Activism
Warrior River Water Authority’s Board of Directors and Manager is considering closing the McCalla Office and Maintenance Shop, located in Bucksville on the Old Tuscaloosa Hwy.
This will be an inconvenience to customers in the McCalla and Lake View areas, which are the largest growing areas served by this water authority.
If their plan is passed, all operations will be moved to the Oak Grove camp that is located approximately 25 miles away and over one hour travel time for the customers of McCalla and Lake View area to “walk-in” and pay their water bill. Yes you can mail the water bill but lots of folks have to pay either on the last day of billing or day before.
McCalla and Lake View are the areas seeing growth and development in the form of new homes, new residential development and new commercial development. The Bucksville location is easily accessible from I-20/59 and I-459. This makes it easy for residential customers, business customers and developers to do business with the water board.
The response time to repair water outages in the McCalla and Lake View areas will suffer. Customers will potentially wait countless hours for their water service to be restored. Crews will have to commute from McCalla to Oak Grove to get equipment, trucks and supplies then commute back to the McCalla service area to restore service. They may have to come from Oak Grove to scout out any reports of water outage before any equipment is in route to do any repairs. This process will add hours to possibly already lengthy outage.
Their plans are to build new buildings at the Oak Grove location that will have to be paid for by water customers. Keeping the Bucksville location in service will not require new buildings and these are debt free.
Their plan will add additional expenses to the operations of the water authority that will be passed on to its customers. Closing the Bucksville location will not save much, if any. They will spend additional funds to build buildings that will have to be insured and maintained. Will they purchase property to build? The Bucksville location only has normal overhead expenses and insurance and its local for the most served customers.
The Water Board has already agreed to get estimates on clearing property and cost of a new building with five or more bays to house the equipment currently owned and located at Oak Grove and Bucksville. Then later build again to move all office personnel to Oak Grove and then close the location at Bucksville completely. All office work is currently maintained at the Bucksville location.
Currently, the Water Board meets on the first Tuesday of each month at the Bucksville location. The time of this meeting is 6:30 PM, unless otherwise posted. You need to attend the meeting on May 7th and let them know if you think this is not in the best interest of McCalla and Lake View areas.
Below are names and contact numbers of the current Water Board members. Please start now, contact them and let them know how you feel about their plans to close the Bucksville Location.
Warrior Rive Water Authority Board of Directors and Manager:
Jon Terry Chairman of Water Board 426-1606 Jefferson County
Kent Byram Board Member 436-3777 Jefferson County
Victor Spanick Board Member 491-2856 Jefferson County
Don Burchfield Board Member 492-5247 Jefferson County
Mark Phillips Board Member 477-6627 Tuscaloosa County
Greylan Glaze General Manager 477-5791 Bucksville Office
Activism
Artists will create spectacular works of art in the blink of an eye during the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center’s annual ArtBLINK Gala 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, in The Kirklin Clinic, 2000 6th Ave. South.
Sixteen local artists will work with a variety of media to create masterpieces in 90 minutes that can be purchased during the silent auction. Since 1984, the Cancer Center’s Advisory Board has raised more than $13 million to support the center’s research efforts. Funds from the Gala go toward the Cancer Center’s Fund for Excellence, which supports high-priority research efforts – whether for a specific project, launching young investigators in a cancer research career or recruitment of new faculty members. A percentage of the funds raised also support patient and family assistance efforts.
“The Cancer Center thrives on the generosity of the community, and especially in these tight economic times where we feel the pinch of federal budget cuts, we rely even more on their support,” says Edward Partridge, M.D., the center’s director. “Philanthropic support provides us with the critical seed money to investigate drugs and develop treatments that we can quickly and safely move to our patients.
Participating artists are Thomas Andrew, Ahmad Austin, Nada Boner, R. David Boyd Jr., Joan Curtis, Kate Merritt Davis, Vicki Denaburg, Randy Gachet, Lila Graves, Darius Hill, Carol Misner, Melanie Morris, David Nichols, Linda Ellen Price, Paul Ware and Jamie Wilson.
The elegant evening, which has become one of Birmingham’s premier events, will also feature a cocktail dinner provided by Kathy G. & Company and dancing to the sounds of Big Daddy’s New Band. Admission is $150 per individual; learn more and make reservations at www.uab.edu/artblink or call 205-934-0282. Dress is black-tie optional. Valet and deck parking are available for guests.
Sponsors include UAB, the UAB Health System, UA Health Services Foundation, Bryant Bank, Buffalo Rock, Burr & Forman LLP, Cemex, Medical Properties Trust, Protective Life Corporation and Robins & Morton.
Media contact: Beena Thannickal, 205-975-3967 or beenat@uab.edu
Activism
Birmingham – When Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, it envisioned stopping additional polluted water from flowing into our nation’s waters by 1985. Forty years later, the Clean Water Act has done much to clean up streams, rivers, and lakes within the Black Warrior River watershed and throughout the nation, but new sources of water pollution are being permitted almost every month. Unfortunately we have a long way to go before all streams can be considered safe for swimming, fishing, and drinking.
“Sadly, there are still many interests who would rather dump their waste into the river than dispose of it properly – putting their pollution burden and the cost of cleaning it up squarely on the backs of Alabama taxpayers,” said Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper.
With regulatory agencies in Alabama unwilling and unable to adequately enforce the Clean Water Act and hold polluters accountable, citizens must pick up the slack. Black Warrior Riverkeeper is dedicated to finding major pollution problems and advocating for their cleanup. Over the past ten years, the nonprofit advocacy organization has been educating the public about where pollution is coming from, and who is responsible, so that appropriate action can be taken.
Today, Black Warrior Riverkeeper is releasing a map showing the location of many waste water treatment plants with permits to discharge treated sewage into the river and its tributaries. It can be difficult for citizens to find out where such facilities are and where they send polluted water. Now, with this map citizens can better make decisions about where to swim, fish, and recreate.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper joins hundreds of Waterkeeper Alliance organizations across this great nation who are celebrating the Clean Water Act’s 40th Anniversary. Additionally, Black Warrior Riverkeeper and many other Alabama organizations will celebrate the Clean Water Act with a public event on its actual birthday, Thursday, October 18. The event will begin at 5:30 that night at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (2612 Lane Park Road). $10 Tickets, supporting the Alabama Coastal Foundation and the Alabama Rivers Alliance, cover the cost of food and two beverages.
Activism
STUDENTS, CITIZENS GATHER TO PETITION CONTINUATION OF HEARING PROCESS FOR CORDOVA STRIP MINE
Birmingham, AL and Cordova, AL— In the following week, students and citizens will convene for a series of public events designed to raise awareness and increase citizen engagement on pollution issues related to the proposed Reed Minerals No. 5 strip mine in Cordova, AL. If constructed, the strip mine holds the potential to contaminate the drinking water supply for the largest metropolitan area in the state of Alabama, the Metro-Birmingham area. Negative effects to public health and quality of life will also cause serious problems for residents within the Cordova and Dovertown communities, where Reed Minerals is currently requesting permission from the Alabama Surface Mining Commission for construction.
Student environmental groups from the University of Alabama, UAB, University of Montevallo, Samford University, and Bevill State Community College have organized under the broader C.A.S.E. (Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment) organization to conduct, support, and participate in events in both Birmingham and Cordova. Last month, students joined over 250 residents to express concerns to ASMC over the mine, which will discharge wastewater from 23 points into a section of the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River designated by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management as a public water supply. This is the second proposed strip coal mine upstream of the drinking water supply in recent years, following on the heels of the Shepherd Bend Mine proposal, which is 3 miles downstream at their closest points.
WHEN: September 7th, 5 PM – 7 PM
WHERE: Highland United Methodist Church: 1045 20th Street South – Birmingham, AL
DESCRIPTION: Students will be organizing a public demonstration with the Alabama Rivers Alliance which will include continuing to collect more signatures around the Southside and UAB areas of Birmingham to add additional citizen signatures to hand over to the ASMC asking for an extension in the hearing process for the strip mine by addressing citizen concerns via a formal public hearing.
WHEN: September 10th, 11 AM – 2 PM
WHERE: ASMC Headquarters: 1811 2nd Avenue – Jasper, AL
DESCRIPTION: Students will join Citizens Opposed to Strip Mining on the Black Warrior River to engage other local citizens on Reed Mine pollution issues, and to hand-deliver all petition and letter requests for a formal public hearing directly to ASMC representatives.
C.A.S.E. consists of student environmental leaders and advocates from multiple grassroots environmental organizations at numerous college campuses within the state of Alabama. C.A.S.E. members work individually and collectively with public, private, and non-profit organizations to achieve legitimately beneficial compromises to environmental justice and natural resource conservation issues within Alabama communities.
