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e-River Ties, February 2009
February, 2009
Welcome to this edition of e-River Ties!
Table of Contents: (Click to view)
- Rivers Alliance News
- Pick your field trip for the Watershed Leadership Conference
- Meet Jake Rudulph, Program Assistant interning with the Alabama Rivers Alliance
- Grassroots Highlight
- News Digest
- How you can help
Have you hugged a river today?
Up to 75% of the human body is made of water, and, if you live in Alabama, most of your water comes from lakes, rivers, and streams. Remember this as you're giving out your Valentine's Day hugs!
Rivers Alliance News
Choose your field trip for this year's Watershed Leadership Conference
Along with our usual lineup of nationally-acclaimed speakers and exciting keynotes, we are offering some exciting field trip options at this year's Watershed Leadership Conference, which will be held on March 20-22 at Camp McDowell, but some of them are only available to a limited number of participants. Click here to register for the Conference and choose your field trip options right now.
- SouthWings flight over the Sipsey Wilderness Area
- View the Black Warrior Watershed from the air! Only three seats left at the time of this email.
- Requested $25 donation to the Alabama Rivers Alliance for participants in this fieldtrip.
- WildSouth guided hike through the Bankhead National Forest
- Only five spots remain for this phenomenal hike.
- Guided paddle trip down Clear Creek
- Camp McDowell's own Mark Johnston will be guiding participants down a guided float of Clear Creek
Meet Jake Rudulph, Program Assistant interning with the Alabama Rivers Alliance
Jake is a 2008 graduate of Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he completed a BA with concentrations in both Biology and Psychology. After studying Wildlife Management and Environmental Policy in Kenya, Jake completed his undergraduate thesis, accepted with Honors, on Post-Colonial Conservation Theory and Wildlife Population Dynamics using Geographic Information Systems in East Africa. Following graduation, he participated in a month-long service and learning project in China, studying Community Conservation techniques and Political Ecology. A Birmingham native and Altamont alumnus, Jake was raised with a distinct appreciation for Alabama's wilderness and natural resources, and is thrilled to be working and learning with the Alabama Rivers Alliance.
Grassroots Highlight
Ill-conceived Locust Fork Dam Project laid to rest
After an eighteen-year battle against the threat of a large water-supply dam on the Locust Fork River, Friends of the Locust Fork are celebrating the Birmingham Water Works Board's decision to abandon the ill-conceived project.
Click the following article to read more.
Birmingham Water Works Board OKs $329 million expansion plan
The Birmingham Water Works Board this morning unanimously approved a $329 million plan that would expand the system's long-term water capacity till 2075.
News Digest
Latest edition of River Ties is now online!
The latest edition of River Ties, the newsletter of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, is now online.
Alabama's need for change
Editorial by Jenny Dorgan of the Alabama Environmental Council
It has been repeated time and again that Alabama doesn't have the climate to support renewable energy. A recent Montgomery Advertiser article claims proposed energy legislation would be blatantly unfair to Southern states because it would lead to increased rates and dampened economic development.
Press Release: Environmental Groups Sound Alarm on Unregulated Coal Ash Waste
January 27, 2009 Birmingham, AL—On the heels of a massive spill of toxic coal ash waste in Tennessee and another similar incident in Alabama, 31 local and regional environmental organizations and other concerned public interest groups have called on leaders to take immediate action to ensure that our citizens, wildlife, and natural resources are better protected from these unregulated coal combustion waste (CCW) storage facilities.
Groups Sound Alarm on Unregulated Coal Ash Waste
On the heels of a massive spill of toxic coal ash waste in Tennessee and another similar incident in Alabama, 32 local and regional environmental organizations and other concerned public interest groups have called on leaders to take immediate action to ensure that our citizens, wildlife, and natural resources are better protected from these unregulated coal combustion waste storage facilities.
Permit to Pollute?
Conservationists and the Water Board worry Birmingham's water supply, will be polluted, if a new strip mine is finalized.
Waste spills at second TVA site
Coal waste from another TVA power plant - this time Widows Creek in north Alabama - has spilled into a waterway, bringing more emergency action and more calls from environmentalists to regulate the material.
More examples of toxic woes: Yes, there's coal ash in Bama
The environmental disaster that befell eastern Tennessee in late December did not touch the daily lives of those here in northeast Alabama. The slurry mixture of water and coal ash did not wash away our homes or directly pollute our environment.
UPDATE: Second TVA spill reported in Alabama
STEVENSON, AL--TVA has estimated the spill of gypsum slurry at 10,000 gallons, said Scott Hughes, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. “We’ve got somebody on site who’s monitoring water quality to make sure there’s not any impact to aquatic organisms,” he said. Utilities that draw drinking water supplies from the Tennessee River downstream are not expected to be impacted, he said.
Toxic coal ash piling up in ponds in 32 states
WASHINGTON — Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a situation the government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has done nothing about.
ADEM Director Glenn cleared in ethics case
After months of investigation, Onis "Trey" Glenn, Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), has been cleared of allegations he violated the state's ethics law. A Montgomery County Grand Jury heard evidence in the Glenn case last month and returned a no bill, meaning it found no provable cause to prosecute Glenn.
Conservationists Win Decision Protecting Local Water Supplies, Fisheries &Wildlife
Cincinnati, Ohio - In a stinging defeat for the Bush Environmental Protection Agency, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a clear rebuke against the administration’s 2006 rule which exempted certain commercial pesticide applications from the oversight provided by Congress under the Clean Water Act. The Court held that pesticide residuals and biological pesticides constitute pollutants under federal law and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Water Act to minimize the impact to human health and the environment.
Two Birmingham-area coal plants among nation's top three for amounts of arsenic in ash ponds
Two coal-fired power plants in metro Birmingham - the Gaston Steam Plant in Shelby County and the Gorgas Steam Plant in Walker County - rank No. 2 and No. 3 in the country in the amount of arsenic deposited in on-site ash ponds and landfills from 2000 to 2006, according to a report released today by the Environmental Integrity Project.
Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation
The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States — most of them unregulated and unmonitored — that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.
How you can help
Join the Alabama Rivers Alliance
If you aren't already a member, join today! Our numbers give us strength, so do your part to help give a voice to Alabama's rivers. Click here to join online.
Donate to the Alabama Rivers Alliance
None of the Rivers Alliance's good work would be possible without the support of our members and donors. The Rivers Alliance is now accepting donations online through Paypal for those of you with Paypal accounts and also through www.Groundspring.org. Visit our Donate page to contribute or to renew your membership today!
For more information about current happenings with the Alabama Rivers Alliance, read our print newsletter online in a pdf format by clicking here.
To make a donation in support of Alabama's rivers, click here.
To subscribe to our e-newsletter mailing list, Email Katie Shaddix.
Water Is Life!
Black Warrior Riverkeeper Wins River Hero Award at Alabama Watershed Leadership Conference