Alabama Air
Dam Fails, Regulators Fail
A story that could only be told from the air.
By John L. Wathen
Hurricane Creekkeeper
Photos by Hurricane Creekkeeper
I was on my way to pick up pizza for supper one evening when something fell out of sorts. As I crossed over the bridge near my house the creek was clear as usual for that time of year: clear skies, no rain.

But on passing over the second bridge on Hwy. 216 I noticed that the creek had come up some and was thick with mud. I pulled over. Indeed the creek was up and extremely muddy. There was a smell of rotten eggs that, in our region, points to coal mining. Sulfuric acid is produced when mine waste comes in contact with air and water, producing a sulfur or “rotten egg” smell.

I contacted both Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC). Normally ADEM is slow on the uptake but this time they responded with great haste and were on the site within an hour. The mining inspector for ASMC, Frank Evans, did not show up for another 36 hours.

Next I called a local airplane charter outfit here in Tuscaloosa, Bama Air. They paired me up with a young pilot named Chacy Dubose. Within an hour of the first report I was in the air. I hadn’t flown so low since my stint in the Navy. When we got over the site we were not only able to observe the damage, but could clearly see and photograph evidence of the series of events that led to the contamination: a massive dam failure.

When the water surged into the final pit, the spillway crumbled and slid down the bank of the creek in the torrent of water. Concrete spillways built to specs will not break in this fashion. Steel reinforcement bars are supposed to support and reinforce the concrete so that even if it cracks it will not completely fail. The permit called for steel and it was not there. ASMC inspector Evans did not catch it, nor did he know (his story) that steel was required. He then included the missing steel into the original violation of “Failure to maintain spillways” instead of a new violation of, in my opinion, “Failure to properly construct and certify according to permit.” An interesting note here is that P.E.R.C. engineers falsified a document stating that the dam was constructed exactly according to plan and certified it safe. The engineering company received no reprimand and is still being used by a large number of mining companies across the state. Business as usual in Alabama coal country.