Reports on the October 2000 Breakthrough at the Big Branch Slurry Impoundment
On October 11, 2000, an estimated 306 million gallons of water and coal slurry drained from Martin County Coal Corporation’s Big Branch impoundment into an adjacent underground mine. Approximately 245 million gallons of the water and coal slurry discharged from the underground mine and entered nearby watersheds. No personal injuries were reported, but the slurry affected over 75 miles of streams in Kentucky and West Virginia with the spill reaching as far as the Ohio River. This was the second major breakthrough event at this impoundment, the first having occurred in May 1994. Also, as a result of several breakthroughs over the last few years including some in Virginia, the Office of Surface Mining developed a plan to assure that impoundment breakthroughs into the underground mine do not occur in the future. The reports below are products from that work and along with links to reports done by others on this subject. They are provided in Acrobat .pdf format.