FreeThinkBham has talked about the infamous B’ham-based McWane, Inc before. Now national environmental organizations–such as Earthjustice, Environment America, Clean Water Action, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center– are talking about them. They have released a report called “Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It” that documents cases of how the Clean Water Act causes legal confusion.
The case of McWane and the Avondale Creek is a perfect example of this confusion:
In 2005, a jury found that employees of Birmingham pipe manufacturer McWane Inc. knowingly discharged oil, lead, zinc and grease into Avondale Creek, which flows into Village Creek and residential neighborhoods of Birmingham. But those Clean Water Act convictions were overturned by an appeals court because prosecutors had not shown the pollution’s impact on a navigable waterway.
Hopefully, Washington will listen to these environmentalists and corporations will finally have to own up to the pollution they’re dumping on the rest of us–even right here in Birmingham.
admin Business, Green Black Warrior Riverkeeper, mcwane inc, pollution
The freeThinkBham Event Finder has a lot of cool, progressive and mostly free events that are happening in Birmingham this week. Check it out for more info on these events including:
Tuesday -
Climate Change Info Session @Vestavia Hills High School, 3:45-5pm
UAB Foreign Film Series presents “Days and Clouds” @Hulsey Recital Hall, 8pm
Music Snob Trivia @Bottletree, 8pm
Thursday -
Support local NPR station WBHM on their one-day fund drive
Saturday –
Magic City Black Expo featuring Artur Davis @BJCC, 11am
Norwood Community Garden Work Day, 8am-2pm
Black Warrior Riverkeeper Benefit Concert @Bottletree, 3pm
admin Entertainment Artur Davis, Black Warrior Riverkeeper
The Locust Fork Band will play a charity concert for Black Warrior Riverkeeper at Bottletree Café from 3-6pm on Saturday, April 4th. Named after the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, this legendary Alabama rock and country band hopes the event will raise funds and awareness for watershed protection.
Supporting their efforts to protect Birmingham-area drinking water, public health, wildlife habitat, and recreation, Black Warrior Riverkeeper has thrown many successful benefit concerts at Bottletree in recent years.
For the adults, Bottletree’s full bar will be open throughout the concert. This eco-friendly cafe and music venue will also be serving food from 3-6, including brunch specials!
Read More
admin Green Black Warrior Riverkeeper
The full cycle of coal use destroys our land, uproots communities, despoils our streams, contaminates our water supplies, and poisons our air.
Since there are several active coal-burning plants along the Black Warrior River, Alabama’s Black Warrior Riverkeeper is helping promote a new website called TheDirtyLie.com launched by Waterkeeper Alliance to combat the lies that are being spread about coal, including the myth of so-called “clean coal.”
Read the full release
admin Green Black Warrior Riverkeeper, coal, pollution
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is reviewing results of an inspection of downtown Birmingham’s repaving project following a complaint by Black Warrior Riverkeeper about paving debris left in the gutters and filling inlets from the city’s storm sewers.
Riverkeeper executive director Nelson Brooke said the organization filed the complaint after seeing that old paving material scraped from the street was being left in gutters and storm sewer inlets.
“The debris from the grinding operation had been shoved into the storm drains in multiple places. You are not supposed to throw discarded trash of any type into a stream, let alone asphalt,” Brooke said.
Read the whole article
admin Green ADEM, Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Black Warrior Riverkeeper reports that they finally settled a pollution case they filed against the Birmingham Airport almost two years ago. The lawsuit alleged that muddy stormwater from construction at the airport polluted Village Creek, a tributary of the Black Warrior River’s Locust Fork. The settlement will fund a land conservation project in Jefferson County’s Village Creek watershed.
admin Green Black Warrior Riverkeeper
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