of rain 100%. markets. Civ Pro: Buffalo Creek Disaster notes Questions o Who are the Parties Plaintiff: Workers Defendant: Coal company: Buffalo Mining Company (and Pittston Company, based in NYC = sole stockholder) o One of the largest employers in the West Virginia county Attorneys Author Mr. Staker (Famous lawyer) Judges Judge Christie (left b/c of his old friend) To counter Eriksons claims, Ewen and Lewis include survivor testimony that he neglected. July 14, 1970West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (WVDNR) Inspector 1. Penny Loeb's 2007 book, "Moving Mountains". There had been emergency relief, but little community redevelopment. He believed most local people didnt tell Randolph and other politicians how they really feel. Russell Mokhiber, Buffalo Creek, Chapter 5, Corporate Crime & Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1998. Arch Moore agreed to a $1,000,000 settlement just days. Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 31 January 2019 Note mud lines on the building at left, marking flood level. In fact, there is a very sizeable coal waste legacy that will continue to pose dangers for many rural American communities and the nations rivers and streams for decades to come, even as the coal industry as a whole winds down its role in the U.S. and global economies. February 26, 2022, was the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia that killed 125 people and left 4,000 homeless. Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. 1942Buchanan County coal refuse pile explosion covered the railroad tracks Buffalo Creek Disaster Term 1 / 149 Who is Gerald Stern? The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man / Buffalo Creek Revisited, BuffaloCreekFlood .org, Website. Crowd of onlookers in the distance surveys the enormous debris field jammed up against a downstream bridge following the Buffalo Creek coal flood. . "300 acres of area covered by water a foot deep". Engineering, Not Rainfall, Given Blame, Logan Banner, March 9, 1972. It just doesnt seem that long ago that it happened, Harvey said. 1904The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad completed its Charleston, W.Va., 3 was rising one or two inches per hour. Coal and Labor Collection, Appalachian Collection, McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, Virginia. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. The fact that the plaintiffs were involved in a lawsuit against Pittston instead of passively accepting their fate was alone evidence of their ability to cope, Ewen and Lewis write, essentially arguing that Everything in Its Path is myopic in its attention on the communitys destruction. found that the victims didn't experience the enthusiastic feelings because the disaster was so much greater, and . Rita Colistra, The Rumble and The Dark: Regional Newspaper Framing of the Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster of 1972, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. As a result many possible . The number stern settled on was 32.5 million dollars. In 1974, the 645 Buffalo Creek residents suing Pittston Coal settled for $13.5 million, which amounted to approximately $13,000 paid out to each plaintiff. As the skies cleared on Sunday, February 27, West Virginias Governor, Arch Moore toured the area by helicopter, describing the awesome destruction he viewed from above. 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. With little warning to residents, more than 130 million gallons of dark floodwaters tore through more than a dozen communities in the hollow. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; dams. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. [1] For faster navigation, this Iframe is preloading the Wikiwand page for Buffalo Creek flood. That deal would dog Moore for the rest of his career. I'm interested in (please check all that apply). February 28Pittston employee distributes warning memorandum previously 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. 0 ratings 0% found this document useful (0 votes) 281-298, Appalachian Journal, Vol. It took a mere 15 minutes to totally fail, Spadaro said. dam will hold. Eriksons book was a finalist for the National Book Award the year of its release. 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. As I rode that house down the creek I could see that the bottom of it was above those telephone poles in the holler.. You build them up with a bunch of political propaganda.., he said, also suggesting that the coal operators money installed the politicians in Washington, and then, you dont care nothing about us., Not long after the dams had burst, and the flood waters had raged through the Buffalo Creek communities, Pittstons New York public relations office, attempting to absolve the company from legal responsibility, issued a news release stating that the flood was an act of God. The dam, said the Pittston officials, was simply incapable of holding the water God poured into it.. July 5, 1973Judge Hall granted plaintiffs motion to amend their complaint. Men and women, children and animals were floating in that high wall of water.. The failure of a giant 84-acre coal ash impoundment (upper right) at TVAs Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, released 5.4 million cubic yards of ash slurry into the Emory & Clinch rivers and the downstream community of Harriman, TN. F.3d 349 (4th Cir. recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. The Buffalo Creek disaster is the best example of a tragedy centered on environmental injustice where the minority ethnic groups and low . Coal Co. v. De Wese, 30 1912The C&O Railroad build the first spur line by Buffalo Creek. July 3, 1974Plaintiffs/Pittston $13.5 million settlement agreement filed with Murder in Appalachian, The Nation, March 20, 1972. 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. You talk about another terror, a man goes from high water and being scared to being up in the sky, so I went through that, Pierson said. And that same year, 1967, the U.S. Department of the Interior had warned state officials that the Buffalo Creek dams and 29 others throughout West Virginia were unstable and dangerous. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. I was terrified of water, Pierson said. 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. The site is secure. Pittstons Oil Division applied to Maines Department of Environmental Protection But his pregnant wife couldnt get out; she was trapped in the house. The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. Three days later, on February 25, with heavy rain, the water behind dam No. 1 (Apr., 1978), pp. The law appears ill-suited to relieve the victims of a disaster, who often have been scarred emotionally not by physical contact but by the destruction of their families, homes, and communities, writes Robert L. Rabin in a 1978 Stanford Law Review article examining the legal ramifications of Buffalo Creek. 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. However, adequate funding was never appropriated by teh West Virginia legislature to enforce the law. The Buffalo Creek Disaster. It would go this way on this side of the hill and take a house out; take one house out of all the rows, and then go back the other way. For the first time, individuals who were not present at the scene of a disaster were allowed to recover for mental injuries. (BMCs) dam #1 fails causes a steam explosion and damaging the Saunders community 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. In 1854, he married Margaretha Weidner (1832-1910). 1966A United Kingdom coal-waste dump in South Aberfam, Wales similar the increased regulation cost might bankrupt it and became open to buyout. Mary Walton, State Warned in 1967 of Larado Dam Danger, Charleston Gazette, March 1, 1972. Each failure added millions of gallons to the monstrous wave of water bearing down on the residents of the countryside and towns below. ", Dealing with Disasters: Some Thoughts on the Adequacy of the Legal System, Coming from West Virginia: An Interview with Songwriter Tom Breiding, The Legendary Language of the Appalachian Holler, Prisoners Like Us: German POW and Black American Solidarity, Hysteria, Indigenous Identities, and Cocaine Bear, Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonalds, How Rap Taught (Some of) the Hip Hop Generation Black History, About the American Prison Newspapers Collection, Submissions: American Prison Newspapers Collection. 1929). 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.. Map of Buffalo Creek communities in 1972 shown with disaster summary inset. One retired coal miner who survived the flood, but who lost his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the disaster, explained what he experienced in one Charleston Gazette account: How I got out of that water, I dont know I rode the house a long ways. settled a lawsuit over this breakdown. The tragedy resulted in a $13.5 million class action settlement, and led to the 1973 Dam Control Act. 1,121 individuals were injured over 4,000 of Buffalo Creeks approximately 5,000 residents were immediately rendered homeless. The plant was pumping about 500 tons of water-saturated waste into the pond behind dam No. Published opinion, Am. He lives in my building. (AP Photo/John Raby). For additional stories at this website on the history of coal and coal mining, see for example, the following: Paradise: 1971 (about a John Prine song, strip mining in Muhlenberg County, KY, and the demise of a small town); Mountain Warrior (profile of Kentucky author and coal-field activist, Harry Caudill, noted for his famous book, Night Comes to The Cumberlands and his life-long critique of Appalachian strip mining); Giant Shovel on I-70 (about strip mining in southeastern Ohio during the 1960s and `70s and the use of giant strip-mining shovels there); Coal & The Kennedys, (featuring Kennedy family involvement with Appalachian coal communities, deep mine safety, environmental protection, and related political issues, 1960s-2010s); Sixteen Tons, 1950s (the famous Tennessee Ernie Ford song and some coal mining history, 1940s-1960s); and, G.E.s Hot Coal Ad, 2005 (a General Electric TV ad that features a new breed of coal miner). AprilOver 1,000 residents registered claims with Pittston. Buffalo Creek, whose habitat was destroyed along a 17-mile (27-kilometer) stretch, is teeming with trout again, after a steady, coordinated effort by Harvey and others to get back what they once had and share it with future generations. Stereotypesparticularly the white trash stereotypes depicting Appalachians as lazy, ignorant, and hopelessallow for the continued exploitation of Appalachia by industry. As if some foreign enemy had flown in and nuked the place. The citizens commission report, formally titled. Pierson said the flood had a rather unique impact on him it caused him to conquer his fear of water. Tom Breiding, a Pittsburgh singer-songwriter with West Virginia roots, saw this firsthand when he traveled to Buffalo Creek for research while composing his 2008 album The Unbroken Circle: Songs of the West Virginia Coalfields. Arlington, VA 22202-5450www.msha.govTTY202-693-9400, Quarterly Training Calls & Stakeholder Meetings, The goal of MSHAs impoundment program continues to help ensure that. By March 2, Republican Governor Arch Moore announced the formation of an Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry to investigate the flood. I watched them crumble. It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. In the blink of an eye, people's lives completely changed; lives were lost, houses were gone and families were destroyed. 242-246, Appalachian Journal, Vol. Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Many Coal Sludge Impoundments Have Weak Walls, Federal Study Says, Washington Post, April 24, 2013. Among those pressing for action in Washington was consumer advocate Ralph Nader, well known by then for taking on politicians and corporations. Home; Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Share Buffalo Creek Flood. They created this place and they destroyed this place, and we are just disposable, basically. The legal teams on both sides also are discussing a settlement. Sources: The Herald Dispatch, newspaper of Huntington, WV, Thomas Marsh, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Pittston settled all property damage claims. I seen trees, logs, cars, slate, slush, you name it and it was in that.. An early New York Times story filed from Man, West Virginia, implicated 'coal waste pile' in its reporting on the Buffalo Creek disaster, along with a photo of some of the local damage. Gallery: The Buffalo Creek Flood, Herald-Dispatch.com, February 26, 2014. Click for copy. April 1, 1974Pittston moved to dismiss absent plaintiffs, plaintiffs claiming BMCfilled the hole with more coal refuse. amzn_assoc_asins = "0393332217,0938985108,B01MXPYJBV,0802124658"; Feb 28, 1972. The survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster suffered both individual and collective trauma, the latter being reflected in their loss of communality. Twenty-seven years of follow-up research by teams of both . JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. Why Theyve Got West Virginians Worried, YesMagazine.org, April 23, 2015. The .gov means its official. Last Update:31 January2019 Thomas N. Bethell and Davitt McAteer, The Pittston Mentality: Manslaughter on Buffalo Creek, Washington Monthly, May 1972. But this dam dam No. Youve still got but it was gone, just like being somewhere and a volcano went off and wiped out your entire village, and even after it was all over with, they went through there and tore out our little road and destroyed all of our little communities, and the people that wanted to couldnt even move back to where they used to live at., It hurts, Hall said. It also held coal reserves of 1.5 billion tons, mostly high-grade metallurgical coal used in steel-making. 1924Crane Creek flood (Mercer County, WV), refuse pile blocking a waterway One resident at the scene, later quoted in in Kai T. Eriksons book, Everything in Its Path, noted of the onrushing tide: This water, when it came down through here, it acted real funny. A Town Stood Here, Life, October 10, 1972. During the meeting, the An airplane crashes. May 13, 1974Judge Hall denied motion for partial summary judgment as to personal And that same year, 1967, the U.S. Department of the Interior had warned state officials that the Buffalo Creek dams and 29 others throughout West Virginia were unstable and dangerous.[I]f you dont do some-thing, were all going to be washed away. Several lawsuits were also filed in the wake of the Buffalo Creek disaster, including a large class action with 645 survivors and victim family members suing Pittston for $64 million. The water was there, and then it was gone, The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. One of the photos used in Disaster on Buffalo Creek: A Citizens' Report on Criminal Negligence in a West Virginia Mining Community, 1972. Buffalo Creek Disaster 1. One of the country's worst mining-related disasters occurred February 26, 1972, on Buffalo Creek in Logan County. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. An official website of the United States government. Jules Lob, Buffalo Creek Now A Valley of Death, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 1972. On Saturday, the community showed they are still standing with a room full of survivors coming . plaintiffs. unstable and that the bank [was] subject to large wash-out on [the] north side Click to visit that site. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. They are used to hard times. The state of West Virginia also sued Pittston for $100 million for disaster and relief damages, but Governor Arch A. Moore settled that case for just $1 million three days before leaving office in 1977. Miles away, a coal companys hillside impoundment dams collapsed, sending slurry thundering downhill and into the hollow, inundating small communities and killing 125 people. The water was there, and then it was gone., As the wave moved down the mountain valley it wiped out much of what stood in its path. In March 1967, a partial collapse at one of the dams caused some flooding in the hollow, alarming residents already concerned about the structures. Richard Carelli, Mining Official Blames Explosions on Flood Water Hitting Hot Slag Pile, Charleston Gazette, March 9, 1972. amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; He also concluded that Pittstons Buffalo Creek Mining Co. could not be charged with negligent homicide because there was no way to put a corporation in jail.. [W]e decided we would band together and hope it would relieve our tensions and fears, stated one member of the group. 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. Coal waste dumping had gone on there for decades, up in the hills, at the headwaters of the Buffalo Creek. August 16, 1971WVDNR Inspector recommended an emergency spillway on Dam That year, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association was formed. J.L. Buffalo Creek Coal Mine, Logan County, WV Written at SFSU in 2017 About 45 years ago, at the U.S.' coal mining peak, the country had one of its worst mining-related disasters at Buffalo Creek, Logan County, West Virginia [1]. Based on the testimony obtained from hearings, technical reports and our own field inspection, the Commission concludes that: Dam No. Each upstream dam was built several hundred yards upstream of the previous dam. Moore shared stories of two young children Darla Dillon, 5, and David Adkins Jr., 4, both of Lorado who perished in the flood. Initial Settlement Proposal (Buffalo Creek) and Pittston's First Counter Offer - Stern wanted 32.5 mil (people would've been happy with 10.5 mil) - Pittston came back with 3 mil offer . Fact stipulations, exhibit lists, and pretrial Alvid Davis was working outside his home in the community of Stowe when he looked up and saw the flood waters coming, according to an Associated Press report of February 28, 1972. Hearing before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate July 20, 1972. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. Governor Arch Moore accepted a $1 million settlement from the Pittston Coal Company related to the 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood. In that case, the bottom of the 72-acre Big Branch slurry impoundment owned by the Martin County Coal Corp. broke through an abandoned underground mine located below it. Pittston and $50 million punitive damages. For the individuals being stereotyped, it can lead to internalization. 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. [I]f you dont do some-thing, were all going to be washed away., By June 1970, Pittston had acquired the Buffalo Mining Company. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. 1945The Lorado Coal Company opened a coal mine at Buffalo Creek and began Bridges were smashed to bits. After its pH level and temperature were checked, the creek was returned to the Division of Natural Resources trout stocking program in 2006 after a 34-year hiatus. 4, Special Focus: Special issue on Post Disaster Societies (2011), pp. that the ultimate effect of [any] claims [related to the Buffalo Creek disaster] October 23, 1890: "Wreck on the C&O" November 4, 1985: Floods devastate West Virginia. The outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Buffalo Creek go far in demonstrating the power divide between the haves and the have-nots in Appalachia. 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. 39, No. 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. Instead, the builders end-dumped and shoved loosely compacted layers of coarse refuse across the valley. Recent history suggests that a number of these facilities and practices hold public safety risks and/or environmental threats. Family and Character Change at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp 295-299. He was heavily involved in writing federal regulations and beefed-up criteria for the construction of coal waste dams and their maintenance. William E. Davies, James F. Bailey, and Donovan B. Kelly, West Virginias Buffalo Creek Flood: A Study of the Hydrology and Engineering Geology, U.S. Geological Survey, Geological Survey Circular 667, Washington, DC: 1972. Ive been fishing here for almost 17 years. 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. The following morning, his wifes birthday, Harvey was on his way to pick up a cake, but police had the road blocked off. Middle Fork Buffalo Creek, Saunders, West Virginia, Volume 1, February 1973. Gertie Moore recalls a personal story about the Buffalo Creekduring a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. Jules Loh, Associated Press, Buffalo Creek Hollow: A Nice Place to Live Then The Flood, March 5, 1972. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Such bold determination on the part of everyday citizens demonstrates the leadership that Erikson found lacking in Appalachia. A wave from the waste dam flooded and destroyed the Buffalo Creek community [2]. Newman, Disaster at Buffalo Creek. 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. And women, children and animals were floating in that high wall of water bearing down on building. Tragedy resulted in a $ 13.5 million settlement agreement filed with Murder in Appalachian, the concludes! Didnt tell Randolph and other politicians how they really feel settlement, and you are Now logged.. Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24 Date Posted: 31 January 2019 Note mud lines on the of... Tons of water-saturated waste into the pond behind dam No can lead to internalization 10, 1972 settlement and... 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