FIVE MILE CREEK REMEMBERED

By: David Whiteside

In the 19th century, Jefferson County's FIVE MILE CREEK, a tributary of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, was so clean Birmingham's earliest settlers occasionally drank water from it. Back then, Village Creek was the primary source of drinking water, but when those supplies ran low, additional water was pumped in from Five-Mile Creek.

In 1972, Congress approved the Clean Water Act with the goal that all U.S. waters would be fishable and swimmable by 1987. That hasn't happened. Today, nearly 30 years after the Clean Water Act, ADEM - Alabama's environmental regulatory agency, refuses to reclassify Five Mile Creek to standards that would make it habitable for fish and wildlife. Currently, ADEM classifies Five Mile Creek as "Agricultural and Industrial," - a waterbody which allows water quality to be so polluted that is unsuitable for aquatic life or recreation.

Many Alabamians refer to Five Mile Creek by its ugly nickname, "CREOSOTE CREEK," because it smelled so strongly of the chemical, creosote, that as you approached the waters the chemical would begin to burn your eyes. David Tidwell, President of Black Warrior Riverkeeper, grew up along Five Mile Creek in the 1960s, in the area known as Lewisburg Gardens. In fact, Tidwell's grandparents also grew up along Birmingham's neglected creek. "My grandfather worked the mines that were located on Five Mile Creek in Fultondale. I can remember my granddad talk about catching catfish in the same waters. My grandmother and her sisters also enjoyed Five Mile Creek as a recreational resource. The enclosed picture is of them swimming at Five Mile Creek sometime between 1924 and 1926," recalls Tidwell.

Tidwell and his friends played all along the shoreline, but everyone was very careful not to get into the creek. We would catch crawfish from the smaller creeks that drained into Five Mile Creek, but there would always be a distinct line between the clear water of the smaller tributaries and where they met "Creosote Creek". Tidwell recalled that dogs never liked to swim in the creek. He remembers the polluted water of Five Mile Creek curing mange on neighborhood canines. "It must have hurt the dogs, but before the Clean Water Act, the water was so toxic it would instantly kill small organisms.

According to an internal ADEM memo, water quality inspectors recently visiting Sloss Industries discharge pipes found "the effluent was very turbid and had a strong 'Creosote like odor.'" The water quality was very poor, with no signs of aquatic life, ADEM officials noted. The creek's color unnaturally changes from an algal green to acidic rust colored, from abandoned mine runoff. Sloss Industries' permit also allows the corporation to discharge oil, grease, cyanide, phenols, and dozens of other toxins. Sloss Industries discharges more chemicals into Five Mile Creek than any other polluter.

Since David Tidwell's youth, he has experienced some of the planet's wonderful places. In his mind Five Mile Creek is among them. Five Mile Creek belongs to the people of Alabama, not Sloss Industries, or ADEM. It is time for the citizens of Alabama to take back their creeks and rivers, and restore them to their original glory. Join the fight to take back our precious water, by becoming a member of Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Today!