{"id":38,"date":"2008-01-11T15:33:06","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T22:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/mybirmingham\/2008\/01\/11\/editorial-birmingham-votes-to-withdraw-from-swma\/"},"modified":"2008-01-11T15:33:06","modified_gmt":"2008-01-11T22:33:06","slug":"editorial-birmingham-votes-to-withdraw-from-swma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/2008\/01\/11\/editorial-birmingham-votes-to-withdraw-from-swma\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Birmingham votes to withdraw from SWMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note:<\/strong> The following letter was submitted to by Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeeper and executive director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper<\/a>. It was originally published on their website. Click here<\/a> to view it there<\/em>. – ACN.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday the Birmingham City Council voted to withdraw from the Storm Water Management Authority (SWMA) http:\/\/www.swma.com\/<\/a>.\u00a0 The council has until October to decide whether or not to rejoin SWMA.\u00a0 It will cost the city more to go it alone than through participation in SWMA’s regional program.\u00a0 Mayor Kincaid’s administration considered withdrawing, but concluded such a move wasn’t in the city’s best interest.\u00a0\u00a0 Jefferson County withdrew only to rejoin after realizing they made a bad decision.<\/p>\n

The city council is currently considering a Malcolm Pirnie proposal to do the work for the city.\u00a0 Going it alone means more comprehensive and stringent permit requirements for the city, which includes having to test many more sites.\u00a0 I encourage you to contact the city council and Mayor Langford [at] http:\/\/www.birminghamal.gov\/<\/a> to let them know you do not support their withdrawal.\u00a0 SWMA is doing a good job and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.<\/p>\n

At the council meeting on Tuesday both Councilman Joel Montgomery and Mayor Langford said SWMA was not out there monitoring streams for pollution.\u00a0 What do they think SWMA does?\u00a0 I can personally attest to the fact that SWMA inspectors are very active in monitoring Birmingham’s streams.\u00a0 The two local authorities in charge of enforcing pollution found by SWMA and Black Warrior Riverkeeper are Birmingham’s own engineering department and the state Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).\u00a0 They are not doing their job of keeping pollution from entering area streams.\u00a0 Why would one think a consulting firm hired by the city would do a better job than an already established county agency?<\/p>\n

Let’s not be fooled here.\u00a0 Mayor Langford and some of the city council are paving the way for relaxed restrictions on and regulation of those who make money by putting their pollution burden on the public.\u00a0 A lot of powerful interests ( i.e. those who support BARD – see article below for more info) externalize their costs on the greater public by refusing to pay for necessary pollution controls.\u00a0 The result for us is polluted water resources.\u00a0 The result for them is fatter pockets.\u00a0 Without SWMA, the fox will be guarding the hen house in Jefferson County and pollution will continue unabated just like it always has.\u00a0 Rest assured, ADEM is a toothless fox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

Editor’s note: The following letter was submitted to by Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeeper and executive director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper. It was originally published on their website. Click here to view it there. – ACN. On Tuesday the Birmingham City Council … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,6,7],"tags":[393,394,77,395,131,335,370],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alabama","category-birmingham","category-commentary","tag-alabama","tag-birmingham","tag-black-warrior-riverkeeper","tag-commentary","tag-editorial","tag-swma","tag-withdrawl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p50I8-C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}