by Glynn Wilson

ROEBUCK SPRINGS, Ala., Sept. 25 — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a solution to the Corps of Engineers and the city of Birmingham to build a temporary dam out of sand bags and then construct a permanent structure to control the flow of water from the spring pool behind the Roebuck tennis courts into Village Creek.

The permit was expected to be approved Thursday afternoon and work is expected to start Friday morning, one week after a beaver dam and man-made dam were removed illegally by a crane operator, not a backhoe, as previously reported, according to sources on the fish-kill scene.

Sources who are familiar with the area and its history say beavers have constructed a dam in the same spot on and off for years. And well before the endangered watercress darter was discovered there, city officials would periodically rip out the beaver dam, supposedly based on a fear that the pond would overflow and flood the tennis courts.

Today, with the Endangered Species Act and other regulations on wetlands — and with the full knowledge of the presence of an endangered fish species in the pond — that destruction would not be allowed under federal law or state regulations without a permit.

To naturalists, a beaver dam is actually the perfect natural solution to controlling the water flow from the pool to the creek, if the tennis courts and drainage pipe had to be built on that location at all.

According to a federal official on the scene today, however, the spot is not really where you would want to build a tennis court if you had it to do over again with modern knowledge of science. It is on a high spot between the pond and the creek.

“What a stupid place to put a tennis court,” the biologist said, who will remain anonymous since the Atlanta field office has still not concluded its investigation and released a report, or even so much as a statement about what the plan is for the area, yet.

According to multiple sources, the intent of Regina Nummy, the director of Roebuck-Hawkins Park, and her superiors at the city, was most likely to tear out the beaver dam, which had been done in the past by park and city officials. So some of the culpability for destroying the entire dam rests with the crane operator.

It is still not known whether the operator who actually removed the dam was a city employee or a private contractor, which could still be an issue in any investigation or lawsuit.

Biologists sampled the area today and found at least 100 watercress darters still alive, so at least the destruction of the dam did not wipe out the entire local population.

But the incident still shows an appalling incompetence on the part of park management and makes one wonder what kind of an educational program is set up for city workers — or private heavy equipment operators — when it comes to working around ecologically sensitive waterways.

There is a consensus building among federal, state, and local sources that heads should definitely roll as a result of this disaster — and that a legal price should be paid.

Tags: Roebuck Springs Fish Kill Update

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Birders United, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Environment News, Science News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.