Sign in or create a free account to curate your search content.
A grassroots campaign to end strip mining failed. Nearly a third of West Virginia’s coal now came from surface mines, which employed fewer workers and left a greater impact on the land.
At many sites, mine waste called slag or gob was poured across creeks, forming dams that impounded water. Despite warnings that gob pile dams were unreliable, they were unregulated and mostly ignored until Buffalo Creek.