LEGAL DOCKET (SUMMER 2006)

ONGOING CASES

BARD vs SWMA (Jefferson County)

    On June 20, Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Cahaba River Society filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought against Jefferson County's Storm Water Managament Authority (SWMA) by the Business Alliance for Responsible Development (BARD) and others. The Southern Environmental Law Center www.selcga.org is providing our legal representation. 

    As required by the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Water Quality Act of 1987, the state legislature in 1995 gave Jefferson County's 23 municipalities the authority to implement a storm water program, which created SWMA in 1997. SWMA was created to reduce water pollution through water quality monitoring, education, and erosion control implementation throughout the watersheds of Jefferson County (which consists entirely of the Black Warrior and Cahaba River Basins). SWMA does a much better job than our state agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), despite ADEM's efforts to take away SWMA's authority. While not perfect, SWMA is far superior to ADEM in terms of responding to citizen complaints and performing inspections. 

    However, BARD (composed of member groups Saiia Construction, LLC, Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLP, Drummond
Company, Inc., Daniel Realty Company, LLC, USS Realty, Greater Birmingham Area Association of Homebuilders, Inc., Alabama Power Company, Curtis White Companies, Inc., Alabama Associated General Contractors, Alabama Gas Corporation, Alabama Coal Association, Wachovia Bank, Stonegate Realty, Riverwoods LLC, Coalbed Methane Association of Alabama, Barber Companies, Inc., Thompson Tractor Company, Inc., RealtySouth, Tractor & Equipment Co., Association of Builders & Contractors) — mostly developers and resource extractors — opposes SWMA’s authority.

    BARD complains that SWMA goes beyond what it is required to do in some of its projects. The bottom line is that BARD does not want to have a strong regulator. They are used to ADEM's poor enforcement of environmental laws. Inadequate enforcement and regulation of stormwater runoff from construction sites and mines leads to the severe sedimentation of our streams — an externalization of costs that places the burden on all of us rather than the polluter. Stricter regulation and enforcement would force certain companies to spend adequate time and money to clean up their mess.

    Black Warrior Riverkeeper is intervening in this lawsuit to protect a worthwhile agency that serves its communities by lessening water pollution burdens. Local communities deserve the right to protect their own resources. The last thing we need is SWMA to be stripped of their authority, and have it handed over to ADEM. ADEM is not capable of carrying an additional load!

    The trash you see in storm drains such as the one to the right flow directly into your local waterways, unfiltered. SWMA is a local agency protecting citizens and property from the litter, sedimentation and petrochemicals that runoff into waterways after rainstorms. Please see the article on page 5 for a detailed summary of this new case.

Brookside Village Waste Water Treatment Plant (Jefferson County)

    Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER initiated a civil enforcement action by serving a Notice of Intent to Sue (NOIS) on the Jefferson County Housing Authority, the operators of the Brookside Village WWTP. We allege 1,134 violations of the Clean Water Act by this facility. These illegal discharges of sewage enter into Newfound Creek, a tributary of Fivemile Creek of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River. The notice was served on May 19, 2006 and our 60 day notice period expired July 18. On June 20, ADEM entered a special order by consent with the Housing Authority regarding some, but not all, of these violations, and imposing a fine of $7,300.  We find it interesting that ADEM continues to take action on such matters only after we have served a NOIS on the facility. We  applaud ADEM for taking enforcement action and hope to continue to encourage them to do so when appropriate — so long as they pursue the matter diligently and effectively. Unfortunately, ADEM is frequently neither diligent nor effective in prosecuting permit violators. The fine issued in this case is the lowest that ADEM could have issued given the number of violations alleged in the consent agreement. This is so, even though ADEM states in the Special Order that the violations alleged therein may have contributed to the 2004 303(d) listing (for biology) of that stream. ADEM does not appear to have taken these violations very seriously. We hope they will diligently monitor the facility’s compliance with the Order and its progress as it improves the facility and brings it into compliance with its NPDES permit.

Donaldson Prison Facility (Jefferson County)

    In 2003, a reporter for The Birmingham News notified David Whiteside of numerous violations at Donaldson Waste Water Treatment Plant.  Nelson Brooke
reviewed Donaldson’s file and confirmed the large number of NPDES permit violations of the Clean Water Act. He also noted — unsurprisingly — that ADEM had not taken effective enforcement action on these violations.  Riverkeeper initiated legal action by serving, on November 10, 2004, a 60 day notice of intent to sue. On January 7, 2005, the Alabama Attorney General filed this action against the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC). Riverkeeper intervened in that suit on February 11, 2005. DOC has now contracted with Alabama Utility Services (AUS) to operate and maintain the WWTP. AUS improved the plant by adding a new surge basin and has reduced the plant’s number of violations. We expect AUS to eliminate all violations as soon as possible.  The Attorney General has now dismissed its complaint against the DOC. Riverkeeper, however, has continued our case against DOC because we feel that DOC must remediate the damage it has caused the creek. Riverkeeper feels that the massive amounts of sedimentation that have been deposited into the creek by the plant should be removed if such removal can be accomplished in an environmentally sound fashion. We will continue to pursue that goal through the pending case.

     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.

COMPLETED CASES

Sloss Industries (Jefferson County)

    Wendy Allen Jackson, Director of the newly re-named Freshwater Land Trust (formerly the Black Warrior Cahaba Rivers Land Trust) is delighted to report that the Sloss Industries land settlement has been completed in a satisfactory manor. The Land Trust is looking forward to protecting this land it in perpetuity.
The Land Trust is working hard to try to incorporate this critical 350 acre land acquisition into the Five Mile Creek Greenway. This historic settlement was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Alabama Rivers Alliance, and L.E.A.F.

Sloss Industries on-site Waste Water Treatment Facility    © Nelson Brooke