Black Warrior Riverkeeper still at home in Forest Park

Founded in 2001, Black Warrior Riverkeeper serves as the water-quality watchdog for a 17-county area and monitors dozens of coal mines and industrial facilities with patrols on foot or by truck, boat and plane. 

And since 2004, the nonprofit has maintained its headquarters for this far-flung operation on 37th Street South near Forest Park and South Avondale.

The neighborhood is “a great location because it’s close to downtown, as well as the highways that lead to various patrol destinations,” said Charles Scribner, the group’s executive director.

In addition, Forest Park and South Avondale have grown rapidly, with many new businesses arriving, according to Scribner. “The neighborhood was much quieter when we moved here,” he said.

BWR stayed busy in 2018, according to Scribner. 

Along with patrols at more than 70 locations, the organization wrote comment letters to government agencies, made more than 40 educational presentations and reviewed the discharge monitoring reports for 278 facilities.

And among other accomplishments, BWR helped the Black Warrior Waterdog salamander gain federal endangered-species protection, Scribner said.

In July, BWR — along with seven other Waterkeeper groups in the state  — also co-founded the new Waterkeepers Alabama organization.

The groups remain independent, but they hold monthly meetings that make “collaboration and planning far more effective,” Scribner said.

The new coalition allows the groups to work together on statewide pollution and enforcement issues “that transcend our watershed boundaries,” including spills from sewage plants, he said.

The other seven groups that are part of Waterkeepers Alabama are Cahaba Riverkeeper, Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper, Coosa Riverkeeper, Hurricane Creekkeeper, Little River Waterkeeper, Mobile Baykeeper and Tennessee Riverkeeper.

In 2018, BWR retained its platinum rating on GuideStar, the leading source of information on nonprofits, according to Scribner. “It shows our commitment to transparency and public service,” he said. 

The organization is also making a shift in focus in terms of monitoring as it transitions into 2019, according to Scribner.

“In recent years, we have been most active in addressing pollution from sewage treatment facilities, coal mines, and industries,” he said.

Beginning in 2018, BWR began focusing more what Scribner calls “the significant pollution” created by animal feeding operations in the state.

The organization created maps of about 3,000 ADEM-registered or suspected animal feeding operations in the state, according to Scribner.

And the group hopes “to increase that momentum in 2019,” he said.