12/10/2002

New Guides to Alabama Rivers Packed with Information

AUBURN, Ala.— So violent was the March 27, 1814, battle at the “horseshoe bend” on the Tallapoosa River that the Tallapoosa was described as “the river of blood.”

So memorable to young Tom Sims was the steamboat Leota as it cruised the Coosa River in the early 20th century that Sims, an Alabama native and professional cartoonist, used it for inspiration years later in his “Popeye the Sailorman” comic strip.

So substantial are Birmingham’s present-day water demands that the Cahaba River relinquishes 53 million gallons of water a day just for use as drinking water.

Those are among the many trivia treasures you’ll discover in a valuable new series of citizen guides to Alabama rivers, produced by Alabama Water Watch (AWW) and funded by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Alabama Water Watch, which began in 1992 and is headquartered at Auburn University, is a statewide network of local citizen groups that use science-based methods to voluntarily monitor water quality.

The new reader-friendly and photo-filled river guides are designed to increase public awareness and knowledge of Alabama’s river basins and to drive home the concept of how abundant yet vulnerable the state’s priceless water resources are, said Bill Deutsch, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station researcher and AWW program manager.

“Our hope is that the guides will get everyone — state and local policymakers, educators, students and the public in general — more interested in and appreciative of our water resources,” said Deutsch, who serves with AWW special projects coordinator Wendi Hartup as co-editor of the publications. “The goal, of course, is to motivate the audience to start thinking of strategies we can take, individually and collectively, to best manage, protect and restore the state’s waters.”

The first “Citizen Guide to Alabama Rivers,” published in early 2002, focuses on the Black Warrior and Cahaba river basins; the more recent second volume in the series covers the Alabama, Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Scheduled for publication by April 2003 are volume three, a guide to the Chattahoochee River and coastal plain streams; volume four, the Tennessee; and volume five, the Escatawpa, Mobile and Tombigbee river basins.

Each 16-page guide opens with interesting facts about Alabama’s water environment — did you know, for instance, that Alabama has 1,438 miles of navigable rivers, more than any other state in the nation? — and closes with a basic overview of federal clean-water regulations and a call for citizens, landowners, public officials, industries and agencies within each river basin to get involved in protecting their watershed.

In between is a plethora of need-to-knows about each river basin, including colorful bits of each river’s history, special plants and animals found in the river basin, how land is used in the river basin and the environmental challenges that those land uses and the population are posing.

The citizen guides are available throughout the state from local Clean Water Partnerships, which are coalitions that bring together citizen groups, elected officials and other stakeholders within a river basin in their efforts to protect, preserve and restore the state’s rivers. Copies of the guides also can be obtained by calling AWW at 1-888-844-4785.

For more information on the Alabama Water Watch program, go to the AWW Web site at www.alabamawaterwatch.org. The Web address for the Alabama Clean Water Partnership is www.cleanwaterpartnership.org.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Bill Deutsch, 334-844-9119 or deutswg@auburn.edu

12/10/02