https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/8d91161a-6989-49a2-b0d7-2df388150753 Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join Help us preserve, scan and post more rare and endangered films! Join us on Patreon. Visit https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Visit our website www.PeriscopeFilm.com "Emergency Investigation of Coal Waste Embankments" was produced following an investigation set in place after a major disaster; the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster. The film showcases how various coal and mining companies remove and handle their coal waste. Buffalo Creek flood disaster was later known as an "act of man" rather than an act of God or a natural disaster. Loss of life and injury to people and property was due to the failure of three coal slurry dams. The disaster led to the formation of a task force to study coal waste hazards in 1972 by the Department of the Interior. Coal was the primary source of US energy in the 1970's; natural gas was sparse and oil was expensive. However; this was a period of transition as even as early as the 1940's steam engine trains were being replaced with diesel. Smoke stacks billow from a coal mining plant (:21). Industrial developments and energy use based upon population requirements in the early 1970's are relayed; 500 million tons of coal were used in 1971. Molten slag spills out (:31). Refuses and wastes are always produced. Mounds of coal waste are comprised of shattered mine rocks (:54), low grade coal (:56) and sludge. An aerial tram dumps coal waste in a designated isolated area (1:20). Waste material is graded by a bulldozer (1:29). Common types of deposits are explored; side hill dumps (1:42), cross valley fills (1:46), sludge ponds and waste heaps (1:52). Scenes follow from the February 26th, 1972 disaster (2:14) near Saunders, West Virginia. The coal slurry impoundment burst causing 125 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. Wreckage lines the roadway; bent and mutilated slatted roofs, crumpled chimneys (2:23). Geologists cart waste for a study (2:42). The White House (2:52) and the Department of the Interior are pictured. The Department of the Interior then created the special task force (2:57). Workers from the Bureau of Mines (3:04) survey the Saunders Dam area. The task force meets (3:45) with the bureaus coal mining inspection districts in order to inventory all waste embankments in the country. 139 sites were identified. Ground and helicopter teams of mining engineers and engineering geologists (4:14) hit the field. The US Geological Service Survey participated (4:35). The air team moves around a candy cane Hughes 500 helicopter (4:43). A Bell 206 (5:28) moves for the Appalachian coal fields. Mines were surveyed from West Virginia, Kentucky (5:49), Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania. A chopper buzzes over lush hills at the reconnaissance level (6:08). Improper methods of construction are investigated (6:47). Slope (6:54) and formation of embankment is discussed (6:54). Sludge disposal is broken down (7:43). Burning; another deficiency is looked to (9:07). A mine with a refuse pile is explored from above (9:31). Ground teams are dispatched to various sites, crews zoom off to visit dump and impoundment sites (9:59). Team members meet with waste site managers at the waste sites (10:10). Dumps are inspected, photographed and measured (10:25). Deposits are sampled (10:31). Extent of erosion (10:48), deposit movement (10:50), eternal erosion and piping are documented. The review board meets in Washington determining obvious and potentially dangerous sites (11:28).  Results are collected; notices and orders are shipped out by the local Bureau of Mines (11:44). Steep slopes were to be modified by dozer spreading (11:55). A miner stands at the base of a spillway (12:00). Spill ways and diversion ditches (12:00) were required to handle peak runoff. Footage follows of sludge inflow points from behind the upstream face of the dam (12:37). Altimeter devices (12:50), Brunton compasses (12:55). Piezometers (13:02) and slope movement indicators are put to use (13:03). Limitations were set in place on height (13:23). Long range goals of the department of the interior (13:44) are discussed at the close. The seal of the Department of the Interior follows (14:26). Scenes of Buffalo Creek are courtesy of WSAZ-TV Huntington, VA (14:30).  Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. 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