A STATE OFFICIAL SAID WHAT ABOUT TENNESSEE RIVERKEERPER’S WORK!?

Recently, Tennessee Riverkeeper filed notice of intent to sue the Guntersville Water Board over the 1.7 million gallons of sewage that was discharged into the environment from their sewer system.

Understandably, this news sparked concern throughout the state, and resonated far beyond the tens of thousands of residents and visitors who enjoy leisure time on Lake Guntersville every year. Sewage pollution in our water is always deeply troubling, especially during summer swimming months in the South.

The public outcry also triggered the director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), who took his time to author a column explaining why their manner of operating is beyond reproach, and how (referring to Tennessee Riverkeeper’s legal action in Guntersville) “just filing lawsuits doesn’t get it done.”

The intent of that statement, made by ADEM Director Lance LeFleur, was clearly meant to insinuate that legal actions from environmental groups such as Tennessee Riverkeeper are unnecessary.

ADEM has failed to keep polluters accountable

The reality that Tennessee Riverkeeper and other Waterkeeper groups throughout Alabama know all too well is that without our involvement on behalf of concerned citizens, public health issues would simply not be resolved.

ADEM’s history of not enforcing environmental regulations has been widely publicized, and their actions over the past few years has done little to improve their reputation.

Kyle Whitmire, the award-winning columnist for Al.com, wrote in 2019 “When 3M self-reported toxins it had dumped in the Tennessee River, [ADEM] didn’t bother to tell anyone — including the people who drink from that river.”

 While reporting for WHNT in Huntsville, Chelsea Brentzel asked ADEM if they knew the chemical they were permitting to be released into he Tennessee River was on a banned list. ADEM’s responded by saying that they didn’t know if they were allowed to regulate the chemical.

After a calamitous waste-water spill by a chicken-processing plant in Cullman caused a massive fish kill, an ABC 33/40 reporter traveled to Montgomery for an ADEM meeting to ask their director a simple question.  Lance LeFleur’s response (while walking away) to the reporter asking if the water in the Black Warrior River was safe to drink as result of the harmful spill: “if you look on our website, you can get all that information”. He went on to say that ADEM “owes it to these people to give them due process as we do for anybody.”

By “these people”, LaFleur meant the polluters – and while that response is certainly in keeping with the letter of the law, it does not instill much confidence that the State agency is willing to stand up to those who harm our water, air, and land.

Additionally, Alabama Political Reporter expressed the critical need for third-party environmental protection groups like Tennessee Riverkeeper: “Honestly, we are to the point now that we’re probably worse off with ADEM than without. We should take the money that we’re apparently wasting on that staff and give it to the various Riverkeeper groups around Alabama. Hell, they find half of the problems, and provide much more honest and thorough reports, and do a much better job notifying the general public of problems than ADEM ever has.”

Fighting on behalf of our communities

Tennessee Riverkeeper protects the water for more than 6.3 million southerners. The communities we serve are vocal supporters of our work, and we are fortunate to provide a focal point and conduit for their own advocacy. Access to clean, safe water - and therefore overall health and well-being is at stake for our communities, and we are growing consensus and channeling the collective action that our communities are demanding.

When Tennessee Riverkeeper finds pollution, it is often in underserved communities of color. Unfortunately, a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color and low-income households are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air—even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution.

Community engagement and education has been at the heart of the Tennessee Riverkeeper's work since our inception. Through public education, we empower citizens to document and report illegal pollution. In direct communication with the citizens and community leaders of the areas where pollution is reported, we develop concrete plans of action to enforce environmental laws, and seek justice for those most vulnerable to the effects of the pollution.

Fighting Polluters

Our legal actions, such as the one addressing sewage in Guntersville, are the result of hours of tedious work poring through pollution documents by our Chief Prosecuting Attorney, Mark Martin along with our staff Riverkeeper, David Whiteside and legal interns. Since our founding in 2009, we have filed over 50 legal actions, and have addressed over 30,000 Clean Water Act Violations.

When we fight for clean water on behalf of citizens, our small staff is often met with the bureaucracy of much larger institutions, and the process of coming to a resolution can often be long and painstaking – but always worth it. Last month, we signed a settlement agreement with the City of Oak Ridge, TN for sewage pollution. Oak Ridge dumped over 40 million gallons of raw sewage in a five-year period, and because of our efforts, the City is must expend a minimum of $4 million to improve and upgrade its waste treatment and collection systems. In Decatur, AL, our work led to a 10-year, multi-million-dollar investment from the City to replace their outdated sewage infrastructure due to chronic overflows into the Tennessee River and its tributaries.

fighting for Our Future

What we are perhaps most proud of though, is being able to instill a love for environmental protection in the next generations of leaders. Our member’s support of our legal program has allowed us to invest is developing the skills of legal interns like Huntsville native, Ariana Smartt. In this video, Ariana shares her experience as the legal program intern with the Tennessee Riverkeeper, under the direction of our chief prosecuting attorney, Mark Martin. We are so proud of Ariana and are grateful for the invaluable contribution she has made to our work.

The entities that Tennessee Riverkeeper sues know that we cannot be bought. We are supported not by corporate interests, but by regular citizens who care about clean water.  We promise to continue being relentless in pursuit of accountability and resolution to environmental issues that affect our members and residents of the watersheds we protect.