Shepherd Bend Mine Public Hearing
Thursday, August 28th @ 6pm
Tom Bevill Building Exhibit Hall | Building 1400
Bevill State Community College Sumiton Campus
101 State Street, Sumiton, AL 35148
Take Action to protect a major source of daily drinking water for 200,000 people in the greater Birmingham area! Urge the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to deny the draft Clean Water Act permit for 29 water pollution discharges into the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River from the proposed coal mine at Shepherd Bend. You can:
1. Provide oral comments at the August 28 public hearing on the draft Clean Water Act permit for Shepherd Bend Mine.
2. ADEM will also accept written comments about the mine at the August 28 hearing, or by mail or email before 5 pm on August 29. Click here for our webpage that can automatically generate a sample email comment for you. Send comments to: Russell A. Kelly, Chief | ADEM Permits and Services Division | P.O. Box 301463 | Montgomery, AL 36130-1463 | [email protected]
Background information:
ADEM issued a wastewater discharge permit to Drummond Company subsidiary Shepherd Bend, LLC on July 21, 2008. No mining ever started, and the permit’s 5 year term expired. Shepherd Bend, LLC recently applied to renew its permit and ADEM released the draft NPDES Permit No. AL0079162 currently under consideration.
This 1,773-acre strip mine would discharge polluted water at 29 outfalls, including one that is 800 feet across the river from the Birmingham Water Works Board’s Mulberry Intake facility. Heavy metals, sediment, and other pollution discharged from Shepherd Bend Mine into the Mulberry Fork would lead to decreased source water quality and potentially increased water rates for customers of the Birmingham Water Works.
Preeminent scientists studying water pollution from coal mines recently wrote the following in a public comments: “Despite our extensive collective experience regarding permit applications in the coalfields of West Virginia and Kentucky, the Shepherd’s Bend mine is the first mining permit application that we have seen immediately adjacent to a public drinking water supply. Given the extensive literature linking surface coal mining to a variety of human health problems with enormous associated public health costs such activity seems particularly ill advised.”
To learn more about the Shepherd Bend Mine proposal, a large coalition’s ongoing efforts to oppose it, the University of Alabama’s pivotal role in the process, and how you can get involved, visit Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Shepherd Bend Mine page or call us at (205) 458-0095.
To read Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s recent Shepherd Bend Mine permit comments to ADEM, click here.
To view an annotated Google Earth image of the proposed Shepherd Bend Mine area, the Black Warrior River’s Mulberry Fork, and the Birmingham Water Works’ Mulberry Intake, click here.