Which Central Appalachian coal producer was responsible for a spill that dumped 306 million gallons of slurry into tributaries of the Tug Fork River?
Martin County coal slurry spill The Martin County coal slurry spill was an accident that occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine below. The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306,000,000 gal of slurry down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. By morning, Wolf Creek was oozing with the black waste; on Coldwater Fork, a 10 ft wide stream became a 100 yd expanse of thick slurry.
Elk Creek (West Virginia) Elk Creek is a tributary of the West Fork River, 29 mi long, in north-central West Virginia in the United States. Via the West Fork, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 121 sqmi on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau. The stream is believed to have been named by an 18th-century trapper and hunter named John Simpson, who encountered herds of elk along the stream.