Tennessee Riverkeeper to Sue Town for Violations of the Clean Water Act

Tennessee Riverkeeper
Tennessee Riverkeeper has notified the Town of Woodville, Alabama, that at the end of the 60-day statutory notice period, it intends to file a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the town for violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act.
This action is based on the Tennessee Riverkeeper's discovery that Woodville has amassed more than 6,700 violations of the Clean Water Act and its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit since October 2009. These violations include exceeding its discharge limits for the pollutants of E. coli, fecal coliform, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, nitrogen as ammonia, total suspended solids and chlorine. During this period of time, Woodville has had multiple discharge exceedances occurring nearly every month. Tennessee Riverkeeper served the notice of intent to sue letter on Aug. 2.
"When sewage is discharged into surface water it carries with it bacteria and pathogens that can be a threat to public health," said Tennessee Riverkeeper David Whiteside.
These sewage related pollution violations were being received by the Yellow Branch, which drains into Little Paint Creek of the Paint Rock River, which is a tributary of the Wheeler Reservoir of the Tennessee River. The Paint Rock River offers tremendous biodiversity, including 100 species of fish and 45 species of mussels. Because of this biodiversity, many scientists in the Southeast consider this tributary a national treasure. The bedrock limestone formations are also a local diving attraction. The Paint Rock River watershed contains about 450 square miles, mostly in Jackson County of northeast Alabama.
The Woodville Wastewater Treatment Plant was issued NPDES permit number AL0060526, which authorizes the permit holder to discharge from Outfall 0011 into Yellow Branch, subject to stated discharge limitations and monitoring requirements. This permit was issued on July 27, 2005 and reissued on Aug. 1, 2010.
For more information, read the Natural Resources Defense Council report entitled Swimming in Sewage and visit the Tennessee Riverkeeper website.
Visit EcoWatch’s WATER and CLEAN WATER ACT pages for more related news on this topic.
At first glance, you wouldn't think avocados and almonds could harm bees; but a closer look at how these popular crops are produced reveals their potentially detrimental effect on pollinators.
Migratory beekeeping involves trucking millions of bees across the U.S. to pollinate different crops, including avocados and almonds. Timothy Paule II / Pexels / CC0
<p>According to <a href="https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/israeli-kitchen/beekeeping-how-to-keep-bees" target="_blank">From the Grapevine</a>, American avocados also fully depend on bees' pollination to produce fruit, so farmers have turned to migratory beekeeping as well to fill the void left by wild populations.</p><p>U.S. farmers have become reliant upon the practice, but migratory beekeeping has been called exploitative and harmful to bees. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/health/avocado-almond-vegan-partner/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported that commercial beekeeping may injure or kill bees and that transporting them to pollinate crops appears to negatively affect their health and lifespan. Because the honeybees are forced to gather pollen and nectar from a single, monoculture crop — the one they've been brought in to pollinate — they are deprived of their normal diet, which is more diverse and nourishing as it's comprised of a variety of pollens and nectars, Scientific American reported.</p><p>Scientific American added how getting shuttled from crop to crop and field to field across the country boomerangs the bees between feast and famine, especially once the blooms they were brought in to fertilize end.</p><p>Plus, the artificial mass influx of bees guarantees spreading viruses, mites and fungi between the insects as they collide in midair and crawl over each other in their hives, Scientific American reported. According to CNN, some researchers argue that this explains why so many bees die each winter, and even why entire hives suddenly die off in a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.</p>Avocado and almond crops depend on bees for proper pollination. FRANK MERIÑO / Pexels / CC0
<p>Salazar and other Columbian beekeepers described "scooping up piles of dead bees" year after year since the avocado and citrus booms began, according to Phys.org. Many have opted to salvage what partial colonies survive and move away from agricultural areas.</p><p>The future of pollinators and the crops they help create is uncertain. According to the United Nations, nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction, Phys.org reported. Their decline already has cascading consequences for the economy and beyond. Roughly 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on bees and other pollinators for free fertilization services worth billions of dollars, Phys.org noted. Losing wild and native bees could <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-bees-crop-shortage-2646849232.html" target="_self">trigger food security issues</a>.</p><p>Salazar, the beekeeper, warned Phys.org, "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?"</p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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