The Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Friends of the Locust Fork River, two citizen-based non-profit organizations, filed suit against Metro Recycling in United States District Court this week. The Black Warrior Riverkeeper also filed a lawsuit against Alabama Biodiesel for the company’s unpermitted oil and grease discharges into the river in Tuscaloosa County, next to Moundville Archeological Park.

The first lawsuit alleges that Metro Recycling’s significant and ongoing pollution violations have diminished water quality, recreation and wildlife habitat in the Locust Fork River.
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Higher Ground Roasters, a top-rated 100 percent organic coffee company based in Leeds, Alabama, has launched a new blend called Black Warrior Riverkeeper Roast.

The Riverkeeper environmental organization receives 10 percent off the sales of this medium-roast blend, which is certified organic, fair-trade and shade grown to preserve habitat. Higher Ground also supports the group through the “1 percent for the Planet” program.

You can purchase the coffee online direct from Higher Ground at: Black Warrior Riverkeeper Blend.

You can also purchase 12 oz or 2 lb bags at Alabama stores such as: CAPTURE STUDIO COFFEE (Tuscaloosa), CRESTWOOD COFFEE CO. (Birmingham), OLDE TOWNE COFFEE SHOP (Huntsville), ORGANIC HARVEST (Vestavia), RED RAIN (Homewood), TRIA MARKET (Homewood), V. RICHARDS (Birmingham) and WHOLE FOODS (Birmingham).

Black Warrior Riverkeeper Roast is brewed in-house at Birmingham’s CRESTWOOD COFFEE and BOTTLETREE CAFE.

THIS SATURDAY, August 11 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the CRESTWOOD COFFEE “YARD SALE” will be held at 5512 Crestwood Blvd., in Birmingham, where you can drink their special dark version of Black Warrior Riverkeeper Roast, purchase our new bumper stickers and 12 oz coffee bags and get free educational handouts about the Black Warrior watershed and how you can protect it. For more information about that event, please call Crestwood Coffee at 205-595-0300.

Charles Scribner
Director of Development
Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Inc.

The Black Warrior Riverkeeper environmental group will hold a benefit concert June 14 at the Bottletree Cafe at 3719 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, Alabama. Three great bands are on the lineup to start at 8 p.m. and play until 2 p.m., including Organic Earthbound, the Locust Fork Band and Alo’s Meds. The Bottletree is an eco-friendly Cafe and music venue now featuring a full cash bar.

Tickets are $10 tickets and are available at TheBottletree.Com or the night of the show at the door. All ticket sales go to Riverkeeper’s non-profit efforts to protect your waterways and drinking water!

For more info or to donate in lieu of attending, contact Charles Scribner at 205-458-0095 or cscribner@blackwarriorriver.org.

The annual cleanup of Bankhead Lake will be held Saturday, June 2, from 8 a.m – noon at Buddy Vines Camp on the Locust Fork. There will be a free hot dog lunch served after cleanup.

What to bring:
- clothes you don’t mind getting dirty
- shoes you don’t mind getting wet
- sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, insect repellent
- work gloves
- dip nets

Directions from Birmingham:

Take I-59/20 West towards Tuscaloosa. Take exit #120 “Ensley Avenue 20th Street”.
Bear right at the bottom of the ramp. You are now on highway 269 and the mile markers start from “0″.
Follow this road straight for 15 miles to the 15 mile marker.
Just past the marker is an intersection with a BP gas station.
Turn left onto Short Creek Rd. Follow to dead end.
Turn left onto Alliance Rd. Go 1.2 miles to top of third hill and take a hard right onto “Buddy Vines Camp Rd”.
Follow main road 2.7 miles to camp.
Phone: 436-3430

For more information, contact Kellie Johnston (205) 264-8461 or Mark Meador (205) 553-9373.

The Alabama Rivers Alliance, along with partner organizations Conservation Alabama and the Southern Environmental Law Center, are hosting the first River Action Day in Montgomery May 15.

The Alabama Water Agenda with elected officials will be discussed along with plans to promote environmental legislation, according to Nelson Brook with Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

To pre-register to reserve lunch and your limited edition t-shirt, send an email to register or access the registration form online at the Alliance website, www.alabamarivers.org. Automatic pre-registration forms are also available on-line at www.alabamawateragenda.com.

Litter not only hurts scenery and morale in historic College Hills, but also flows into Valley Creek – a major tributary of the Black Warrior River – each time it rains. College Hills residents, Birmingham-Southern students and other volunteers will meet to clean up the neighborhood on Saturday, May 5, from 9 a.m – noon.

Volunteers will meet at the College Hills Eco-Scape (behind McCoy Center for Community Service – 700-8th Avenue West), between Legion Field and Birmingham-Southern’s main entrances and will be placed on to teams and disbursed throughout the neighborhood to pick up trash. Refreshments will be served. At that time we will tour the Eco-Scape (which is under construction) and hear explanations of the various features. NorthStar Youth Ministries, an excellent organization located at the McCoy Center for Community Service, will be running gardening and art classes at the Eco-Scape this summer.

Youth are welcome with a chaperone. Info about illegal dumping and water quality will be distributed by SWMA and Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

The 13th annual Hurricane Creek cleanup and chili cookoff will be held Saturday, April 28 at Watson’s Bend where Holt-Peterson Road crosses Hurricane Creek in Holt, Alabama, just outside of Tuscaloosa.

For details and directions, see the HurricaneCreek.Org Website.

Also on Saturday, the annual Five Mile Creek volunteer cleanup will start at 9 a.m. in Fultondale, Alabama.

For more info, go to the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership Website.

Environmental activist Laurie David and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow are bringing the stopglobalwarming.org “Virtual March” to Bartow Arena Friday, April 13.

The duo will visit 15 cities across the Southeastern United States in a hybrid bus to motivate college students to become part of the movement to stop global warming and demand solutions from themselves, their schools and their country. Tickets are free and the performance is open to the public.

The 90-minute presentation will include remarks by David, a short performance by Crow, clips from An Inconvenient Truth, comedy segments from Earth to America! and a dialogue with students. “History proves that college students have the ability to be the driving force in large-scale social change and now – more than ever – is the time for students across the country to become global warming activists,” said David, founder of stopglobalwarming.org and author of Stop Global Warming:

Global Warming may become one of the greatest threats to Alabama’s unrivaled freshwater biodiversity. On the Black Warrior’s Locust Fork, Alabama Power’s Miller Steam Plant was ranked fifth dirtiest nationally in 2003 by the E.P.A. for emissions of Carbon Dioxide, a leading contributor to global warming.

Since 2005, Black Warrior Riverkeeper has recruited over 6,000 citizens to become Virtual Marchers in this important movement.

For more info, check out Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Webpage on Laurie David’s Virtual March to Stop Global Warming.

Tickets were first made available Wednesday, March 28 at the UAB Ticket Office in Hill University Center. There are 3,000 seats available and each person can get two tickets per day. Any remaining seats will be available beginning at 6:30 p.m. the day of the concert in Bartow. For information on tickets, call 934-8001.