These days, whenever hard rains fall in the coal fields, local residents worry about the lakes of black coal soup hovering over the hollows. Thirty years ago, the dam collapsed on one of these slurry ponds in Buffalo Creek, killing 125 people in the wave of black water rumbling down the valley. Nearly two years ago, it was the 200 millions of coal slurry that a Massey mine spilled into creeks near Inez, Ky., called the worst environmental disaster east of the Mississippi.

                So it was sad news, yet not surprising, when an old slurry impoundment overflowed near Gary during the May 2 flood and dumped 5,000 gallons a minute into the Tug Fork.

Slurry entering the Tug Fork.                               The spill out of the slurry impoundment. Photos taken the day of the spill by a local resident.

Road to the slurry impoundments.                      Acid mine drainage and the remnants of the slurry spill color the creek draining to Tug Fork

            Antaeus Gary had acquired the former U.S. Steel mine site in 1997 and promised dozens of jobs while transforming the waste coal into a usable combustible product. A couple years later, it was bankrupt and two subsequent owners couldn't make the scheme work either. Meanwhile Department of Environment inspectors warned that the drainage pipe was inadequate and could clog. This would overwhelm the dam--which is what happened. (See story in Charleston Gazette)

        During the overflow, the town of Gary had to shut down its water system, which is supplied by the Tug. Some 250 residents were put on evacuation alert. DEP has taken over the site, and clean up is estimated at $5 million.

A month after the spill, the bank of the Tug Fork is coated with slurry and littered with coal--while seemingly permanently stained orange.