Black Warrior Riverkeeper, a citizen-based nonprofit whose mission is to protect and restore the Black Warrior River and its tributaries, is awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Department of Justice to see wither an Alabama mining company will be responsible for cleaning up unpermitted wastewater leakage from a dam into local waterways.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in 2022 against Warrior Met Coal (WMC) after Nelson Brooke, a Riverkeeper at Black Warrior Riverkeeper, received a call about a Tuscaloosa creek turning black. Brooke said he made the discovery about a leaky impoundment located near Mine No. 7 that ultimately flowed into the Black Warrior River through a series of different tributaries including Texas Creek, Davis Creek and Holt Lake.
“This is something that I discovered while I was on patrol several years ago, while I was actually investigating another incident at the mine that we received a complaint about. They had discharged slurry from another area of the same slurry impoundment into a tributary of the river, and it was causing Davis Creek to turn black,” said Brooke.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper claimed that WMC was violating the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The two parties arranged a Consent Decree which, if approved by the federal court after a comment period by the U.S. Department of Justice, requires WMC to fix its leaking coal slurry impoundment and stop discharging polluted wastewater without a permit at Mine No. 7.
“It's untreated wastewater going into a very small stream, and that is a serious threat to all aquatic life and anybody that comes into contact with it. We don't want to see pollutants cause an acute issue in the short term, and we also don't want to see it become a chronic issue over time, where pollutants, such as heavy metals, are coming out of the coal waste build up in the receiving stream and also in the in the life that lives in it depends on it,” said Brooke.
If the Consent Degree is approved, WMC will also be required to carry out an action plan that includes the installation of a linear to fix the leaky dam that is holding back millions of gallons of coal slurry at Impoundment No. 14.
WMC has also agreed to enroll in Alabama’s Dam Safety Program, which will add another layer of inspections and requirements for the maintenance and care of slurry impoundment No. 14.
Additionally, WMC will pay $250,000 to the Freshwater Land Trust for the establishment of a supplemental environmental project (SEP) in the Black Warrior’s Davis Creek sub watershed and reimburse Black Warrior Riverkeeper for the $28,000 in cost and attorney’s fees.
Brooks said that by setting up the SEP, the money will go back into the environment.
“By setting up a supplemental environmental project locally in the Davis Creek watershed, we are ensuring that this money will stay local and go back into the creek environment that's been impacted for so long. Hopefully, we're going to see a project that locals and everybody downstream are going to be happy about,” explained Brooke.
After discovering the wastewater leakage two years ago through a call from a citizen, Brooks said that the local community plays an important role in helping the environment.
“The role that locals play in helping us hold polluters accountable is very important, and I can't stress that enough,” he said. “If we had not received a complaint about the Blackwater discharges from this mine, from locals years ago, I may not have been in the area where I found this unpermitted discharge from their [Warrior Met Coal] slurry impoundment to document it and then get to work trying to stop it. We really depend on locals to let us know if they see anything wrong. They see any sort of pollution problems happening in streams in their area,” Brooke continued. “We just want to encourage the public to continue to contact us. so that we can investigate issues and try to get pollution problems solved.”
For more information on the proposed Consent Decree, click here, and to learn more about the Black Warrior Riverkeeper and volunteering with the nonprofit click here.
