Tracy and Bettie Wriston have lived their entire lives in Clear Creek. Tracy worked in deep mines and is now retired. They live up the right fork of Clear Creek on a farm once owned by Tracy's father. Bettie works at the school at the end of the hollow on the main road that runs from Beckley to Whitesville.                                                   The Wristons know what it's like to live below a mine. In the late 1960s, the mountains behind their farm were being strip mined. A heavy rain caused a washout from the mine. The creek overflowed its banks; their road was closed.                                                   They thought strip mines were gone from the area. But in the early 1990s, Costain Coal began mining the same mountains behind their farm. About a mile behind the house, the mine has built a large pond to catch the runoff from two valley fills. At the beginning of May, Tracy and Bettie Wriston trudged across the creek and through the field and woods to the pond. It stretched for nearly an acre and was full to the brim. On the cool Spring late afternoon, the water was dark and clear. Above it to the right, trees had been shaved from the sides of the valley. Dirt and rocks had been tossed down as the valley was becoming a valley fill. As Bettie walked up the road, she commented: "If this (the pond) goes, everything from here to the school will go."                                           When the rain fell on the evening of June 1, the water rushed down the creek past the Wriston's farm. "It sounded like a train," she said. Their road was closed for several days. And the parking lot of the school was so flooded that it couldn't be used as a temporary shelter the night of the storm.          

  Harvey Maynor lives about half a mile   

  from the Wristons up Toney's Fork in Clear Creek. For several years, a valley fill ended within 400 feet of his house, which is across the road from the fill. His wife had been expecting a washout from the fill. There were a couple of short downpours on the evening of June 1, but none were that hard, the family recalled. Maynor's son had just come back to the house after checking the pond at the base of the fill. All of a sudden something collapsed along the left side of the fill (seen above). Debris and water filled the tiny pond. A wave of water, mud and rocks washed over the side, flattening the grass near where Maynor is standing. Some came down the hill into the Maynors' porch and living room. Another torrent went to the right, leaving rocks under a nearby mobile home. The mine was given a violation by the state Division of Environmental Protection. The entire valley fill was rebuilt later in the year. After some delays, the mine paid for the Maynors' damages.