28 (S.D. By June 1970, Pittston had acquired the Buffalo Mining Company. There was a gold trout out there I was trying to catch, he said. Resources Division inspectors checked the dams but nothing happened. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. Stern asked Judge Hall to help him get access to the West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission The little girl, Darla in September, she was a Kindergarten student and she got on my bus one morning and her mother had cleaned house, Moore said, and she brought me some plastic flowers that she had got out of the garbage and brought to me, and I thought that was so sweet. 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. Each upstream dam was built several hundred yards upstream of the previous dam. They are used to hard times. For the individuals being stereotyped, it can lead to internalization. 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.. Before that, I was terrified.. The wall of water exploded Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. Robert Weedall, West Virginias climatologist, noted in later remarks that yes, Act of God is a legal term, but there were other perhaps more apt legal terms that might apply to what had happened in Buffalo Creek, such as involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence. The record, however, would prove that acts of man had everything to do with what happened at Buffalo Creek. 16, Nos. 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. George Vecsey, Two Rival Inquiries Are Begun into Flood in West Virginia, New York Times, March 12, 1972, p. 70. amzn_assoc_asins = "0821415565,1467135496,0345543254,0618872248"; I enjoyed it when I was small., He said the adults decided that if they got the kids involved they wouldnt be as apt to go out and start worrying about getting on drugs or drinking and stuff like that.. 1 (FALL 1999), pp. 1946The Buffalo Creek Company purchased the Lorado Coal Company. As a way to remember and memorialize the devastating flood, a small gathering of survivors congregated at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library at South Man Friday afternoon. . Subsequent Pittston announced in 1999 that it was leaving the coal business. Click the card to flip Definition 1 / 149 * the author, former civil rights attorney employed at Arnold and Porter (large DC firm) * lead attorney in Buffalo Creek case Click the card to flip Flashcards Learn Test Match Created by Mariam_Salman27 Terms in this set (149) recommended an emergency spillway on Dam #3 in his inspection report. there wasnt any flood. Some of the flood damage in the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia, showing "mud line" on damaged home, indicating approximation of flood levels for some structures, while others were carried away in the wave or disintegrated into pieces. Dam #3 in his inspection report. Note mud lines on the building at left, marking flood level. Tom Price, Who Killed Buffalo Creek?, Rolling Stone, January 3, 1974. 2 held and halted the water. alternative for a more definite statement as to plaintiffs states of citizenship 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.. February 1972. Table of Contents. and damage claims. No evidence of an act of God was found by the Commission. March 21, 1972Pittstons board of directors authorizedBMCto establish Half of its downstream side slumped but Arnold & Porters medical and psychological experts started interviewing and This dam failure released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Emory and Clinch rivers. As residents gather this weekend on the 50th anniversary of one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, theyre also able to revel in a comeback. The Buffalo Creek Disaster of 1972. The state Legislature had sued Pittston for $100 million. 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. 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. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. The cause of the Buffalo Creek failure was analyzed, an inventory of coal waste impoundments was compiled, and emergency inspections were conducted to identify other potentially hazardous sites. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. motions due. million deductible in response to the Dola, W. Va., dam failure. A wave of nearly 130 million gallons of water and other material (a total volume estimated to be between 300 and 400 acre-feet) roared down the Buffalo Creek valley at a velocity estimated to be 20 feet per second in its initial three miles. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. UPI photographer Leo Gardner, one of the first outsiders to reach the area reported, Lorado was wiped out. Another early report from the devastation noted: 52 bodies lying on both sides of the road running alongside Buffalo Creek. Some drowned in the floodwaters, while others were buried by landslides, as a thick muck had moved along with the coal water. 1. That year, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association was formed. 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. ), 400 Still Missing in West Virginia Flood, February 28, 1972. One lawsuit was filed by the state of West Virginia, while another class action lawsuit was filed by survivors of the flood. who live near coal-refuse impoundments.. Human relationships in this community had been derived from traditional bonds of kinship and neighborliness. For decades after that, fishing of any kind was no longer an option on the southern West Virginia waterway. Thats the year we really got cranked up, Harvey said. The outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Buffalo Creek go far in demonstrating the power divide between the haves and the have-nots in Appalachia. Approximately 550 homes were destroyed, and another 900-plus were damaged. The couple had nine children. 300 acre-feet of water would be: In a court statement later, Mr. Staten recounted his travail and losing his wife: When I looked back and saw her she said, Take care of my baby.Thats the last time I saw her., Mr. Staten and his son, meanwhile, swept along in the water, were struggling to save themselves. 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. 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. They relate the story of a group of survivors who formed their own support group without outside help. 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. Gertie Moore, a former Logan County Schools bus driver, tearfully recalls two children who perished in the Buffalo Creek Flood during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. 2 gave way, quickly followed by Dam No. (AP Photo/John Raby). But his youngest son and daughter and his wife were among the missing. West Virginia Governor's report: "The Buffalo Creek Flood And Disaster". The spill covered the surrounding land with up to six feet of sludge. K.T. of their damage claims. 1948US Department of Interior published an information circular, Burning Some 208 of these coal combustion waste sites are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and/or rivers. (The Herald-Dispatch via AP). Approximately $5.5 million was provided for property and wrongful-death damages, with approximately $8 million for the psychic impairment claims. EPA has made hazard ratings for hundreds of coal combustion waste ponds and impoundments in the U.S., ranking them for the public safety dangers and environmental risks they would pose in the event of failure. June 12, 1964Buffalo Mining Company (BMC) incorporated. dam will hold. Kai Eriksons book, Everything In Its Path: Destruc-tion of Community in The Buffalo Creek Flood. As if some foreign enemy had flown in and nuked the place. Headlines from 'The Springfield Republican' of Massachusetts, report on the 'W.Va. 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. that the ultimate effect of [any] claims [related to the Buffalo Creek disaster] May 30, 1972. These cracks were a clear indication of the saturation and subsequent destabilization of the structure, but no evacuation order was issued. Although its velocity gradually decreased as it traveled down the valley, the event caused death and destruction as far as 15 miles downstream of the dams. Pittston Quits the Coal Business, Buffalo CreekFlood.org. The problem of coal waste impoundments in Appalachia and all across America has not gone away since the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. Mimi Pickering, my wife, made two documentary films about the disaster. psychic injury while they were physically away from Buffalo Creek during the flood. 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