Revolt in West Virginis's Coal Country

"Swearengin and I jump on ATVs to see the Brushy Fork coal-slurry impoundment, the largest in America, holding back roughly 9 billion gallons of toxic waste behind a dam that at over 900 feet is the tallest in the U.S. – and like the rest of West Virginia's 100-plus coal-slurry impoundments, made of mining waste rock. In 1972, a failure at the nearby Buffalo Creek impoundment sent a 30-foot-high tidal wave of viscous coal slurry through a series of communities, wiping out hundreds of homes and killing 125 people."

[rollingstone.com]