The Water You Drink

Water Quality
I cross the Cahaba River twice per day at least five days a week but usually more. Until recently I never really thought about how important to me and everyone around me until recently. The rate of population growth in the Cahaba Basin is the highest in Alabama. The subsequent urbanization of formally natural areas is rapidly altering the water quality in the Upper Cahaba Basin. Most of this growth has occurred in the last two decades in the greater Birmingham metro area.
Rapid urbanization and commercial development in the Jefferson, Shelby (where I live), St. Clair county area are causing problems in water quality conditions and biological communities in the Upper Cahaba Basin.
“There are at least 103 industrial discharge permits in the Cahaba Basin, releasing a variety of toxic heavy metals, chemicals and other substances. There are six municipal wastewater treatment plants in the upper basin upstream of Buck Creek with a combined discharge of 19 million gallons a day.” (http://www.riversofalabama.org/Cahaba/Cahaba.htm).
One of the greatest risks to the Cahaba comes not from the chemical alteration of water quality, but the long-term and gradual alteration of physical habitat caused by modified channel structure and changes in natural hydrology. These changes cause temperature fluctuations, sediment transport increases, and water depth decreases.