Last week’s chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia’s Elk River virtually shut down the city and left 300,000 residents and thousands of businesses without clean drinking water. Those chemical and waste water impoundments – both natural and man-made – are ticking environmental and economic time bombs that for decades have posed threats to resident of mining communities throughout West Virginia, Kentucky and many other major coal mining states. The worst example dates back to February 26, 1972, when three dams containing a witches’ brew of coal slurry and water in Logan County, W.Va., failed in rapid succession. A startling 125 people were killed, 1,121 others were injured, 17 communities were wiped out and over 4,000 were left homeless after 130 million gallons of sludge and toxic water were released into the Buffalo Creek flood plain. Despite evidence of negligence, the Pittston Coal Company — the owner of the dams — called the tragedy an “act of God.”
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Coal Country Toxic Chemical Spills: Not If, But When