Alabama's Rivers in Fast Decline

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Jim Graham likes canoeing in Alabama's rivers and streams. Swimming, however, is a different story. The water is too dirty, the Montgomery resident said, and he isn't sure about the "foam" he sees on the top of the water while he paddles down the Locus Fork, a branch of the Black Warrior River near Birmingham.

Jim Graham likes canoeing in Alabama's rivers and streams. Swimming, however, is a different story.


The water is too dirty, the Montgomery resident said, and he isn't sure about the "foam" he sees on the top of the water while he paddles down the Locus Fork, a branch of the Black Warrior River near Birmingham.


"When you see foam on top of the water, it makes me think there's something in there that shouldn't be. It's kind of creepy," he said.


Graham is upset about the environmental decline of the Mobile River Basin, which includes seven major river systems and is the largest Gulf Coast drainage east of the Mississippi.


The basin had been home to nearly half of the species that have become extinct in the U.S. in the past 100 years, said officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They say the trend likely is due to the construction of dams and locks in the early and mid-1900s, as well as dredging for channels.


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The Clean Water Act of 1972 has helped clean the rivers considerably, but environmentalists say urbanization of bedroom communities is posing a new threat to the basin's ecosystem.


"A lot of people say, why should we care about snails and mussels, small fish, minnows and darters?" said Paul Hartfield, an endangered species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Jackson, Miss. "The best analogy ... is people move into these (pristine) areas because they're highly desirable, because they have a high quality of life, and those animals are indicators of that high quality of life.


"When these animals start disappearing, then those things that attracted people to those areas are disappearing as well: Water quality, habitat quality, the pastoralness."


To prevent that, environmentalists have pressured city governments to adopt ordinances that would help reduce the effects of development on the ecosystem.


Environmentalists and conservationists have lauded Auburn and Opelika city governments for taking the lead on environmental issues.


Auburn passed an ordinance two years ago that regulates development, making sure construction companies properly install silt fences and keep sediment from running off the site and into rivers and streams.


Auburn judges also have helped the effort, handing down up to $15,000 fines to companies who repeatedly violate the ordinance, said Bill Deutsch, director of Alabama Water Watch.


The city of Prattville is working on a similar ordinance to regulate the best management practices for development.


"We were very happy the Auburn-Opelika area got a little more tough on the way construction is done and how land needs to be stabilized," Deutsch said. "Within water systems, sediments have a lot of negative ecological effects. Number one, blanketing the bottom and destroying habitat for all kinds of critters. In addition, we have a lot of clays that will stay suspended in the water, and that blocks sunlight, which disrupts the food chain."


That hampers the ecosystem of the Mobile River Basin, which environmentalists have been working to restore for years.


They have helped develop a Mobile River Basin recovery plan more than 100 pages long. They also have lobbied for more state money for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which regulates state environmental rules.


Still, nature lovers like Graham would like to see more progress. He said he used to love fishing, but lately he hasn't dropped many lures into Alabama's rivers.


"I'd get back into it if I felt like I could eat what I caught," he said. "I wouldn't dare do that now."


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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News