History of Sludge Impoundments

West Virginians know that coal sludge dams are very dangerous. In 1972, a coal waste dam, of much shoddier construction than present day impoundments, failed at Buffalo Creek.  A 30-foot high wall of water surged down the creek, killing 125 people, destroying over 1,000 homes and leaving 4,000 people homeless. This avoidable disaster prompted the passage of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

While today's impoundments aren't likely to suffer catastrophic failure of the dam face, they remain very dangerous. Citizens worry that impoundments will unleash a tidal wave of sludge onto downstream communities.

Just after midnight on Oct. 11, 2000, workers at Kentucky's largest mountaintop removal mine noticed a whirlpool of sludge swirling in the 72-acre impoundment.

A crack opened between the bottom of the 2.2 billion gallon impoundment and the underlying abandoned mineworks. Before Martin County Coal Co (a Massey Energy subsidiary) . workers could get control of the situation, about 309 million gallons of lava-like black sludge gushed into the mines.

The sludge exploded out of two mine portals and into two creeks. Residents along Coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek awoke to a nightmare. Thick, black gunk oozed out of the creek banks -- at some points 15 feet deep, elsewhere up to 70 yards wide -- swallowing backyards, gardens and driveways, and killing fish and other aquatic life.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials called it the worst environmental disaster ever in the Southeast. Miraculously, no people died, but 75 miles of waterways were contaminated. In 2005, residents say the toxic sludge still lingers.

Across the Appalachian coalfields, "blackwater" releases occur frequently, polluting streams and groundwater.