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e-River Ties, May 2008
Welcome to the May, 2008 edition of e-River Ties!
What's New at the Rivers Alliance?
Alabama's Rivers in the news this month
What's New at the Rivers Alliance?
Alabama Rivers Alliance receives grant from Patagonia to produce Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Birmingham
Patagonia has awarded a grant to the Alabama Rivers Alliance to bring the Wild and Scenic Film Festival
to the citizens of Alabama!
According to the Wild and Scenic Film Festival website:
Look for future announcements about the Wild and Scenic Film Festival coming this Fall. For more information about the festival, click here to visit the Wild and Scenic Film Festival website.
River Ties print newsletter, Spring Edition, hits the presses
The Rivers Alliance Spring Edition of River Ties is headed to a mailbox near you. If you aren't already on our mailing list and would like to receive a copy, Email Katie Shaddix with your name and address.
Fun Facts
10 Things you didn't know about fishing lures and water quality
Just in time for fishing season, check out this fact sheet about the connection between fishing lures and water quality.
Alabama River News for May, 2008
Critical habitat designated for endangered Alabama Sturgeon
On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will announce a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the Alabama sturgeon, a species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Click here to read more.
Plans to open dams could restore migrations of fish
Alabama's great fish migrations ended the year man first walked on the moon. When the gates closed on the new Alabama River dam at Millers Ferry in 1969, an ancient connection between the Cahaba River and the Gulf of Mexico was severed, and a multitude of fish and mussel species began a long, slow spiral that could mean extinction for some. Now, on the heels of a similar effort in Georgia, federal and state regulators and a coalition of environmental groups are working on a plan to restore Alabama's lost migrations by helping the fish get around dams. They hope to reconnect the Cahaba to the Gulf by next year, pushed into action by declines for some species so severe that there is concern those populations may never rebound.
Click here to read more.
Loss of Hemlocks will affect water dynamics in Southern Appalachian Forests
ScienceDaily (Jul. 12, 2007) — Forest Service (FS) research has provided the first estimates on the impact the loss of eastern hemlock will have on the water dynamics of the southern Appalachian mountains. In the June 2007 issue of Ecological Applications, researchers Chelcy Ford and Jim Vose from the FS Southern Research Station (SRS) Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory present findings on eastern hemlock rates of transpiration (the amount of soil water taken up by trees) from a 2-year study in western North Carolina.
Grassroots Highlights
The East Lauderdale Environmentally Conscious Citizens (ELECC) are on Fire for the Environment!
A group of concerned citizens near the Shoals in Lauderdale County, NW Alabama, has decided that they don’t want elected officials pumping Killen’s sewage across city limits and into their stream. They’re not willing to sit back and allow it to happen either.
The citizens of Killen and surrounding areas brought over 1,000 people to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s Public Hearing on the proposed waste water treatment permit for Alabama Utility Services to build and run a treatment plant under contract to the Town of Killen. They also brought with them a petition containing 7,419 signatures from east Lauderdale residents who oppose the permit. According to an article appearing the following day in the Times Daily, the crowd reacted by cheering and applauding when the petition was presented.
Also according to the Times Daily
article, the East Lauderdale Environment Conscious Citizens group also
presented results from a $10,000 hydrogeological study, paid for by residents
and conducted by Thomas Aley, an Alabama
licensed professional geologist. The report cited 13 conclusions against the
engineering on the proposed wastewater plant site.
Conclusions included: failure to discuss or evaluate three other alternatives; an estimated 90 percent of the treated sewage would be generated from within Killen’s city limits; economically non-viability of the plant; several claims of false data on submitted soil types; characterization of bedrock; suitability of existing onsite residential sewage systems; and concerns about ground water contamination from Mill Creek.
Many in the audience argued that the proposed wastewater treatment plant had no
place near the Mill or Bluewater creeks, which are miles away from Killen’s
city limits.
Local property owner, Rhea Fulmer, has been involved with the process from the beginning and has now chosen to run for County Commissioner on a platform of protecting the creek! The group has also gotten their local representative to weigh in with his support and to write a resolution OPPOSING THE DISCHARGE OF EFFLUENT WASTE INTO MILL CREEK AND BLUEWATER CREEK SITES IN LAUDERDALE COUNTY. Read more about the ELECC and struggle for Bluewater Creek at: www.savebluewatercreek.org.
Upcoming Events
Ways You Can Help
Three different styles of Alabama Rivers Alliance t-shirts now available online!
Click here to check out the designs and order yours today!
Shop to support the Rivers Alliance
We are proud to announce our guide to Eco-friendly, Socially-Conscious retailers. Do you know of a business that you'd like to see included on the list? Email us and let us know.
Did you know that you can support the Rivers Alliance just by purchasing Higher Ground Roaster's delicious River Blend Coffee? Or that 25% of purchases from www.LetsGoGreen.biz will benefit the Rivers Alliance when you travel to the store through the links on our website?
To shop with our fundraising partners and other Eco-friendly, fair trade retailers, click here.
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!
ACTION ALERT: Meeting of Joint Legislative Committee for Water Policy and Management