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While the board members of the University of Alabama system were meeting at UAB’s Alumni Hall on Thursday, Feb. 2, a coalition of environmental, civic and student organizations gathered across the street to demonstrate opposition to a proposed coal mine along the Shepherd’s Bend portion of the Black Warrior River.
A close view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County, Alabama
A new study finds that state regulations for coal ash disposal are inadequate to protect public health and drinking water supplies for nearby communities.
The information comes as federal regulations — the first of their kind — are under attack by a hostile Republican Congress bent on derailing any effort to ensure strong, federally enforceable safeguards for coal ash, America’s second largest industrial waste stream.
Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment released State of Failure: How states fail to protect our health and drinking water from toxic coal ash, an exhaustive review of state regulations in 37 states, which together comprise over 98 percent of all coal ash generated nationally.
Twelve Worst States Highlighted
The study highlights the lack of state-based regulations for coal ash disposal and points to the 12 worst states when it comes to coal ash management and disposal: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and Virginia.
The Alabama Environmental Management Commission voted unanimously on Friday to approve a permit issued for the Shepherd Bend coal mine, a 1,773-acre strip mine to be located less than 1,000 feet from Birmingham’s primary drinking water intake.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Black Warrior Riverkeeper, had challenged the permit, issued by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), as being unprotective
of water quality in the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.
In upholding the permit, the EMC disregarded evidence from the Riverkeeper and from the Birmingham Water Works Board and ignored instructions from the judge who was assigned to hear this case.
“We are disappointed that the commission charged with protecting Alabama’s water resources has chosen to rubber-stamp a faulty permit in violation of the Clean Water Act,” said SELC senior attorney Gil Rogers.
The Black Warrior Riverkeeper non-profit environmental group, part of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, is still putting the pressure on the University of Alabama not to lease land for a coal mine on the Mulberry Fork directly across from a Birmingham drinking water source.
The group emailed an open letter to University of Alabama President Robert E. Witt Wednesday asking that the board of trustees make a public decision on whether the university will lease its land and mineral rights to Shepherd Bend, LLC, a subsidiary of Drummond Coal, for coal mine directly across the river from the Birmingham Water Works’s Mulberry Fork drinking water intake, which supplies tap water daily to about 200,000 customers.
Pledges Total Nearly One Million Dollars a Semester
After announcing their intent to boycott university services should the school’s administration decide to strip mine its property along the Black Warrior River, students at the University of Alabama began gathering signatures of students across the Tuscaloosa campus a few months’s back.
To date, the pledges total nearly a million dollars that students could remove from the university by choosing to reduce meal plans, to not buy a parking permit, to take summer courses at another institution, or to buy books and supplies at off-campus locations, according to a press release from the The Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment. And they could continue to take that money from UA each semester they attend in the future.
“We didn’t realize how much our individual contributions can add up to. In just over two weeks, we got pledges that added up to about half a million dollars,” said Michelle Hindman, a student working with the Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment, and Treasurer of the UA Environmental Council. “Our voice does matter, and we’re not going to invest our money in an institution that chooses something that’s clearly harmful to the community.”
Alabama Surface Mining Commission Did Not Meet Regulatory Requirements
The Birmingham Water Works Board has filed an appeal against the Alabama Surface Mining Commission’s permit for a Drummond Coal mine at the Shepherd Bend along the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.
The proposed strip mine site will discharge 2,200 feet upstream of the Mulberry drinking water Intake, and future phases would bring discharges as close as 800 feet from the source of Birmingham’s drinking water supply.
Birmingham officials expressed concerns that chemicals discharged into the water source could adversely affect water quality, and is challenging the permit on the grounds that it does not meet certain state administrative code requirements.
In response to new information and community action against the proposed Shepherds Bend mine on University of Alabama property, students held a press conference on Monday and announced the beginning of a pledge drive to start a student boycott of UA services should the administration lease the land for a coal mine.
Elyse Peters, a sophomore majoring in Civic Engagement through New College and an active member of the UA Environmental Council, spoke in opposition to the mine, in an effort to protect her university’s reputation.
“At first, we thought that this would be a new practice — that our university would only marginally consider mining,” Peters said. “We now know that this isn’t the case: not only has the university leased its land to coal companies in the past, but it actually has an active mine, Haley Brothers-University Pit, on some of its land in Marion County. We are proud to be here, to be part of this university, but we do not support the prospects of a new mine on this campus.”
Students to Speak Out Against Proposed Shepherds Bend Mine on University Property
Mallory Flowers and Adelaide Abele of the Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment catching a little sun and WiFi time at the Alabama Sierra Club’s recent retreat in DeSoto State Park.
In response to new information and community action against the proposed Shepherds Bend mine on University of Alabama property, students have called a press conference for Monday, November 15 at 1 p.m. in the Ferguson Center, Room 309.
Students will present updates on the progress of the proposed mine, clarify their concerns and announce their coordinated response plan. Community members will provide insight into this mine’s effect on their local economy.
“We want to be sure that the community understands and is up to date on the latest news regarding this issue and how it affects us,” Caitlin Bowman, a student working with the Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment, said in a press release. “We’re giving the press the opportunity to speak directly to students to find out how we are working to keep our school’s name clear of a potential public hazard.”
We Can Change
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The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
How many stories does it take to make us understand and change?
Jesus and his disciples tried to warn people 2,000 years ago, but they could not understand.
People still do not get the message, although they worship him like a god, even George W. Bush.
The story of how human selfishness and greed threatens the survival of the species and the planet have been told for thousands of years, long before there was a Jesus, by word of mouth, on scrolls and carvings on rocks.
But now, armed with far more sophisticated knowledge of the planet and the human species and our behavior patterns, our psychology and sociology, the medium of our time is the film.
Inspired by everything they know about the universe, the earth and human kind, a number of film makers have tried to warn us. But for most of us, a movie is just another form of entertainment to go with our buttered popcorn and Coca-Cola. Interesting viewing, but unreal, with nothing important to say about us, our times or our future. Just another fantasy or fairy tale. And that is a mistake.
Harper’s No Comment
