TONS of Good News as We Turn 20

Dear Black Warrior Riverkeeper supporters,

Black Warrior Riverkeeper launched exactly 20 years and 2 months ago. Our website now features a continually updated timeline of our milestones since September 25, 2001: blackwarriorriver.org/timeline/. I cannot thank you enough for helping keep us afloat for two decades and propelling us to a whole new level of success this year for the sake of public health, recreation, and wildlife habitat. Thus far in 2021, we have achieved the following with the help of our members – donors and volunteers:

~Protected, with Freshwater Land Trust, the endangered watercress darter with a new conservation easement.

~Threatened litigation which shamed ADEM into halting Drummond’s illegal pumping at their Maxine Mine.

~Challenged, with Center for Biological Diversity, Mays No. 5 Mine’s harm of the river and threatened turtles.

~Helped Coosa Riverkeeper disseminate fish advisories at boat launches and on WaterkeepersAlabama.org.

~Updated AlabamaCoalAsh.org with allies to help the public learn about coal ash and take action on it.

~Hired our first Outreach Coordinator, Katie Fagan, to engage more people and groups in community service.

~Hired a new AmeriCorps member, Katie Holmes, to expand our rapidly-growing volunteer litter cleanups.

~Ran 57 cleanups in which volunteers and partners removed 22,356.21 pounds of trash from the watershed.

~Promoted the installation and maintenance of 11 Litter Gitter trash traps in Birmingham-area streams.

~Made 155 educational speeches to business, government, nonprofit, religious, and scholastic groups.

~Wrote comment letters to government agencies, requesting upgrades to 20 permits and/or water rules.

~Monitored 77 facilities across our 17-county basin through patrols by foot, truck, canoe, boat, and plane.

~Reviewed 358 facilities’ Discharge Monitoring Reports to record the number and nature of their violations.

~Collected and analyzed 663 water samples, regularly publishing ambient water quality data on our website.

~Engaged hundreds of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds who donated thousands of service hours.

~Retained our Platinum (top) rating on GuideStar, the leading source of information on nonprofits.

~Fielded pollution reports, documented problems, and notified government agencies, media, and the public.

Please help support our continued success for this watershed by making a donation and/or signing up to volunteer. Thank you so much for helping the vital Black Warrior River watershed!

For Clean Water in 2022,

Charles Scribner
Executive Director