LEGAL DOCKET (FALL 2005)

NEW CASES

Cordova Wastewater Treatment Plant (Walker County)

    Black Warrior Riverkeeper has filed a notice of intent to sue the Cordova Wastewater Treatment plant in Walker County for an alleged 518 Clean Water Act violations.  Cordova’s discharges pollute the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.  Further action is pending.

ONGOING CASES

East Walker Sewer Authority (Walker County)

    After Black Warrior Riverkeeper filed notice of intent to sue East Walker County Sewer Authority under the Clean Water Act, ADEM filed a lawsuit against the wastewater treatment plant for their alleged 4,473 Clean Water Act violations.  Discharges pollute the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.  This action is still pending.

Donaldson Correctional Facility (Jefferson County)

    Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County had an alleged 1,060 Clean Water Act violations and was discharging sewage for nine years into Big Branch of Valley Creek.  Black Warrior Riverkeeper, the  Alabama Attorney General’s Office, and the Department of Corrections are negotiating a final settlement of the lawsuit.  Under the terms of the settlement, Donaldson has contracted with NOVUS Utility Services to improve and operate the plant.  Most of the improvements, such as a new surge basin (see right) are already in  operation and NOVUS reports that discharge violations have ceased.

    Donaldson Correctional Facility is alleged to have 1,060 violations of the Clean Water Act.  After RIVERKEEPER issued Notice of Intent to Sue Donaldson, the Alabama Attorney General’s office pre-empted us with a state suit.  These violations were related to sewage from the prison’s waste water treatment plant, and were being discharged into Big Branch Creek, which flows into Valley Creek, a tributary of the Black Warrior River.

    RIVERKEEPER intervened in the suit and is currently working with the Alabama Attorney General’s office and the Department of Corrections to negotiate penalties and a supplemental environmental project to finalize this the settlement of this lawsuit.

Vulcan Materials Bessemer Quarry (Jefferson County)

    The appeal filed by Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER of the consent order between Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and Vulcan Materials will be scheduled for a hearing in the near future. The appeal asks the Environmental Management Commission to decide whether ADEM must  follow statutory law which would require ADEM to develop a procedure for assessing civil penalties, clearly setting out the rationale for the amounts of penalties. Under ADEM’s current scheme, penalty amounts often result from secret negotiations between ADEM and the violator.  Black Warrior Riverkeeper contends that Alabama’s law and the Clean Water Act require a process transparent to and reviewable by the public.

    RIVERKEEPER found 465 Clean Water Act violations of the Clean Water Act for total suspended solids at Vulcan Material’s Bessemer Quarry and filed a notice of intent to sue.  The discharges from this limestone quarry muddies the creek for many miles downstream, and is detrimental to aquatic species including fish and other creatures that depend on clean water. 

    Two months later, days before the suit could be filed, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) issued a proposed order containing a penalty of $50,000 without explaining the application of the 6 penalty factors required by Alabama law, and without setting out findings of fact which support the    penalty amount.