Dams

Dams affect flow, sediment passage, oxygen, temperature, and habitat. They have severely altered the state of Alabama 's Black Warrior River . A series of fourteen locks and dams were built on the river in the late 1800s. In the 1930s, work began to replace those dams with a more modern series of four locks and dams. The river is heavily used by barges for the transport of commercial commodities such as coal, coke, steel, wood, and chemicals. These dams have created a number of lake-like reservoirs stealing the river’s free-flowing beauty. To view maps showing existing Locks and Dams in the Black Warrior River watershed click here.

Unfortunately, the threat of dams still looms in our watershed....

Recently Cullman County proposed a dam on the Duck River! Black Warrior RIVERKEEPER organized with the Alabama Rivers Alliance, Wild South, the Friends of the Mulberry Fork, and Steve Masterson to challenge this unnecessary dam on the Duck River. While the new reservoir would have provided drinking and industrial water, this water's quality would have become very polluted from the alarming waste created by Cullman County's state-leading number of industrial chicken factories (See below - "Poultry, Pathogens and Bacteria")

Proposed dam site of the Duck River, an important tributary of the Black Warrior River. (Cullman County, Alabama)

On November 27, 2002, The Birmingham News published a story revealing the Birmingham Water Works Board, Alabama Power, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' interest in damming the Locust Fork River, a free-flowing headwater of the Black Warrior River. A similar plan was proposed in the early 1990s, but was defeated by patriotic citizens in northern Alabama, many organized under the Friends of Locust Fork. The Locust Fork River is one of Alabama's last free-flowing rivers and is a priceless resource to the state. This major Black Warrior River headwater is one of the richest basins for aquatic diversity in the country; several federally protected endangered species live in the Locust Fork, including the Plicate Rocksnail, Triangular Kidneyshell, and Cahaba Shiner, etc....

Swann Covered Bridge on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River (Blount County, Alabama)