Faded photo but the stacks were right over my fish
Me on the MV Tuscaloosa, 1973
Ever since I was a little boy growing
up around Bluff Creek on the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River I have
been seeing the smoke stacks of Gorgas coal fired power plant.
I worked for
Parker Towing co. hauling coal out of Gorgas. They had their own mines back then
and produced more coal than they used. It will seem strange when it's all gone
not to see those iconic stacks towering above Walker and Jefferson Counties. It
was one of the nastiest coal burners in the country. I won't miss it.
On Sept. 09/2021 I went with three of my fellow Waterkeepers to document the blasting of the old Gorgas power generating plant. It was a good thing to see.
This power plant was the dirtiest, as for emissions anywhere in the state and 7th dirtiest in the country. For several generations this plant has been spewing coal ash, dust and harmful greenhouse gasses since 1917. It was time to take it down 20 years ago.
The City of Tuscaloosa recently issued a “Stop Work Order”
to the Quick Trip Corporation facility located at the intersection of
Buttermilk Road and I-59. Stop work order means just that. Stop working on
anything except mitigating the recent violations and offsite impacts to
residents and businesses located in the path of their mud flow. That is
unfortunate for the contract workers who have to go home because the general
contractor refused to follow the guidelines. As usual the QT folks are telling
nearby business owners that it is my fault their work has stopped. If the Quick
Trip Corporation contractors had performed as prescribed in the city and state
permits, there would have been no need for Friends of Hurricane Creek to ever
file the first complaint. It was negligence on the part of the polluter but
also the City of Tuscaloosa building inspections and ADEM for standing by
watching with blinkers on it seemed. That is until I showed up on site with a
camera.
Once I made a public post showing the offsite flooding of residential
property and the deposit of tons of sediment onto state and county right of way
things began to improve slightly. When Tuscaloosa finally took action in the
form of a SWO, improvements began the very same day. That proves what I have
been saying for over 2 decades. Warnings do not deter bad behavior. Enforcement
where the developer feels the effects at the bottom line in the budget gets
immediate response.
It should not take public humiliation and outcry to make the
enforcement agencies to step up and do their jobs but that seems to be the only
way to get help for tax paying citizens being hit with mud and accelerated
runoff from a poorly planned and implemented construction site every rain event.
When a company like QT corp. and McCrory sign on to a permit
and then ignores the stipulations to protect the environment then they should
be stopped. That is the primary responsibility of the inspectors who visit the
site on a regular basis. If local inspectors do not act, then ADEM is the
second line of defense. It this case I can document, both lines of defense
failed the citizens. It is not a singular event. There have been many such sites in and
around Tuscaloosa, which have not held accountable. I personally believe that
the city inspection department has far too chummy a relationship with
violators. Many corrective measure letters were sent from the inspection
department but no real improvement was seen until the city engineer, Jarrod
Milligan showed up and walked the site with the inspections division head,
Colby Mixon.
Colby Mixon
Construction Manager
Office of City Engineer
Infrastructure & Public Services
It was obvious that Mr. Milligan was unaware of some of the
issues on the site. For every problem I pointed out, Mr. Mixon seemed to know
about it and have “reasons” for why it occurred without stopping the work earlier. I personally found his reasons
to sound more like excuses for the violations. For instance, he knew the sod that
was supposed to be used for stabilization rotted and was hauled off of the
site. He knew about the repeated erosion control measures that were not
installed and or maintained.
He knew the drainage along I-59 was a failure and made the excuse that there was an elevation problem. I agree. The issue has existed for almost a year but Mr. Mixon never thought it was important enough to address until Mr. Milligan, his supervisor was on site with us.
A major set of issues which Mr. Mixon was aware of has been
the chronically failing best Management Practices (BMPs) along the I-59
corridor. Simply put, there have been none since the slope was scraped bare. It
is to be a service road leading to Gulf States Auto sales. No inspector worth
being paid could ignore that.
As it stands now there is no quick fix for drainage issues
located at the north western most section of the permit. The inspectors for the
city should have picked up on this from the beginning and made them take the
proper steps to mitigate the problem. They knew about it and
explained that they had some elevation issues. No joke! Water will not run up
hill without external pressure such as a pump. That’s not my opinion, that’s facts!
Entrance to Gulf States Auto sales during rain.
The owner of Gulf States Auto sales is being hurt from a
business standpoint. I have personally redirected several of their customers to
the entrance of the day. It changes quite regularly. They deserve an adequate
entrance, which does not impede commerce. A perfect permanent resolution to the
issue would be to make the service road a priority, Get the ALDOT permit and
build the road! The polluter has submitted no sediment loss calculation as
directed in the ADEM NOV. From what I have seen and documented there has been
several inches of sediment loss over a very large area, which until yesterday,
09/01/21 had no BMPs at all. The sediment load in Cottondale Creek is quite
visible even though Mr. Evan Roberts of ADEM claimed the creek is not near the
site. I have walked it out. It’s about 175 feet from the ALDOT flume ditch,
which QT is using as an unpermitted discharge point.
I am getting blamed
for slowing down the work progress. I completely disagree. The permit had a set
of state and local guidelines QT was required to follow. They did not. The city
inspections department had an obligation to take deterrent action to stop the
flow of mud. They did not. It was a combination of irresponsibility by all
concerned.
I believe the only way to mitigate this now is to create a
permanent retention basin at the lower most section and apply for a discharge
permit from Alabama dep. of transportation, ALDOT. The process of getting an
ALDOT permit should have been built into the plan submitted to the Tuscaloosa
Planners. From the surface it seems that the planners do not take in such
matters. A developer submits a plan and without significant public opposition
it is passed regardless of its protective value to the surrounding community or
so it seems. Again, this is not a stand alone problem. It has been repeated
many times on many such development sites permitted by the city of Tuscaloosa.
I have thousands of files ranging back to 2007 when FoHC first engaged the city
over storm water runoff.
Valley Lake Rd. The city "forgot" to notify the county about work
There was an agreement between the city and Tuscaloosa Co.
that the city would notify the county engineers when construction began. In an
email sent by Co. Civil Engineer Katherine Parris she asked why the city had
not informed them of construction beginning. The response was (paraphrased)
we’re sorry. We forgot! Anyone who “forgets such an important part of the
construction activity should no longer be on the Tuscaloosa employee
roster!What administrator would allow
such negligence to continue on their payroll?
When the local and state agencies do not enforce the permits
that they, themselves write then it is up to citizens and non-governmental
organizations like Waterkeepers Alabama to stand up and protect our waterways
as well as the citizens who enjoy the use of our waters
ADEM Director Lance LeFleur
ADEM Director Lance LeFleur recently penned an Op-Ed
stating, “It takes more than lawsuits to protect Alabama waters” This is one
time I fully agree with the Director. It takes local and state agencies dedicated
to protecting the water and air instead of shielding the polluters who pay for
permits.
We as WaterkeepersAlabama members do not sue for the fun of it and we don’t make money
from suing. In most cases it costs the organizations much more than you might
think. If the Alabama Department of Environmental Management
(ADEM) did their job with the due diligence it requires, we would not have to
take action at all.
Unfortunately here in Alabama what we have witnessed for years is that our state
agency, Alabama Department of environmental management, (ADEM) appears
completely impotent when it comes to enforcing the Clean Water Act. Over the
time I have been an environmental activist I have heard more than one director
say ADEM is not here to enforce to clean water act ADEM is here to issue
permits. I completely disagree. If ADEM and or a local host government issues a
permit to disturb ground then that entity is responsible for enforcing the stipulation
of the permit as granted. The environmental conditions included in every disturbance
permit are just like a stop sign at a corner downtown to prevent wrecks. If I
run that stop sign and a cop sees me I can expect to be pulled over, cited,
expect to pay a fine, and possibly lose my license. There’s no difference
between those stop signs and the environmental stop signs incorporated into
every permit, designed to protect the environment. They are there to protect
the environment but also the citizens downstream who are impacted by the
facility. Engineering firms who do not adequately report on the ground
conditions and falsely represent compliance should be sued and lose their
licenses. The permit, if properly enforced should have stopped this Quick Trip
wreck from ever occurring.
Personally I believe this would be low hanging fruit for a
civil case against the developer, his contractors as well as the city of
Tuscaloosa for negligence.
A stop work order was issued by the city of Tuscaloosa finally! It was issued Fri. afternoon, 08/27/21 at 03:48 PM. At 5 PM they were still working!!
As of Saturday morning they were still working when the city showed up and finally issued a stop work order again and waited until all contractors had left the job site. The following complaint was filed with ADEM. So far, all ADEM has done about the NOV is issue but "consider" more action. Meanwhile the city has taken meaningful action.
08/29/21
Please
accept the following complaint against the Quick Trip construction project
located at the intersection of Buttermilk Road and I-59 in Tuscaloosa
County. N 33.17065 W 87.44712 NPDES permit number ALR10BHQ0
This report will cover 3 days at the
site. A lot happened in the period between 08/26/21 and 08/29/21.
I visited the site on 08/26/21 and
found construction activity going on as usual in spite of Mr. Ensor claiming
all of the area would be stabilized and sodded beginning last Monday. NO evidence
of that can be found. There are several acres of the site with no cover at all
in places subject to severe eroding.
The drop inlet near the Hargrove
roan area has still not been addressed. The silt fence surrounding it is
clogged and with holes. Mr. Ensor specifically said the area would be sodded
and the silt fence removed last Monday, Aug. 23. It is now Aug. 29 and it still
hasn’t been done. The BMPs below that have been failing chronically since I
first reported in late July. Just below that QT has installed a gravel ramp
several inches deep and about 20 x 20 feet. It has already begun cutting in
only a half-inch rain. What happened to stabilizing the entire area? ADEM needs
to take that into consideration during the enforcement and penalty assessment.
In
the response to the NOV.
QT Engineer stated, “Per discussion with
McCrory Construction, the site will continue to be permanently stabilized on
Monday, August 23. Everyone understanding of the expediency in which the
State’s concerns need to be addressed and have already performed multiple BMP
installations/alterations to prevent sediment from discharging downstream.“ “Recommend to sod area around inlet immediately and remove
silt fence. Silt fence appears to be clogged and water is overtopping berm and
running down Valley Lake Road. All bare soil areas shall be stabilized
expediently. This will help prevent erosion, aid in infiltration, and slow
surface runoff.”
NO sodding has taken place. I did
see a few straw mats rolled out but no repairs to the BMP issues reported. When
asked why they were using straw mats instead of sod, the adjacent landowner was
told that they could not get any sod. I have to call that one a willful
campaign of misinformation.
On 08/16/21 when Mr. Ensor was here there were at
least 30 rolls of sod on site. NONE were used. All are now gone. Hauled off I
would guess because not a single one was rolled out! The hay mats are better
than nothing I guess but not by much. This kind of activity needs to be taken
into consideration during the enforcement and penalty assessment.
08/27/21 I visited the site after
there was a ½ inch rain and as usual, the area surrounding QT was inundated
with mud and water offsite.
The newly installed gravel ramp had
already lost a few inches of gravel down the road and again there was a heavy
load of sediment offsite on private property across the street! Many of the
BMPs still had large holes and were not installed properly.
Much of the site is still bare. Not
even covered with hay.
The pond device for lack of better
term is not working and was never constructed properly. Even today, 2 days
after any rain it is still belching red water from the pipe and under the
failed BMPs into Valley Lake Rd, then into the lake.
At 11:28 AM, 08/27/21, I photographed
Tuscaloosa City officials onsite. By 03:48 PM a “Stop Work Order” was issued.
All construction activity except working on BMPs was to cease. At 04:54 I found
them still building a concrete form for the front entrance. I notified
Tuscaloosa.
I returned Saturday, 08.28.21 and
found them still digging ditches and working on everything except BMPs and
stabilizing the site. Again, I notified the city and within 30 minutes an
inspector showed up and stopped all work. He personally stayed until all workers
left the site.
Sun. 08/29/21. The site still has
about 1/3 of its footprint without cover. BMP have been somewhat attended to. I
can’t call it repaired. They patched some of the holes and kicked up some dirt
on other places. Additional silt fences have been installed but many are not
properly set up.
ADEM needs to take that into
consideration during the enforcement and penalty assessment.
This noncompliance is chronic. Even
ADEM can’t turn a blind eye to the lack of concern for the NOV from ADEM, 2
Stop Work Orders from the city, and a rather flowery response from their
engineer, which has not proven to be true. In spite of all of that, as
Hurricane IDA slams into LA. on its way here, no preparations have been made to
be ready for the 3 – 5 inches predicted to hit us here.
Tuscaloosa
City officials showed up in the rain and saw firsthand the problems
created by the lack of enforcement. I can already hear the cries of “It
was an act of God” “It rained a lot so “”Upsets”” happen”. Under normal
circumstances, that might be true. In this case it doesn’t hold up. If
you have
not installed your BMPs properly and maintained them as prescribed then
any
upsets and offsite impacts should be considered intentional or at least
gross
negligence. ADEM needs to take that into consideration during the
enforcement
and penalty assessment.
