Terrapin Creek: Citizens to the Rescue

Terrapin Creek, Alabama.

For generations, Alabama families have fished, canoed and swam in the pristine waters of Terrapin Creek - one of the last unpolluted creeks left in the entire state of Alabama. Terrapin Creek flows through four counties in Northeast Alabama and the Talladega National Forest before it empties into the Costa Coosa River. The creek's watershed spans 400-square miles, providing a source of clean drinking water for Alabama communities and habitat for fish and wildlife.

A gold mining operation was proposed just 500 feet from a section of Terrapin Creek that regularly floods. Gold mining involves the use of the many toxic chemicals including lead, mercury and hydrochloric acid. These toxic chemicals could leach into Terrapin Creek and the underground water table, poisoning wildlife and well water, and jeopardizing the drinking water and health of people in nearby communities.

The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club joined forces with Friends of Terrapin Creek, other local conservation groups and citizens to oppose this gold mine. For the past eight years we've been successful in stopping this threat to the community's water and health.

To hear more about how it worked or about other places in Alabama that are still threatened, please contact Michael Smith at 256-447-7143 or msmithnal@aol.com.

Update: November 2005
Victory!

In a decision, nearly five years in the making, the Cleburne County, Alabama, Circuit Court ruled that the Alabama Environmental Management Commission (AEMC) erred in approving a permit for HarGal Mining Partnership. The court reversed the AEMC order approving the permit and ruled that the former anti-degradation rule did not provide adequate standards; that the AEMC failed to consider Petitioner's objections; and that the AEMC failed to include findings on the sufficiency of permit limits.

Under Alabama law, high quality waters can be degraded only when the permittee demonstrates that the proposed discharge is necessary for "important economic or social development." As shown by testimony in this case, ADEM automatically accepts unsupported claims from permit applicants that their pollution is necessary for important economic or social development. ADEM has no standards or guidelines by which to make an agency decision as to whether the pollution actually is "important."

Judge Laird ruled that this lack of objective standards for determining what is or is not "important" is illegal. "Absent reviewable criteria in promulgated rules or enacted statutes governing the determination of important social or economic development, NPDES Permit No. AL0070793 is void."

Judge Laird also ruled that the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, which oversees ADEM and hears all administrative appeals from ADEM decisions, acted illegally (1) by failing to consider the objections filed by Wild South and the Friends of Terrapin Creek and (2) by failing to include findings of fact and conclusions of law in its order regarding claims by Friends of terrapin Creek involving violations of water quality standards for metals.

The permit would have allowed HarGal to discharge pollutants into Little Terrapin Creek, Hog Creek, and an unnamed tributary of Little Terrapin Creek, also located in Cleburne County. The facility never started operation.

Wild South and Friends of Terrapin Creek challenged the permit in court after AEMC approved the proposed permit without evaluating the objections of the groups. Wild South was represented by WildLaw, and Friends of Terrapin Creek was represented by the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (LEAF).

"The Friends of Terrapin Creek had the courage and fortitude to stand up to protect this beautiful, pristine creek that provides water and recreation opportunities to the local community," said Peggie Griffin with the Sierra Club in Alabama. "We are very proud that the Sierra Club played an important role in working with them to bring about this victory of right over might."

A copy of the decision may be found at www.leaflaw.org.
 
 

Print the Cahaba page from the report (pdf file)

The Upper Cahaba is also home to endangered fish, snail and mussels. Although mussel species in the river has been declining in recent years, the Upper Cahaba is still one of the most biologically diverse warm and freshwater bodies in the country. Naturalists find new species here each year.

Yet the Upper Cahaba has the dubious honor of flowing through one of the fastest growing regions in the state. Already 11 wastewater treatment facilities discharge into the Upper Cahaba. The river's watershed is a prime target for development, as the Birmingham suburbs surge farther out.

Population pressures and suburban sprawl threaten both the quantity and quality of the Upper Cahaba. Up to this point, most of the development has cleared out forests and natural surroundings. One way to limit the harm this causes the Upper Cahaba is to concentrate growth in vacant and underutilized sites where some infrastructure is already in place.

Sierra Club has teamed up with other local conservation groups to participate in the Upper Cahaba Watershed Study, praised as a coordinated approach to guide future development while protecting the Upper Cahaba River and its tributaries.

To help us protect some of the region's most sensitive lands and the health of the Upper Cahaba, please contact Margo Rebar at mrebar@earthlink.net.