BLACK WARRIOR RIVERKEEPER

BLACK WARRIOR RIVERKEEPER®, founded in November 2001, is the only non-governmental organization devoted to protecting the entire Black Warrior watershed. The Black Warrior River is a major source of drinking water in Alabama, serving as the primary source of water for Tuscaloosa and supplying over 35% of Birmingham’s water. However, the Black Warrior is a forgotten resource that is vital to Alabama’s citizens. Many polluting institutions have grown accustomed to lawlessness on our watershed, due to lack of enforcement in the region. Like the interstate driver who constantly speeds to increase efficiency with illegal and reckless abandon, many polluters on our Black Warrior routinely break environmental laws, knowing that there are no effective speed traps to stop them. Black Warrior Riverkeeper is that speed trap.

As of December 2002 there are over 100 "Waterkeepers" across the globe, united under the umbrella organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance. The first Riverkeeper was started on America’s Hudson River, by a blue-collar coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen, who mobilized on their Hudson River in 1966 to reclaim their river from polluters. Almost all of the original founders, board members, and officers of Hudson Riverkeeper were former marines, combat veterans from World War II and Korea, and patriots who had risked their lives for the democratic process. These men were not environmentalists, but hard working bread winners whose family’s ancient way of life was being destroyed by some of the most powerful corporations in the world, primarily the General Electric Company.

General Electric was dumpling toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the upper stretches of the Hudson River. PCBs are carcinogens and regarded as one of the most dangerous chemicals in our environment. These persistent compounds are non-soluble in water, so the ones released into our environment stay there indefinitely. G.E.’s PCBs largely contributed to the decimation of the Hudson River’s commercial fishing industry, which at that time was the third largest fishing industry in the United States. These fishermen were not put out of business by better competition; these citizens had their market destroyed by a corporation that had nothing to do with fishing, whose chemical they could not see or smell.

When General Electric dumped its PCBs into the Hudson River it was avoiding the costs of bringing its product to market: the cost of properly disposing of a dangerous process chemical. It out-competed its competitors, it raised its profits, but the costs did not go away. They went into the fish, made people sick that ate them, and put men out of work. In turn, G.E. imposed the costs on the citizens, which in a true free-market economy should be reflected in the price of G.E.’s product in the marketplace. But G.E., like all polluters, used political clout and chemical ingenuity to escape the discipline of the free-market and forced the public to pay its cleanup costs. Fortunately, due to lawsuits filed against General Electric by Hudson Riverkeeper, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that G.E. will have to pay the costs of removing its PCBs from the Hudson River in upstate New York.

In Alabama’s Black Warrior watershed, there are many corporations that are violating the law and the free-market by illegally dumping toxins into our communities. Tampa-based Sloss Industries has a permit to dump 1.12 lbs of cyanide into FIVE-MILE CREEK, a tributary of the Black Warrior River in Jefferson County. However, Sloss Industries violates this permit almost on a daily basis, by discharging anywhere from 5 to 8 lbs of cyanide daily, way over their legal amount. Sloss Industries is able to avoid complying with the law through extensive lobbying efforts and generous political contributions. Sloss Industries publicly claims that complying with the law would drive them out of business; recent investigations by the U.S. EPA reveal that this excuse is a bald-faced lie. If a heroin dealer told the Birmingham Police Department that she could not afford to stop selling the toxic drug for fear it might drive her out of business, the cops would arrest her without hesitation, because her business was breaking the law. When Sloss Industries repeatedly refuses to comply with federal laws, the politicians and environmental enforcers listen with sympathetic ears as they watch Sloss Industries illegally vomit cyanide into communities in Jefferson County. The Alabama Rivers Alliance, LEAF, and Black Warrior Riverkeeper have filed a lawsuit against Sloss Industries for repeated violations of the Clean Water Act of 1972.

As environmental advocates, Riverkeepers elbow their way into the political process and courtrooms with enormous polluters by standing up to those private institutions that are stealing the vital resources that belong to all of America’s citizens — the fresh air our children need to breathe, the pure fresh water we need to drink, our abundant fisheries and wandering animals we rely upon to supplement our diet. These vital resources are public trust assets that belong to each and every American; they are the building blocks of America. Riverkeepers stand up and say: "We are emissaries for the future and we demand an accounting. We want to know what you are doing with the things that do not belong to you, with the things that belong to Alabama’s children. Like the old Lakota proverb: "We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." Riverkeepers aggressively fight for purer rivers with the belief that cleaner water yields stronger communities. Riverkeepers are advocates for the public’s future.

Please join our fight to protect our Black Warrior River watershed by becoming a member of BLACK WARRIOR RIVERKEEPER today!

WEBSITE:

www.BlackWarriorRiver.org

E-mail: WarriorRiverkeeper@hotmail.com