PAGE OVERVIEW

The Cahaba River and its tributaries are afforded protection by federal regulations.  The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Alabama Department of Environmental Management and federal, state and local elected officials are responsible for safeguarding the Cahaba.

The Cahaba watershed and streams that will be directly impacted by the Northern Beltline are in Clay and Trussville and many of the citizens that will be impacted are residents of Clay and Trussville.
 
In addition to the monetary cost for this unwarranted highway construction, the potential cost to citizens is astonishing – loss of vital natural resources, private property and quality of life.  SOURCE and other citizens have appealed to their elected officials and transportation agencies for over a year and our efforts are continuing.

The following relates specific actions, responses and our latest information on beltline developments.       

 

BUT FIRST, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SAFEGUARDING ALABAMA’S DRINKING WATER SOURCES?

  • The Cahaba River and its tributaries are source water for a public water supply (http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/sourcewater/).  Alabama’s congressmen, governor, legislators, local public officials and local water systems have a responsibility to safeguard all Alabama source waters.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that source water protection plans are “most effectively implemented at the local level, with assistance from other government and private stakeholders.”  (http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/sourcewater/sourcewater.cfm?action) 

The Cahaba source water streams that will be directly impacted by the Northern Beltline are within the governmental jurisdiction of:

    • Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins
    • Mayor Gene Melton, City of Trussville
    • Mayor Charles Hart, City of Clay.
  • Protection of surface source waters is mandated by both the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  The EPA is responsible for administering and enforcing the regulations.

  • The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is responsible for implementing and enforcing the CWA and SDWA for Alabama waterways.

  • The American Water Works Association has held numerous symposiums on the importance of protecting source water and has stated, “Every water utility's ability to produce drinking water of the highest quality is dependent on the quality of its source water.”  http://www.awwa.org/Government/Content.cfm?ItemNumber=3834&navItemNumber=3835    

  • The Trust for Public Lands (TPL) has stated, “With the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress and the U.S. EPA emphasized the protection of source waters as a key component of our national efforts to safeguard America’s drinking water.” (Protecting the Source, p. 11, http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/protecting_the_source_04.pdf) 

The TPL further stated, (p. 30), “With the national rate of land development increasing twice as fast as population, communities need to be proactive about protecting natural resources, particularly their source of drinking water. . . . .  Communities that invest in land protection as a way to protect their drinking water are investing in the long-term health and quality of life of their citizens—guiding growth away from sensitive water resources.”

 

ACTIONS BY SOURCE

  • Between March 2006 and June 2007, SOURCE has met and/or corresponded with numerous officials and agencies, including Governor Bob Riley, Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Richard Shelby, Representative Spencer Bachus, Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins, Trussville Mayor and MPO Chairman Gene Melton, Clay Mayor Charles Hart, MPO Director Bill Foisy, the EPA, ADEM, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).

This grassroots group of citizens has expressed opposition to the inherent wrongs of extensive environmental destruction; further degradation of the Cahaba River; the taking of personal property; and the degradation of neighborhoods and quality of life for highway construction that is for the purpose of economic development, not warranted by traffic volume and will actually increase I-59 traffic through Trussville.

Many SOURCE members, hundreds of the citizens who have signed a petition opposing the beltline and citizens who packed the Trussville City Hall chamber are constituents of Commissioner Collins and Mayors Melton and Hart.

  • A petition drive was held during the early weeks after SOURCE organized.  To date 2,200 citizens have signed a petition opposing the planned route of the beltline.  Petitions were submitted to ALDOT and FHWA, along with a documented presentation of issues, on November 15, 2006.

  • In response to a Jefferson County Commission resolution in support of the planned beltline route, SOURCE drafted a resolution, citing injustices and adverse impacts and calling for action from Governor Riley and ALDOT Director Joe McInnes. Numerous businesses and organizations submitted resolutions.

  • Specific issues SOURCE has presented to officials include:
    • Dependence of metropolitan Birmingham upon the Cahaba River as a primary drinking water source

    • Imperiled state of the Cahaba River

    • Significance and sensitivity of Cahaba headwaters

    • Potential destructive impacts of the Northern Beltline on the Cahaba

    • Dire consequences of degradation – loss of a regional water source and increased flooding
    • Route chosen for economic development

    • Route unwarranted by traffic volume; contributes to I-59 congestion

    • Outdated and inadequate environmental impact statement

    • Lack of comprehensive analysis of all impacts of the beltline

    • Premature property acquisition

    • Tying down sections of the route contrary to federal regulations

    • Adverse impacts on neighborhoods; quality of life and property values

    • Adverse impacts to historic homes and neighborhoods

 

RESPONSES OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND TRANSPORTATION AGENCIES

  • Of the elected officials with whom we have met, only Commissioner Collins and Mayor Hart have expressed favor for the planned route of the beltline and have taken a proactive position favoring the route, including the aforementioned county commission resolution and a petition drive initiated by Mayor Hart and supported with public funds. 
  • At our initial meeting with Mayor Melton, he advised SOURCE to attend a council meeting and present the petitions and issues, saying that he would write a letter of opposition to ALDOT, if the council so directed him. 

SOURCE attended a Trussville council meeting on January 23, 2007. The council chamber was packed and overflowing with a standing room only group of citizens opposing the planned beltline route – the largest group ever to attend a council meeting, according to one council member.  Some councilors voiced a desire to become more informed about the beltline.  The council did not take a position on the beltline route, but agreed to meet with us further.

In later meetings with Trussville officials, there have been differing views on the beltline, including opposition to the route through Trussville and the Cahaba River; favoring a route that terminates with the I-459/I-59 interchange; and reluctance to publicly oppose the route due to maintaining a working relationship with ALDOT on current road projects.  Trussville officials have not taken a position on the beltline route publicly.    

  • Senator Richard Shelby’s representative, Brad Wilson, met with SOURCE on February 12, 2007, and contacted Governor Bob Riley on our behalf.   Also, his office requested that Mr. McInnes meet with us.  However, Senator Shelby has not acknowledged responsibility for protection of the Cahaba River or for ensuring that state agencies adhere to federal environmental regulations.
  • A meeting with Congressman Spencer Bachus on April 2, 2007 was promising.  He agreed to certain actions requested of him and acknowledged a responsibility for protecting the Cahaba River and ensuring adherence to federal regulations.  He stated that he had never understood why a long route around the county was decided upon and that he would not be in favor of taking private property to open other private property for development.

Congressman Bachus has since met and discussed the issue with a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney.       

  • There has been virtually no response and none of any substance to the numerous validated issues presented to ALDOT and FHWA administrative, engineering and environmental staff and consultants at a November 2006 meeting and by correspondence.  A letter in response to the meeting did not address specific issues and stated that they plan to continue the route, “avoiding, where practical, impacts to the Cahaba River”. 

ALDOT staff acknowledged at the meeting that they had been purchasing property within the Highway 79/Highway 75 section for over two years before completion of an environmental reevaluation, which is a violation of federal law, but stopped upon discovering the mistake.   

ALDOT staff did visit local historic homes in December 2006, after SOURCE expressed concern about their destruction.  We have made two requests for status or determination, but have received no acknowledgement of our correspondence.

  • ALDOT Director Joe McInnes, along with several staff engineers, met with SOURCE on May 30, 2007. The meeting was generally positive, but there was no substantive response at the meeting and none since.  The issues we have presented are significant and some reiterate issues raised by others, including the Cahaba River Society and the Southern Environmental Law Center.  We continue to hope that Mr. McInnes will meet his responsibility of seeing that each issue is examined and addressed and remedial actions taken where needed.      

 

OUR LATEST INFORMATION ON BELTLINE DEVELOPMENTS

  • An environmental reevaluation of the Highway 79/Highway 75 beltline section was approved by the Federal Highway Administration in August 2006 and property acquisition resumed.  This section is more advanced than any other.

ALDOT maintains (Reevaluation Statement, p. 3-6), “This section of the Beltline will serve as a useful stand alone project  . . . . . . .  It is not expected to have an impact on the location of the remaining sections of the Beltline now in process of design.”

  • On November 16, 2006, a Design Hearing was held on the beltline section from east of Highway 75 (Brookwood Road) to east of Old Springville Road in Clay (Goodner Mountain Road) – one of the two sections opposed by SOURCE.   

There was overwhelming public opposition to the section – 82% – as
documented in a letter dated March 8, 2007 by Brian Davis, Division Engineer.   However, Mr. Davis recommended that comments of citizens who did not attend the public meeting, based upon sign-in sheets, not be given “equal credence to those who have”.  That unprecedented decision is, of course, an effort to neutralize the public’s strong opposition to the beltline route.

Weighting public comments is totally inconsistent with the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal regulations mandating public involvement policy and has been done in no other Northern Beltline public involvement meeting.

  • A study corridor has been developed for a planned extension of the Northern Beltline to I-20.  On February 7, 2007, a “scoping” meeting was held on the extension, which had been designated by Congress in 2003 as Corridor X-1 and approved for Appalachian Development Highway System funding.   

A SOURCE request to have a representative at the meeting was denied.  However, Title 40 (Protection of the Environment) Code of Federal Regulations provides:

“Section 1501.7(a)  As part of the scoping process the lead agency shall: 
(1)  Invite the participation of affected Federal, State, and local agencies, any affected Indian tribe, the proponent of the action, and other interested persons (including those who might not be in accord with the action on environmental grounds). . . . . . . . . “

  • A public involvement meeting, scheduled for February 27, 2007, on the proposed extension of the beltline to I-20 was canceled a few days prior to the meeting.  There has been significant opposition from SOURCE and others to extension of the beltline through the Little Cahaba watershed and through heavily developed neighborhoods.

We were told the following April by an ALDOT spokesperson that plans for the beltline extension had been put on hold and only the original beltline plans were under consideration due to funding issues, the number of hurdles that already needed to be addressed and the time it would take to work through it all. 

  • Environmental reevaluation of the beltline section east of Highway 75 to east of Old Springville Road is currently underway.
  • ALDOT has purchased some property through “early acquisition” procedures in Clay and Trussville.

  • Beltline projects, including right of way acquisition in the Clay and Trussville segments, have been included in Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization and ALDOT transportation plans without completion of environmental and public involvement processes.