U. S. Department of Interior, Task Force to Study Coal Waste Hazards, Preliminary Analysis of the Coal Refuse Dam Failure at Saunders, West Virginia February 26, 1972, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1972. Or something else altogether? 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. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. The dams themselves were certainly not state-of-the-art construction. 51 years later, memories still haunt survivors of Buffalo Creek flood. dvidovich@hdmediallc.com, House passes religious freedoms bill after attempts to amend fail, WV Senate passes bill aimed at strengthening flood resiliency, Blevins resigns as Man mayor; Fekete appointed, Cline's charges referred to Grand Jury; bond reduction request denied, Chapmanville girls beat Liberty Raleigh, Mingo Central to win sectional title, Dwight Williamson: Racism lived in Logan County in the 1950s, and still does, Amid heated exchange, Chapmanville council rescinds $2,000 sports donation, Townsend sworn in to Chapmanville Police Department, Dwight Williamson: Former baseball player from Holden barely remembered today, Two dead after head-on crash on Buffalo Creek, Beckett: City pursuing inspection process for residential electric hookups. Additionally, on one side of the valley below Dam #1, there was a huge smoldering coal refuse pile. Feb 27, 1972. Congressman Ken Hechler (D-WV)), who also came to the area on Sunday, February 27th, told reporters that the U.S. Bureau of Mines and state agencies had failed to demonstrate sufficient concern for the protection of the safety of the people who work in the mines and live in the mining communities. Hechler also pointed to what he believed was a contributing cause of the flooding: As I looked through Buffalo Creek valley yesterday, it struck me again that the entire valley is honeycombed with strip mines and the waste from deep mines so that the soil can no longer hold the [rain] water. Hechler also slammed the coal industrys power in the area, saying, the people are prisoners of the coal industry And with some irony, he added, the only building left intact in one Buffalo community was the company store., On Monday, February 28th, U.S. West Virginia: Disaster in the Hollow, Time, Monday, March 13, 1972. (Rockefeller would later be elected governor and U.S. At approximately 8 a.m. on Feb. 26, 1972, a man-made coal slurry impoundment dam, which was operated by the Pittston Coal Company, burst following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. Chance of rain 100%. Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Many Coal Sludge Impoundments Have Weak Walls, Federal Study Says, Washington Post, April 24, 2013. Engineers Say Buffalo Dam Doomed at Start, Logan Banner (Logan, WV), May 30, 1972. Fuquay would also conduct an early field analysis of what happened there. Chad Motrie's 2003 history of Appalachian strip mining. Creek dams. 2 gave way, quickly followed by Dam No. The Buffalo Creek disaster, however, did galvanize concern about strip mining and coal safety in Congress, and helped to spur passage of regulatory bills on the House side during Congressional debate in the early 1970s. It was High around 75F. 2/3 (152/153) (2018), pp. At approximately 8 a.m., a coal waste dam collapsed on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek, releasing 132 million gallons of water, coal refuse, and silt into the narrow mountain valley. They relate the story of a group of survivors who formed their own support group without outside help. The dams were intended to leak and serve as filters. 3), Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1972. Craig Ammerman, Eight More Bodies Found; Logan Flood Toll Climbs to 84, Charleston Gazette, March 3, 1972. George Vecsey, West Virginians Living in Hollows Fear That Mine Waste Piles in Their Areas Will Cause Next Flood, New York Times, March 6, 1972. On February 26, 1972, tragedy struck a small mining community in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. 1 filled up with fine waste, then Dam No. The Buffalo Creek Disaster Memorial, located in Kistler, WV, stands as a reminder of one of the darkest hours in West Virginia history. The Buffalo Creek . I'm interested in (please check all that apply). Buffalo Creek Disaster Gerald M. Stern 3.68 2,196 ratings176 reviews One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. When forced to give up these long-standing ties with familiar places and people, the . Left over from Scots-Irish immigrants? 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. (AP Photo/John Raby). Like Kalgan mentions these cases sometimes end up "spending more money on litigation costs than on payments that end up in injured plaintiffs pockets" (Kagan, 138). If your house burned down, youve still got your neighbors. 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. But the dam pools, and the dumping of the solid slag wastes on the dam structures, were both essentially cost-saving, cheapest-way-to-do-it coal industry practices. When the water set it down again, it just flattened out on the ground. October 6, 1982: Buffalo Creek flood settlement. 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. It wasnt if Buffalo Creek would ever happen again, but when. The water is tranquil in the pools where the trout like to hide. A Pittston Coal Group decal sticker listing some of the company's mining locations in the VA-WV area. More than a dozen towns were inundated and 125 people lost their lives. Tom Nugent, Death at Buffalo Creek: The 1972 West Virginia Flood Disaster, New York: Norton, 1973. 3 above its impounded sediment. Click for copy. An accounting of the disaster, and multiple investigations, would then proceed to piece together what had happened there, focused on the coal mining and dam building. MayA group of Buffalo Creek disaster survivors traveled to Pittstons It just broke your heart to see firsthand the devastation that water could do, he would tell a Herald Dispatch reporter. Later accounts from survivors would describe some of the horrendous moments that families faced as the coal flood tore through the valley. Stern describes victims losing family members before their eyes, and the devastation caused by the flood. Drinking water systems in ten counties had to be shut down, and a 20-mile stretch of river was declared an aquatic dead zone: more than 1,500 fish were killed. 2 (Spring 1973), pp. By June 1970, Pittston had acquired the Buffalo Mining Company. The socio-psychology of all this was probed and covered in an award-winning 1976 book by Kai T. Erikson. The Buffalo Creek disaster is the best example of a tragedy centered on environmental injustice where the minority ethnic groups and low . 1. By 1957, the Buffalo Mining Company, as part of its strip mining operations, began dumping gob mine waste consisting of mine dust, shale, clay, low-quality coal, and other impurities into the Middle Fork branch. The United States declined to sue Pittston for cleanup costs. Robert C. Withers, The Disaster of Buffalo Creek, Report of the West Virginia Adjutant General, Charleston, WV, 1972. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; In reaction to the flood, Hechler said: The people are prisoners of the coal industry., Hechlers quote is included in the media theorist Rita Colistras article in the Journal of Appalachian Studies, which also includes a quote from Ralph Nader. is not a proper party, to strike certain allegations in the complaint, and in the They pointed to a 1966 U.S. Geological Survey report of 1966 that had found 60 such coal mine waste piles in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, and that little had been done to correct or eliminate those hazards and additional ones since that report was made. Alvid Davis was working outside his home in the community of Stowe when he looked up and saw the flood waters coming, according to an Associated Press report of February 28, 1972. 2 was built on top of that waste. who live near coal-refuse impoundments.. John G. Morgan, Angered Citizens Plan Own Logan Flood Probe, Charleston Gazette, March 7, 1972. An airplane crashes. More than 100 people died in southern West Virginia when a dam failed. 3 was under construction and about 50 percent completed. list is late. 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.. Pittston failed to obtain an independent engineering opinion on the Buffalo One retired coal miner who survived the flood, but who lost his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the disaster, explained what he experienced in one Charleston Gazette account: How I got out of that water, I dont know I rode the house a long ways. Because of the downpour, nearly 50 acre-feet of fresh water filled the pool of Dam No. The flood wave destroyed houses and mobile homes, uprooted trees, and swept topsoil, huge rocks, trucks and cars downstream. Mine Safety and Health Administration If a person is so often treated as trash, they may come to believe they are nothing but trash. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. When Stern was talking to a former Pittston engineer, he learned something shocking. Beyond coal, and headquartered in New York City, Pittston had other diverse holdings an oil company, a large trucking firm, the Brinks armored car company, and forty percent of the warehouses in New York City. May 1, 1971Pittston acquiredBMCand assumed sole management In addition to the deaths, the disaster injured 1,100 and left more than 4,000 people homeless. Associated Press (Man, WV. West Virginias Secretary of State at the time, Jay Rockefeller (D) who became a candidate for Governor running against Arch Moore in the 1972 fall election also favored banning strip mining. injury claims of 33 plaintiffs, published 63 F.R.D. The water was there, and then it was gone Edna Baisden And on the morning of February 26, 1972, just after 8:00 am, that worst fear was realized. Eriksons book was a finalist for the National Book Award the year of its release. More than a dozen homes and hundreds of acres in the down-stream community of Harriman, TN were hit with a gigantic toxic mess. Article Citation: Hall. Ive got uranium and all kinds of radioactive stuff in my bedroom. Committee in a lawsuit against Pittston. Sunshine and clouds mixed. Click for copy. Events Leading To The Buffalo Creek Disaster, BuffaloCreekFlood.org. Each failure added millions of gallons to the monstrous wave of water bearing down on the residents of the countryside and towns below. Everything in Its Path:Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (1976), a non-fiction book by American author Kai T. Erikson, won the 1978 National Book Award for documenting the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek flood disaster in Logan County, West Virginia which killed 125 people and left 4,000 people homeless out of a 5,000-person local population. A number of leaks and smaller spills have also occurred. Were owned by the coal company. Depta recalls the trailers brought in by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set up temporary living for the newly homeless. solicitation of legal business. It later concluded that there was no impropriety. According to Young, Appalachia is a region discarded as an expendable population. But exploring how these negative stereotypes promote such attitudes can sharpen our understanding and ability to fight the treatment of all current and future oppressed groups.. They were filled to capacity, holding tons of coal wastewater. Logan Flood Toll 66; 400 Missing, Hundreds Search Disaster Area; Cause of Break Gets Attention, Charleston Daily Mail, February 28, 1972. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; Restockings now happen several times a year. studied the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in WV. George Vecsey, West Virginia Flood Toll At 60 With Hundreds Lost, New York Times, February 28, 1972. The spill covered the surrounding land with up to six feet of sludge. As of February 1st, 1972, dam No. for authority to build a $350 million oil refinery and tanker terminal. Pierson said he still feels a bit of anger over the aftermath of the flood. Have a correction or comment about this article? April 1, 1974Pittston moved to dismiss absent plaintiffs, plaintiffs claiming International television coverage of the American Civil Rights struggle was critical in the construction of racial identity and experience in postwar Britain. Survivors of 1972 Dam Disaster Accept $13.5-Million Settlement, New York Times, July 6, 1974. The .gov means its official. Headlines from an Associated Press story reporting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- also testifying at U.S. Senate hearings -- found the the Pittston Coal Co. dam above Buffalo Creek was "doomed from the start.". Were going to live here as long as he works here, she said, adding that without the dam, we could be over here safely.. Not long thereafter, the dam gave way, creating the horror that unfolded for the Buffalo Creek communities downstream. The Pittston Coal Co., meanwhile, continued extracting coal in the Buffalo Creek area through its subsidiary there. Pierson recalled having to walk to Lorado and his father forcing his way into a company store in order to obtain formula for his infant sister, who was born Jan. 6 of that year. 1967The U.S. Department of Interior releases its Report on Condition two telephone books worth of victim statements. water. 79-100. Aerial photograph from 'The Herald Dispatch' (Huntington, WV) captures some of the enormous damage in the Buffalo Creek valley, showing collection of homes uprooted and floated down the valley, covering roads and rail lines. First Lieut. 1, No. I found the use of . The Concept 2 . They lost loved ones, their homes, their neighbors, their community. Hope Wanes for 94 Listed Missing in Logan; Known Flood Dead is 88, Charleston Gazette, March 4, 1972. Thomas Andrews' "Killing for Coal". Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. In an out of court settlement, the survivors were awarded $13.5 million, $6 million of which was distributed on the basis of a point system as compensation for the psychological damages. gave way, killing eight people. [Gerald M Stern] -- This volume describes the Buffalo Creek Flood -- and also the investigation and legal actions that followed. A motion to make the resolution binding on Pittston management was defeated by Thomas N. Bethell and Davitt McAteer, The Pittston Mentality: Manslaughter on Buffalo Creek, Washington Monthly, May 1972. Williams wasnt alone in pointing to the ravages of strip mining. The flood, known as the Buffalo Creek disaster, is considered one of the worst disasters in both American and Mountain State history. Aerial photos at an Army Corps of Engineers office showed that earlier strip mining of coal seams had occurred on both sides of the slate dump, along with horizontal auger mining boring into the hillsides there. Rescue operations and accurate reporting of the dead and missing were made difficult by the fact that access to the area by road had been wiped out, with bridges destroyed and rail lines blocked or flooded. Pittston by then had developed a reputation for poor safety practices, and was ranked second nationally in the number of fatal and non-fatal mine accidents. After then-president of the United Mine Workers Union, Arnold Miller and others were rebuffed by Gov. Somewhere down in this valley I was born, Breiding sings on the album, adopting the persona of a fourth-generation coal miner who never left home. A few helicopters were used initially until local miners and others, and the National Guard, began clearing debris and building makeshift roads and bridges. BUFFALO CREEK, W.Va Sunday marked the 45th anniversary of the deadly Buffalo Creek disaster in Logan . The dams, built of coal slag wastes, were then owned by the Pittston Coal Company. Youve still got but it was gone, just like being somewhere and a volcano went off and wiped out your entire village, and even after it was all over with, they went through there and tore out our little road and destroyed all of our little communities, and the people that wanted to couldnt even move back to where they used to live at., It hurts, Hall said. The company was operating eight mines in the vicinity and ran all the coal through the preparation plant above the dams. Press Release, New Federal Standards Needed for Storing Coal Waste, National Research Council (Washington, DC), October 21, 2001. Jules Lob, Buffalo Creek Now A Valley of Death, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 1972. Part of that is to tell the survivors' story, to make it impossible . The pool behind Dam No. survivor syndrome, what is known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). a claims office in Buffalo Creek.Pittston moved for summary judgment because Pittston protect miners and their families. The news of the Buffalo Creek Disaster broke variously across the nation the next few days, in part due to the difficulty of getting to the site. Among those pressing for action in Washington was consumer advocate Ralph Nader, well known by then for taking on politicians and corporations. a federal safety standard prohibiting refuse piles from impeding drainage or impounding 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. Map Feature: Coal Ash Contaminated Sites & Hazard Dams (U.S.), EarthJustice.org. Logan County West Virginia Man, 1997. Mary Walton, State Warned in 1967 of Larado Dam Danger, Charleston Gazette, March 1, 1972. I love it, said Jacob Turkale, 25, who caught a rainbow trout Tuesday. 242-246, Appalachian Journal, Vol. Table of Contents. Stephen Young, a Marshall University professor and criminologist, recently wrote an article focused on the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, which left 300,000 West Virginians without clean water. U.S. Rebecca Bailey's 2008 book, "Matewan: Before The Massacre". Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster: Feb. 26, 1972. Each upstream dam was built several hundred yards upstream of the previous dam. Buffalo Area Declared Health, Safety Hazard, Logan Banner, March 1, 1972. (the diversity amount-in-controversy amount at the time). of their damage claims. Ewen and Lewis also include the story of another survivor who spent five months rebuilding his damaged home rather than letting authorities tear it down (it had been deemed to be damaged beyond repair). I go to fire departments and teach about nuclear fallout. Kanawha County Bar Association voted to investigate Arnold & Porters alleged To view our latest e-Edition click the image at left. McClintock was a field worker for the Black Lung Association, an organization focused on the debilitating disease common to miners. Citing coal industry dereliction throughout central Appalachia, they said it was imperative for Congress to investigate the industrys practice of erecting crudely-made coal refuse dams and propose legislation to prevent future disasters. Survey geologist inspects the Buffalo Creek dam and concludes that it was basically February 22A federal mine inspector andBMCsafety engineer Buffalo Creek Disaster YE HAO GBL395 Summer 2014 Synopsis: . Miles away, a coal companys hillside impoundment dams collapsed, sending slurry thundering downhill and into the hollow, inundating small communities and killing 125 people. So often, these people are defined by misguided Appalachian stereotypes. Sources: The Herald Dispatch, newspaper of Huntington, WV, Thomas Marsh, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. The Buffalo Creek Disaster: An Effective Supplement to a Conventional Civil Procedure Course Lawrence M. Grosberg Gerald Stern's The Buffalo Creek Disaster 1 and the lawsuit which is the subject of his book provide an excellent vehicle to complement a conven-tionally taught civil procedure course. The people he encountered, Breiding said, were thankful that somebody still remembered, because its something that has been buried in many peoples memories and buried in the past. As William Faulkner wrote in Requiem for a Nun: The past is never dead. Children of Disaster: Clinical Observations at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp.306-12. The first restoration, however, came with the railroads, rebuilt to serve the mines, which were operating again within a week of the flood. Coal waste dumping had gone on there for decades, up in the hills, at the headwaters of the Buffalo Creek. Depta writes: Theyre bringing in trailers so the next time theres a The state filed a $100 million lawsuit against mine owner Pittston Coal; then-Gov. dumping coal refuse into the mouth of Middle Fork hollow. Out of the total settlement, Arnold and Porter took a legal fee of $3 million. Contents The buffalo creek flood a sample Investigation Results But $27 million in flood emergency funds was used in 1975 to build a highway that really went nowhere, except to the coal tipples at the head of Buffalo Creek. 3 every day. Family and Character Change at Buffalo Creek, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 1976, pp 295-299. The moving wall of wastewater did its damage in seconds, in repeated fashion, as it moved down the hollow. A search of Public Service Commission records in response to Pearl Woodrums complaint failed to produce any proof that dams No.1 and No. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2010), pp. The commission consisted of nine men with ties to the coal industryor a vested interest in proving that Pittston Coal and state regulating agencies were not responsible. BMCfeared In the U.S. Congress at the time, federal legislation was being considered to regulate strip mining, and the Buffalo Creek disaster figured into the debate. October 5, 1973Plaintiffs filed supplemental more definite statement A Buffalo Creek native, Victor M. Depta, gets at this idea of recurring tragedy in a 1973 poem, written not long after the flood. "Coal: A Human History", 2016 edition. At a protest meeting held in the Buffalo Grade School in Accoville a month after the flood, an older woman stood up and shouted out: Ive lived up at the top of the hollow for a long time. 16, No. The report found that company and state officials were ill informed of the problems of refuse dams and had not taken timely measures. The Buffalo Creek Flood and Disaster: Official Report From the Governors Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, 1973 (as posted at: wvculture.org). One newspaper, reporting on the study and the Senate hearings, used the headlines Army Corps of Engineers Says Dam Doomed From Start (below). The first coal mining in the Buffalo Creek watershed dated to the 1910s when a few coal camps small mining towns sprang up following the first rail lines into the area to exploit the coal there. Judge Christie, the federal district judge originally assigned to the case, removes The Charleston Gazette reporting on the rising death toll of the Buffalo Creek Disaster and Pittstons PR office calling the disaster an act of God. Some residents in the area, especially those who lived in the town of Saunders, located in the valley directly below the dams, had worried for years about the dams strength. The black wall of water was later estimated to have moved at a rate of seven feet per second. A close look at Buffalo Creek illuminates the regions ties to coal. Buffalo Creek disaster remembered 40 years later The Associated Press The Associated Press Feb 27, 2012 The Tri-State's TRUSTED news source. Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. 344.754 S839. Roads werent where they used to be, nor were houses. Still other operations use injection techniques to pump various coal wastes underground. Buffalo Creek Flood survivor Fred Pierson gives his account of how the flood made him conquer his fear of water during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. 141-144, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Association for American Studies, Asian Journal of Social Science, Vol. Arnold and Porter noticed Pittstons president and vice-presidents depositions In just a few brief moments, 125 people were killed, 1,100 were injured, and over 4,000 were left without homes [1] as the result of a collapsed coal waste dam. Tim Hall, left, explains how the events of the Buffalo Creek Flood shaped his life during a memorial service at the Buffalo Creek Memorial Library on Friday, Feb. 24. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. The outcome of the lawsuits surrounding Buffalo Creek go far in demonstrating the power divide between the haves and the have-nots in Appalachia. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; The tautly-worded 31-page report offered detailed findings and evidence of corporate negligence and government failures in the disaster, and proposed 21 recommendations. January 1, 1971Pittstons umbrella insurance underwriters imposed a $1 Having faced several corruption allegations when serving as governor, Moore left office with this additional blemish on his record. In a 2012 interview, Porterfield said: [I]t looked like a battlefield. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. Construction is carried out according to the approved plan. Work began on drafting a settlement. And then you could hear the roar of it and you could see it. For decades after that, fishing of any kind was no longer an option on the southern West Virginia waterway. We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. Refuse Dumps at Coal Mines, discouraging the use of coal refuse dumps as dams. For the flood that followed the collapse of West Virginia's Buffalo Creek Dam in 1972like the one in Idahowas a manmade "natural disaster." It killed 125 people and left hundreds of coal. How much was the settlement? One resident had even written to the governor a few years earlier saying if something wasnt done about the dams, were all going to be washed away.We saw the water lift up our house. 201 12th StS The sociologist Kai Erikson was brought in for the latter suit as an expert witness on behalf of the survivors. The Then I fell off in the water. Buffalo Creek Special Series, Charleston Gazette, February 1997. Vintage. The first is Buffalo Creek Flood: Act of Man. But it brings back memories. May 30, 1972. "one acre of area covered by water to a depth of 300 feet", OR April 16, 1973Plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint to add additional Stern asked Judge Hall to help him get access to the West Virginia Ad Hoc Commission and submitted other discovery requests to Pittston. Suite 401 To counter Eriksons claims, Ewen and Lewis include survivor testimony that he neglected. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Ken Ward, Jr., Agencies Failed to Protect People, Inspector Recalls, Charleston Gazette, Tuesday, February 25, 1997. We won't share it with anyone else. Afterward, the survivors informally sit and talk about their memories from the flood and how it affected their lives. State officials requested a few minor alterations to the impoundment. miners. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. I just got done buying a Geiger counter and rebuilding it for someone because everybodys getting afraid of Russia right now.. November 20, 1968: Farmington coal mine disaster But those improved practices didnt last. 3 was being filled at a rate of about 1,000 tons of refuse a day, carried from the coal preparation plant to the dam in 30-ton trucks. However, he did question the ability of the overflow pipes in Dam No. Approximately $5.5 million was provided for property and wrongful-death damages, with approximately $8 million for the psychic impairment claims. But these werent the only investigations; there were also several others, including: one or more Congressional committees, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A coal mine explodes - and a dam fails. February 1972. 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