Buffalo Creek dam failure
A mine-waste impoundment located on the Middle Fork of the Buffalo Creek watershed in Logan County, West Virginia failed a minute or so before 8 a.m. February 26, 1972, causing the sudden release of 17.6 million cubic feet (132 million gallons) of water and mining waste sludge onto the Buffalo Creek Valley floor. The failure can after heavy rain weakned a poorly constructed and overfilled impoundment that had a history of problems. The instantaneous release of the water behind this impoundment immediately began a fall of 253 feet to Buffalo Creek, washing out two additional combination waste banks and impoundments in its path, and tore off the corner of a burning mine-refuse bank before cascading directly into the western slope of Buffalo Creek Valley, one-half mile away.
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