1972 — Feb 26, Buffalo Creek Mining Co. Impoundment Dam Failure, Saunders, WV– 125

— 126 Cole. History of MSHA, slide 18.
— 125 Baker, et al. Flood Geomorphology. 1988, p. 442
— 125 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 307.
— 125 Drabek, Thomas E. The Human Side of Disaster. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010, 33.
— 125 Erikson. Everything in Its Path: Destruction…in the Buffalo Creek Flood. 1976, p. 40.
— 125 OJP DOJ. Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: 2nd Ed. (Appendix D).
— 125 Perry (USGS). Significant Floods in the United States During the 20th Century. 2000.
— 125 Schmid. “Puerto Rico Toll May be Highest in U.S. Landslide History.” 10-10-1985.
— 125 US DHS. Dams Sector: Estimating Loss of Life for Dam Failure Scenarios. 2011, p. 70.
— 125 USGS. Summary of Significant Floods in the US, PR, and the VI, 1970-1989. 2008.
— 125 West Virginia Archives & History. On The Day in West Virginia History…Feb 26.
— 118 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Feb 26, 1972, “Dam Collapses in WV.”

Narrative Information

Cole: “126 people living below the dam were killed, 1,100 injured, and over 4,000 left homeless.” (Cole. History of MSHA, slide 18) The town of Saunders disappeared. (Cole. History of MSHA, slide 19)

Subsequently, in 1973 the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration is created:

• MESA is created by an administrative action.
• Given enforcement responsibilities that formerly belonged to the Bureau of Mines.
• Basically a separation between research and enforcement.

(Cole. History of MSHA, 20)

DHS: “Buffalo Creek Coal Waste Dam No. 3 (commonly shortened to Buffalo Creek Coal Waste Dam) was located in the southwestern part of West Virginia, approximately 38 air miles south of Charleston. The non-engineered dam had been built by dumping waste rock and coal in the narrow valley. The purpose of the dam was to reduce stream pollution by impounding wastewater from a coal washing plant, thus allowing most of the sediment to settle.

“The dam failed at about 8:00 am on Saturday, February 26, 1972. The dam was in a constant state of construction and reconfiguration before the failure, so in a sense the dam was brand new. The dam failed during a 2-year storm event from the slumping of the dam face.

“Buffalo Creek Coal Waste Dam had a height of 46 feet and a reservoir volume of approximately 404 acre-feet when it failed. The drainage area upstream of the dam was only 1.1 square miles. Dam owner representatives were at the site monitoring conditions prior to dam failure. “At least two dam owner officials urged the Logan County Sheriff’s force to refrain from a massive alert and exodus” (Charleston Gazette, 1972). Company officials issued no warnings. At 6:30 am, the senior dam safety official at the dam dismissed two sheriff deputies who were called to the scene to aid evacuation. Residents’ reactions to the meager warnings issued were dampened due to at least four previous false alarms.

“The flood traveled downstream through the 15-mile-long valley at approximately 5 miles per hour. Over 1,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed. There were approximately 4,000 people left homeless. There were 125 fatalities in the 15-mile reach… Approximately 82 percent of the fatalities occurred in the first 6 miles downstream of the dam….” (U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. “Buffalo Creek Coal Waste Dam, West Virginia – Failed in February 1972,” pp. 70-71 in Dams Sector: Estimating Loss of Life for Dam Failure Scenarios. 2011.)

History.com: At approximately 8:05 a.m. on the morning of February 26, 1972, “A dam collapses in West Virginia…flooding a valley and killing 118 people. Another 4,000 people were left homeless.

“Coal mining was the chief industry in Logan County, West Virginia, in the 1970s. Such mining poses many environmental complications and first among them is safe disposal of the byproduct, known as tailings. If the tailings are dumped on hills, they can cause landslides. If placed in valleys, they can block streams and cause flooding.

“In West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Valley, tailings from area coal mines were used to dam Buffalo Creek. Tailings can however be unstable, especially in heavy rain. In February 1972, three days of rain exacerbated two small dam breaks that had occurred several years earlier. On February 26 at 8:01 a.m., the dam burst, unleashing a 20-foot wall of water that roared into the valley.

“About 4,000 people were living in 17 towns and villages in Buffalo Creek Valley at the time. Hundreds of homes and buildings were swept away by the powerful flood. Though estimates of the death toll vary, it is believed that at least 118 people lost their lives. The Buffalo Mining Company, which was responsible for the tailings, was forced to pay $30 million in damages.”
(History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Feb 26, 1972, “Dam Collapses in WV.”)

USGS: “The Buffalo Creek flash flood, one of the worst human-induced disasters in history, occurred February 26 in West Virginia. A makeshift dam on Buffalo Creek failed during excessive rains. The rushing waters from the dam failure swept away houses and cars. The flood caused 125 fatalities and $100 million in damages (Paulson and others, 1991 ).” (USGS. Summary of Significant Floods in the US, PR, and the VI, 1970-1989. 2008.)

US Senate: “ At Buffalo Creek, in February, 1972, 125 persons died when a dam burst sending a near tidal wave of murky water through the seventeen mile long valley, while the mining enforcement agency questioned its authority to regulate the coal mine impoundment dam in question….

“…review of the inspection and penalty assessment and collections at Buffalo Creek showed that prior to the disaster, the operator had been assessed penalties exceeding $1.5 million, not one cent of which had been paid by the date of the flood.”

Sources

Baker, Victor R., R. Craig Kochel, Peter C. Patton. Flood Geomorphology. Wiley-Interscience, 1988, 503 pages. Accessed, in part, at: http://books.google.com/books?id=snLfvo2w-ngC&dq=St.+Francis+Dam+Disaster&lr=&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

Cole, Jesse P. (MSHA District 4 Manager). “History of MSHA,” Leadership Intensive Course Mine Safety and Health Administration. No date. 48 slides. Accessed 1-11-2009 at: http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/mining/modified_History_of_MSHA.ppt#256,1

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Drabek, Thomas E. The Human Side of Disaster. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010.

Erikson, Kai T. Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, February 26, 1972. “Dam Collapses in West Virginia.” Accessed 12/07/2008 at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=02/26&categoryId=disaster

Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice. Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: Second Edition (Appendix D: Catastrophes Used as Reference Points in Training Curricula). Washington, DC: OJP, U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/crt/pdftxt/appendd.txt

Perry, Charles A. Significant Floods in the United States During the 20th Century – USGS Measures a Century of Floods (USGS Fact Sheet 024-00). USGS Kansas Water Science Center, March 2000, Accessed 8-21-2017 at: http://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/fact-sheets/fs.024-00.html

Schmid, Randolph E. “Puerto Rico Toll May be Highest in U.S. Landslide History.” Associated Press, 10-10-1985. Accessed at: http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1985/Puerto-Rico-Toll-May-By-Highest-in-U-S-Landslide-History/id-7855d61fffd77b93c5c6ed64b8c7ea54

United States Department of Homeland Security. Dams Sector: Estimating Loss of Life for Dam Failure Scenarios. September 2011, 94 pages. Accessed 12-2-2017 at: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=726315

United States Geological Survey. Summary of Significant Floods in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, 1970 Through 1989 (Water-Supply Paper 2502). USGS Kansas Water Science Center, Sep 17, 2008. Accessed 11-12-2016 at: http://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/reports/wsp.2502.contents.html#HDR1

United States Senate. Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Report No. 95-181, 95th Congress, 1st Session, Calendar No. 154). Washington, DC: US Senate, 5-16-1977. Accessed 9-4-2018 at: https://arlweb.msha.gov/SOLICITOR/COALACT/leghist2.htm

West Virginia Archives & History. On The Day in West Virginia History…February 26, 1972 (webpage).