Prevent Coal Mine Pollution from Contaminating a Birmingham Drinking Water Source. Take Action: blackwarriorriver.org/no-5-mine/ The comment deadline is now March 29!
The Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC) is currently accepting public comments concerning the renewal of a coal mining permit for the No. 5 Mine. This proposed 506 acre surface coal mine would discharge wastewater out of 23 points into the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River, upstream of a drinking water intake for 200,000 people in great Birmingham.
Submit written comments to Milton McCarthy, Alabama Surface Mining Commission at P.O. Box 2390, Jasper, AL 35502-2390,
or via e-mail at Milton.McCarthy@asmc.alabama.gov.
Comment deadline: 3/29/19.
The No. 5 Mine is being proposed by Mays Mining, Inc. despite major opposition along the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River near Dovertown and Cordova. The proposed mine would be 5.5 miles upstream of one of greater Birmingham’s major drinking water intakes, which provides water for 200,000 people daily. The Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) is actively opposing the mine’s permit as written, which authorizes a surface coal mine at a former industrial site with contaminated groundwater. Drinking water customers and all concerned, for a limited time, have the opportunity to comment on this coal mine permit. We urge you to do so.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper opposes the No. 5 Mine for the following reasons:
1. No. 5 Mine will discharge polluted water into the Mulberry Fork and its tributaries only 5.5 miles upstream of a primary drinking water intake for the BWWB, the Mulberry Intake, which serves 200,000 greater Birmingham area customers daily.
2. The Mulberry Fork has an official state designated use classification of “Public Water Supply,” and therefore should not be subjected to 23 polluted water discharge points.
3. The Birmingham Water Works Board’s 2013 Source Water Assessment identifies a “Source Water Protection Area” along the Mulberry Fork and its tributaries fifteen miles upstream and a quarter mile downstream of the Mulberry Intake. This area includes a 500 foot buffer along the river and its main tributaries. The proposed mine significantly encroaches within the SWPA.
4. As a result of litigation by the BWWB, the ASMC and No. 5 Mine were ordered by a court to demonstrate how mining could safely occur on the industrial portion of the property; their first attempt was deemed inadequate and the court ordered them to try again or they could not mine that portion of the site.
5. The ASMC permit does not adequately address prior industrial contamination at the site.
6. According to prior BWWB comments, No. 5 Mine “has the potential to adversely impact the Birmingham area drinking water.”
7. The drinking water source, the Mulberry Fork, already carries a heavy pollutant burden at times. Additional pollutant loading into the source upstream of the intake is not advisable.
8. If the mine leads to greater demands on treatment operations as well as increased treatment costs, these costs will be paid by ratepayers, not the mining company.
9. Previous comment letters on the mine submitted by the BWWB and Riverkeeper incorporate extensive data about the possible impacts of mining on aquatic resources and the public water source. In sum, those comments conclusively demonstrate that permitting coal mine operations so close to a public drinking water source simply cannot and should not happen.
10. The social and economic impacts associated with the contamination of the water source for 200,000 people more than outweigh any economic benefit of the mine.
Learn additional details here.