Remember Buffalo Creek
Feb 27, 2025
On Feb. 26, 1972, Pittston Coal Company’s waste sludge dam in Logan County, WV, collapsed, killing 125 people and leaving 4,000 homeless. As we remember this solemn anniversary, let’s also remember that thousands of people in Appalachia live under these massive dams. Thank you Appalshop and Mimi Pickering for documenting this crime against humanity in the documentary "The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQpI0qQSJM. 
While new standards were emplaced after the disaster, they’re only as good as the integrity of the companies (known for disasters) building and operating the dams and diligence and enforcement by government regulators (known for lax enforcement and giving coal companies whatever they want). With climate chaos driving more floods with greater severity, and regulatory agencies being gutted, hamstrung, and weakened, citizen vigilance is even more important now. Below are some of the sludge dams near us. 
Here’s the Brushy Fork sludge dam, operated by Alpha Metallurgical Resources subsidiary Marfork Coal, previously a subsidiary of Massey Energy. Massey, responsible for the fatal Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners in our community in 2010, built this dam over abandoned underground mines. This is similar to their Martin County, KY sludge dam that broke through into underground mines and released over 300 million gallons of sludge into neighboring streams and communities in 2000. The Brushy Fork dam holds about 8 billion gallons of sludge, is 2 miles long from toe to tip, and is taller than the Hoover Dam. It sits a few miles upstream of Whitesville, WV.
Flyover courtesy Southwings.
Here's the Shumate's Branch sludge dam, operated by Sundial Mining in Sundial, WV. The toe of the dam is less than 400 yards from the old Marsh Fork Elementary School (the black roof at the bottom of the shot. The dam holds 2.8 billion gallons of sludge. The liquid seeping from the toe of the dam is treated in a series of ponds, some of which are orange in the picture, before being released into the river behind the school. The white cylindrical structure, within 300 feet of the school, is a silo that was used to hold powdered coal and load it into trains idling behind the school. The other structures were a preparation plant, all previously operated by Massey Energy, who sold to Alpha Metallurgical Resources, who unloaded onto Sundial Mining. Around the sludge lake Sundial operates a 2,000-acre mountaintop removal site. CRMW carried on a 6-year campaign, from 2004 to 2010, to get a safer new school for the kids. Finally, after the Upper Big Branch explosion, enough funding was raised to get a new school, where kids started classes in 2013. Video at https://youtu.be/iuOZbm0oSv0?si=f2g5tbshOV0auKNe and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5zQcEtsak and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj6g1rEgC70.
The Lower Big Branch sludge dam was mostly drained years ago, leaving this pond that serves as a sediment pond for the eroded valley fill above it. The pond is 100 yards wide and 300 yards long, sitting 400 feet in elevation above Coal River Road and the Birchton community. This site is operated by chronic violator Lexington Coal Company, and previously by Alpha Metallurgical Resources, and previously by Massey Energy. A 2024 dam inspection by the WVDEP engineer revealed problems, but WVDEP did not write them up as violations until after Coal River Mountain Watch's complaint. The two violations are now still unabated more than 4 months later and have been revised to Failure to Act Cessation Orders, prompting additional fines and the Show Cause process. After a long string of violations, Lexington owes over $172,000 in delinquent fines on this site and over $3 million company-wide. Videos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3k5jBkDW8g&t=45s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKMN_CN0yV4.
