| Big Sandy River | |
| River | |
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Confluence of Levisa Fork and Tug Fork, forming the Big Sandy River
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| States | Kentucky, West Virginia |
| Counties | Lawrence KY, Wayne WV, Boyd KY |
| Source | Tug Fork |
| - location | Big Stone Ridge, McDowell County, WV |
| - elevation | 2,604 ft (794 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [2] |
| Secondary source | Levisa Fork [3] |
| - location | Gap of Sandy, Buchanan County, VA |
| - elevation | 2,657 ft (810 m) [4] |
| - coordinates | |
| Source confluence | [3] |
| - location | Louisa, KY |
| - elevation | 545 ft (166 m) |
| - coordinates | |
| Mouth | Ohio River [5] |
| - location | Catlettsburg, KY |
| - elevation | 525 ft (160 m) |
| - coordinates | |
| Length | 29 mi (47 km) |
| Discharge | for Louisa, KY |
| - average | 4,461 cu ft/s (126 m3/s) |
| - max | 89,400 cu ft/s (2,532 m3/s) |
| - min | 81 cu ft/s (2 m3/s) |
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Map of the Big Sandy River watershed, with its Levisa Fork (left) and Tug Fork (right) tributaties shown
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The Big Sandy River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 29 miles (47 km) long,[6] in western West Virginia and northeastern Kentucky in the United States. The river forms part of the boundary between the two states along its entire course. Via the Ohio River, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.
It is formed between Louisa, Kentucky, and Fort Gay, West Virginia, by the confluence of the Tug Fork and Levisa Fork. It flows generally northwardly in a highly meandering course, between Lawrence and Boyd counties in Kentucky and Wayne County in West Virginia. It joins the Ohio between Catlettsburg, Kentucky and Kenova, West Virginia, 8 miles (13 km) west of Huntington, West Virginia, at the common boundary between West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.
The river is navigable and carries commercial shipping, primarily coal mined in the immediate region.
The name of the river comes from the presence of extensive sand bars. The Native American names for the river included Tatteroa, Chatteroi, and Chatterwha[7] which had similar meaning to the English name. It was known to the Lenape as Sikeacepe, meaning "Salt River", from the presence of salt licks on the river (see: Licking River).
Two well-known fiddle tunes take their name from the Big Sandy River: "Sandy River Belle" and the "Big Sandy River". Loretta Lynn's "Van Lear Rose" also mentions the river.
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On October 11, 2000, the Martin County sludge spill polluted hundreds of miles of the Ohio River, the Big Sandy River and its tributaries. The accident was caused when what's known as a coal sludge impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine below. Toxic pollutants including heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, copper and chromium were found in the sludge that spilled into these waterways.[8]
The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill (12 million US gallons (45,000 m3)) and one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the southeastern United States, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.