Buffalo Creek Disaster, February 26, 1972, Logan County, West Virginia

On February 26, 1972, a coal refuse dam on Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, failed with loss of 125 lives. According to the WA Waller report, construction of the coarse coal refuse dam started in late 1947 with an embankment across the mouth of the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek. In 1966 when the reservoir filled with slurry fines, the owners constructed Dam No. 2 upstream founded on the slurry fines from Dam No. 1. In May 1968, Dam No. 3 was constructed upstream of the second dam, also founded on slurry fines. A single 24 inch pipe spillway provided discharge capacity for Dam #3, probably discharging onto the downstream face. Dam No. 3 was approximately 90 feet in height at the downstream toe with an estimated maximum storage of 392 acre-feet. On February 25-26, a rainfall of approximately 3.5 inches in 48 hours occurred over the Buffalo Creek watershed. Failure of Dam No. 3 probably began with a massive slide on the downstream face. The steep scarp created by the slide had a high phreatic surface and resulted in progressive embankment failure. With approximately 120 feet of embankment remaining above the upstream toe, the remaining section failed catastrophically, apparently near the right abutment. Release of Dam No. 3 reservoir water failed the smaller Dam No. 2 and Dam No. 1 in sequence. The combined discharge of approximately 140 million gallons of water and slurry occurred within 15 minutes causing an estimated peak discharge of 50,000 cfs at the town of Saunders, less than one-half mile downstream. The dam owner, Pittston, paid out just less than $50 million due to lawsuits, of which somewhere between $14-15 million was covered by insurance. An additional 13.5 million settled personal injury claims in total, or emotional distress damages. Some property damages were also paid. 10 pp., 3 references.