Buffalo Creek: No two words carry more drama and pain in the coalfields.
Buffalo Creek: No two words carry more drama and pain in the coalfields. They symbolize all the dangers of surface mining. They speak of the callous attitude the mine operators sometimes show towards those who live nearby. On February 26, 1972, a dam constructed of coal waste broke loose near the head of Buffalo Creek. The poorly constructed dam was holding back a lake of water used for cleaning coal. The lake was perched between two hills. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic, black water rushed down the valley like a tidal wave. The death toll totaled 125. Hundreds of homes were swept away.
Now residents of the coalfields use “Buffalo Creek” to express their fears of possible floods from the ponds at the ends of valley fills. Others fear a collapse of similar dams made of coal waste that hold back large ponds of discarded coal sludge in places like Laurel Creek, Ragland and Lick Creek. Part of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was enacted as a response to Buffalo Creek. The federal and state laws are supposed to prevent any more deadly floods. So far, no dams such as the one at Buffalo Creek have broken. However, more and more coalfield residents believe that the valley fills are exacerbating floods.
For more information about sludge impoundments, visit www.sludgesafety.org
Click here to take a Google Earth tour of more than 330 coal sludge impoundments in the coal bearing regions of Appalachia. A kml file will automatically download and open in your “Temporary Places”
Story contributed by distinguished author Penny Loeb from her website www.wvcoalfield.com. Photo by Kent Kessinger provided courtesy of Appalachian Voices and Southwings.
Sign the Guestbook
November 15th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Thank you for holding strong in the face of all of this. Students are finally mobilizing, and mobilizing quickly, to do something serious to help end our dependence on MTR coal. I grew up hiking in the Appalachians in New Hampshire - they’re the same mountains, and it’s terrible to see them destroyed anywhere.
November 19th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
It is time to stop the MOUNTIAN STATE from becoming the FORMER Mountain State
November 28th, 2007 at 12:29 am
This total disregard for humans & the earth has got to stop!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
You’ve got one more determined spirit fighting on your side as of today.
Thank you for telling your story!
February 20th, 2008 at 8:30 am
We are studying about your plight in our university class. Most people do not realize this is occuring.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
The most important issue facing West Virginians today.Stop MTR
March 19th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I live nearby in Virginia and used to take my children to Buffalo Creek near Lexington, VA to picnic and play in the small rapids. This story makes me physically ill. How dare our politicians allow corporations to rape our lands as they do. Hillary Clinton was asked what she thought of moutain top removal and this is what she said:
“I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think its a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here.
I’m not an expert. I don’t know enough to have an independent opinion, but I sure would like people who could be objective, understanding both the economic necessities and environmental damage to come up with some approach that would enable us to retrieve the coal but would enable us to do it in a way that wouldn’t damage the living standards and the other important qualities associated with people living both under the mountaintop and people who are along the streams.
You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we’ve got to look at this from a practical perspective.”
Obama on the other hand believes strip mining is an environmental disaster and will heed our demands to end it.
Perhaps there’s a reason why the word “monster” has come up in this primary.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I grew up on Buffalo Creek and was eight when the damn broke in 1972. The mining industry was not appealing to me even at that age and I dreamed of leaving to pursue something else. I wrote a story called Buffalo Creek Crossing to bring a positive spin to what is possible.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Mountains are unable to grow back, yet we keep destroying the beauty that they hold.
May 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Stay strong and keep getting the message out. I just learned about this and I am telling anyone who will listen. This tragedy has to be stopped. I am writing to President Obama in hopes of drawing more attention to this. There should be a law….destroying natural resources for monetary gain is despicable. What can I do to help? We do care about the mountains and the people who reside there.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Please earnestly support S696, HR1310, & HR2169.
Thank you.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
We are a family of four living in Chicago, currently considering relocating to eastern Kentucky. Now that we’ve found out about the mining and all the destruction, we are at a total loss about what to do.
I feel for those mountains and the people and animals living in and around them.
February 16th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
To any group dealing with ending MTR: I am willing to devote at least the next year of my life to help.