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Municipalities and private wastewater operations throughout the Black Warrior River watershed are not adequately treating their sewage. We have taken a look at the majority of the wastewater facilities (80+) discharging to the Black Warrior and its tributaries. We found roughly forty percent of them were discharging inadequately treated and raw sewage. Many facilities also have failing collection lines that cause raw sewage overflows into local streams. We are talking with owners and operators trying to effect change and put an end to illegal discharges. For those that do not want to work with us, we are giving them 60-day notice of intent to sue. If they do not choose to talk with us or work the problem out before the 60 days are up, then we will sue in federal court under the Clean Water Act. Our state agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, is not taking the problem seriously. ADEM is accepting the "we don't have enough money to fix the problem" excuse and in turn takes it easy on polluters. If ADEM ever gets around to fining them, it is a weak slap on the wrist that ineffectively deters future violations.

You would think an aggressive campaign like ours would have all the facilities working hard to clean up their operations. However, many still believe they are above the law, and sadly - don't take sewage spills seriously. We will continue to work on this issue until significant progress has been made.