Memorial marker at a church in Buffalo Creek, listing the victims and the missing persons of the Buffalo Creek disaster

Event: Ceremony at Buffalo Creek Memorial on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Disaster and the 20th Anniversary of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).
The Pittston Coal Company declared it an act of God, but five years later President Jimmy Carter signed the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), establishing federal standards for such impoundments and for the reclamation of strip-mined land. The wreath-laying ceremony was held in observation of the 20th anniversary of the passage of SMCRA and the 25th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster.
The emergence of mountaintop removal as the preferred method of stripmining in the 1990s has focused national attention on a controversial loophole in SMCRA, which requires companies to restore mountains to approximate original contour (AOC), except in cases where flattened mountains are deemed necessary for economic development."
"In August of 1997, the Citizens' Coal Council and the West Virginia Organizing Project sponsored a commemorative wreath-laying ceremony at the Buffalo Creek Memorial. This memorial stands at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, where, on February 26, 1972, a makeshift impoundment built by the Pittston Coal Company collapsed, unleashing millions of gallons of torrential black goo, which some called a "wall of water." Roaring through the hollow in minutes, the water killed 126 people.