American Rivers Most Endangered Rivers 2011--Black Warrior River #8

Photo credit: Brian T. Murphy

American Rivers annual list of America's most endangered rivers places another Alabama river on the endangered list. Last year, it was the Coosa River at number #10. Both rivers are under threat from the utility giant Southern Company and its subsidiary, Alabama Power, and their insatiable appetite for coal.

More to be proud of from Alabama's self-professed number one "environmentally conscious" big industry.

Strip Mining for Coal Putting Public Health in Danger

Location: Alabama

Flowing for roughly 300 miles, Alabama’s Black Warrior River is a major drinking water source supporting over one million people. Two of Alabama’s largest cities, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, obtain drinking water from the Black Warrior and its tributaries.

The river is also home to many fish, mussel, turtle, crayfish, amphibian, and snail species, including nine threatened or endangered species. The headwaters of the Black Warrior River include the Wild and Scenic Sipsey Fork, which, along with the Mulberry and Locust Forks, is rated among the top 2 percent of United States streams by the National Park Service for its outstanding recreational values.

And all of this is at risk from poor management of surface coal mining.

The Threat

 

The Black Warrior River overlaps with the Warrior Coal Field, which is home to approximately 95 active coal mines – the majority of Alabama’s mines.

Every year, the US Army Corps of Engineers issues special permits that allow numerous mines in Alabama to operate in the same watershed with no consideration of how they impact water quality, public health, and the environment. This type of permit for coal mining is a legal loophole, allowing mines to destroy entire stretches of streams and untold acres of wetlands in the Black Warrior watershed each year.

The US Army Corps of Engineers wisely suspended the use of these permits across most of the Appalachian mining region but continues to allow them in Alabama. And now these permits have become a rubber stamp for nearly all coal mines in the region.

Despite a legal duty to protect Alabama’s waters from the impacts of coal mining, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and Alabama Surface Mining Commission have routinely failed to control pollution. These agencies often issue permits with very weak standards, allowing companies to pollute without any accountability. 

What Must Be Done

Coal mining in the region is polluting the river, destroying wetlands and tributary streams, and threatening public health by polluting the clean water with heavy metals.

 Stronger protections from the impacts of surface coal mining are needed to hold polluters accountable and enforce the law. If the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, and the Alabama Surface Mining Commission do not close this dangerous mining loophole and tighten clean water protections, coal mining will continue to damage the Black Warrior and its communities.

 Take action to help protect the Black Warrior River 

Black Warrior RiverKeeper action item against Sheperd's Bend Mine

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Southern Environmental Law Center Pushes Back Against BARD on SWMP

Clean Water Groups Defend State Effort to Reduce Polluted Runoff

Press Release
March 24, 2011


Gil Rogers, Senior Attorney, 404-521-9900 (email)
Cat McCue, Senior Communications Manager, 434-977-4090 (email)
Representing:
Cahaba River Society - Beth Stewart, 205-322-5326 x411 (email)

Montgomery, AL –The Alabama Rivers Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Cahaba River Society have filed a motion to intervene in a permit appeal by a business organization filed against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to help defend the agency's stormwater program for small cities.

Represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the groups say the lawsuit by the Business Alliance for Responsible Development (BARD) is a delaying tactic aimed at keeping local and state stormwater controls weak and ineffective.  Without adequate programs to control polluted runoff from development and urban uses, downstream communities and businesses will continue to shoulder the high costs to clean drinking water and repair flood damages.

"Rivers, streams, coastal waters and lakes are critical to Alabamians for drinking water, recreation, wildlife and the economy.  Polluted runoff is harming those uses.  Every delay in halting polluted runoff means more degradation of our water and higher long-term clean-up costs for the public," said Gil Rogers, head of the Clean Water Program for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the motion earlier this week in with the Alabama Environmental Management Commission. (Click here for a PDF of the motion to intervene.)

Under the federal Clean Water Act, ADEM is required to set up a permitting program for small cities to control their polluted stormwater runoff. In August 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected ADEM's first version because it did not meet basic requirements of the law.  It was the first time the EPA had ever taken such a step with any state. ADEM subsequently made some modest improvements and issued a final permit on February 1.

Stormwater runoff is widely acknowledged as one of the most serious causes of water pollution in Alabama.

 "Many responsible developers in Alabama are already achieving the standards called for in ADEM's permit. Better stormwater practices that safeguard drinking water and help prevent flooding are proven to save money and make money for developers and communities," said Beth Stewart, Executive Director of the Cahaba River Society. "In these tough economic times, green projects with lower stormwater costs give developers and communities a competitive advantage, but lax stormwater controls undercut innovative developers and transfer costs to local governments and downstream neighbors."  

BARD's challenge of ADEM's stormwater permit represents one more salvo in its continued resistance to improving development practices that protect water quality.  For years, BARD has incited local governments to fight against standards that better manage development.  

BARD's misguided advice that local governments are doing too much to stop stormwater pollution has already made some cities and counties vulnerable to EPA audits and enforcement oversight. In 2009 and 2010 the EPA found that the stormwater programs of cities and counties in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area were not meeting basic requirements of the Clean Water Act.

"Traditionally, our organization has been on the opposite side of ADEM, as we consistently challenge them to do a better job of protecting Alabama's waters," said Eva Dillard, Staff Attorney for Black Warrior Riverkeeper. "We're taking ADEM's side in this appeal because we don't want to see the permit weakened even further, which is BARD's main objective."  

"Enforceable permits are absolutely essential to stopping the devastating impacts of uncontrolled stormwater across Alabama," said Mitch Reid, Program Director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance. "Protecting our rivers is a shared responsibility of government at every level and this permit provides a level playing field so that no community is disadvantaged for doing the right thing for our environment."

The proposed permit will govern the local stormwater programs of about 60 smaller cities and counties for the next five to seven years.  Just as important, ADEM has indicated that this permit will be the basis for other stormwater permits that will be written for larger cities and counties, as well as for the Alabama Department of Transportation.

The Southern Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to protect the environment of the Southeast.  The Alabama Rivers Alliance is devoted to healthy rivers, healthy people, and a healthy system of government for the state of Alabama. Black Warrior Riverkeeper protects and restores the Black Warrior River and its tributaries.  The Cahaba River Society's mission is to restore and protect the Cahaba River watershed and its rich diversity of life.

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Beautiful Rivers--National Geographic Photo Essay

National Geographic's glorious photography revealing the beauty and splendor of one of our most threatened natural resources--our rivers.

Photograph by Scottyboipdx Weber, My Shot

The sun sets over Lower Lewis River Falls in Washington State’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The falls mark a wild and scenic stretch of the river, but other sections of the Lewis, which drains the state’s mighty Cascade Range, boast large dam and reservoir systems.

Hydroelectric plants produce power, but they’ve changed the river’s natural character—to the special detriment of migratory fish like salmon. Utilities have agreed to begin trucking fish around the dams along the Lewis River, moving them from below these looming barriers to prime habitat upstream, above the dams.

Somewhere along the way, we've decided to relinquish our most precious natural asset and given over control of our rivers to the coal fired power plants and big business to use as they see fit. And what they've done has made the rivers unfit. It's made something we need to survive precarious--our water supplies.

Is it too late to turn back?

Maybe, some might even say probably.

National Geographic's Freshwater Fellow Sandra Postel gives us something to honestly consider:

A leading cause of altered river flows is the operation of dams and reservoirs to generate hydroelectric power, control floods, and supply water for drinking and irrigation. Dams clearly provide important benefits. 

But it's time to ask a question we haven't yet systematically asked: can dams provide the benefits we need while also giving river creatures the crucial flows they need to survive?

In many cases the answer is yes. 

But we need to start asking the question--river by river, dam by dam. A good deal of life depends on it. 

We couldn't agree more.

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