NEW CASES LEGAL DOCKET (SUMMER 2005)
NEW CASES
East Walker Sewer Authority (Walker County)
Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER filed Notice of Intent to Sue the East Walker Sewer Authority on August 15, 2005 for illegal discharges into the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River. The notice outlines 4,473 violations of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) in the past four years! These violations occurred at the East Walker County Wastewater Treatment Plant (W.W.T.P.) located in Dora, AL. The sewer authority has violated its permit by exceeding discharge limitations for pollutants such as chlorine, fecal coliform, nitrogen and ammonia, from January 2001 to January 2005.
The discharges at the East Walker
County WWTP degrade and threaten the waters of the United States in
violation of the Clean Water Act and the Alabama Water Pollution Control
Act.
ONGOING CASES
Donaldson Correctional Facility (Jefferson County)
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)
RIVERKEEPER found 465
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.
Because of these inadequacies of the consent order Riverkeeper appealed the consent order to the Environmental Management Commission, which oversees ADEM. This appeal is still pending…. Stay tuned to the RIVERKEEPER docket page of our new website for more details.
COMPLETED CASES
Sloss
Industries (Jefferson County)
Sloss Industries was repeatedly dumping illegal amounts of cyanide into Five Mile Creek, a tributary of the Black Warrior. Sloss had a permit to dump a little over one pound of cyanide a day. However, they exceeded the cyanide portion of their permit for over 500 straight days and were dumping as much as 20 pounds of cyanide per day. Because the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) failed to act, RIVERKEEPER determined that litigation was the only remedy to the cyanide discharges. Riverkeeper’s collaborative suit with Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation prodded ADEM into action. When Sloss settled with ADEM, they agreed to pay $675,000 in civil penalties to Alabama. They must also curb their discharges, donate 350+ acres of land on Five Mile Creek for a greenway and public park, and plant 25,000 trees along the creek.
This is the largest civil penalty imposed against a polluter in ADEM history.
