| Chapter 1: | Buffalo Creek Before, During, and Soon After the Flood |
Table 1.1. (continued)
| 1972 | JUNE |
| The Senate Labor Subcommittee and the Department of Interior call for new legislation to eliminate future disasters like the one at Buffalo Creek. They recommend passage of the pending “Mined Area Protection Bill.” | |
| 1972 | SEPTEMBER |
| Governor Moore’s Ad Hoc Commission publishes its report on its investigation into the Buffalo Creek flood. Some of the report is highly critical of Pittston and BMC. It recommends a grand jury investigation with subpoena power in order to examine more thoroughly the conflicting testimony of some witnesses and to consider whether criminal charges should be issued. | |
| A Logan County circuit judge follows the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Commission and orders a grand jury probe of the disaster to determine whether criminal charges should be brought against Pittston and BMC. | |
| The Citizens’ Committee to Investigate the Buffalo Creek Disaster concludes that BMC was solely responsible for the flood and that it failed to protect the people of Buffalo Creek. | |
| Some survivors decide to seek additional compensatory and exemplary damages from Pittston. They hire the Washington DC law firm, Arnold & Porter, to prepare a lawsuit on their behalf. |
Only one year later, in 1967, part of dam #2 collapsed and released hundreds of tons of wastewater and debris—which tore up sections of Route 16 and railroad tracks at Three Forks and flooded the yards, porches, and basements of some of the dwellings. This flood frightened some of the residents enough that they petitioned Governor Hulett Smith to have the gob ponds closed down—but to no avail. Other incidents that involved other gob ponds along Buffalo Creek occurred during the next five years. In 1967 another gob pond collapsed. This one was at Proctor Bottom, about midway down Buffalo Creek. Tons of wastewater and debris swept away some vehicles and filled some basements with mud and gob. Concerns about the safety of the gob ponds became more widespread among Buffalo Creek’s people, particularly when BMC built yet another dam (#3) and gob pond on Middle Fork in 1969. It was located about a half mile upstream and more than one hundred feet higher in elevation than the two gob ponds that were already blocking Middle Fork.