Science

Water Board Asks to Oversee Housing Construction Near the Cahaba, Despite Its Fight for the Ability to Lighten Water Protection Rules

The Birmingham Water Works Board has asked the city to require developers of a property near the Cahaba River watershed to submit to board approval before beginning construction. Arlington Properties plans to build a multi-family housing development at 4641 U.S. 280, a property that is directly adjacent to BWWB-owned Cahaba watershed lands. The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved rezoning the property from an agricultural district to a general commercial district. The BWWB is asking to have a say in the development’s permitting process. “If this development is being considered for approval, we would request that the city require the developers to comply with Birmingham Water Works’ watershed protection policy and to submit the proposed plans and associated documentation to the BWWB prior to such approval,” April Nabors, the BWWB’s environmental engineer, told the council. “We just want to be part of the approval process.” District 2 Councilor Hunter Williams expressed some skepticism about this request, in light of the board’s recent attempt to have conservation restrictions on its own watershed properties loosened. Read more.

COVID Cases Tick Up in Alabama, but Don’t Panic

Alabama has been seeing an “uptick” in COVID-19 cases and positivity rates in the past few weeks, but a state health official said those aren’t necessarily signs that another spike is in the near future and he is “cautiously optimistic.” There were 784 new COVID cases reported over the past seven days, for an average of 109 new cases per day as of Wednesday. Reports on the ADPH website are delayed by a day. The state’s COVID positivity rate has increased from 2.2% at the first of the month to 3.4%.. Read more.

Water Board Asks to Change Settlement to Lighten Requirements for Protecting Land Around Lake Purdy, Cahaba River

The Birmingham Water Works Board and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall are asking a Jefferson County court for permission to change parts of a 2001 settlement agreement requiring conservation easements to be placed on board-owned Cahaba watershed lands. This request comes just more than a month after the Alabama Supreme Court sided with environmentalist groups in a lawsuit alleging that the board had violated the settlement agreement. The argument centers on the Cahaba River and Lake Purdy, which is a major source of Birmingham’s drinking water. Not only does development on land close to the bodies of water risk contamination, it also drives up the cost of filtering and cleaning the water, which raises rates. Last year, the Cahaba Riverkeeper and the Cahaba River Society sued the BWWB, claiming that in the 20 years since the settlement had been reached, the board had never placed any legal conservation easement on its properties surrounding the lake and the river, despite it being a condition of the board’s purchase of the land. The board unsuccessfully tried to get that suit thrown out of court. Environmentalists say the board’s request to change the agreement directly conflicts with its past claims of compliance. Read more.

Grant Awarded for Program to Serve Victims of Violence in Hospital

The Jefferson County Department of Health has given a grant of more than $1.1 million to the Offender Alumni Association to start a Hospital-linked Violence Intervention Program. Read more.

COVID Hospitalizations Fall Below 200

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alabama hospitals dropped below 200 this past weekend for the first time since late March. Read more. The Pandemic, Two Years In

COVID Pandemic Closed Down Businesses, Schools and Sports and Brought a Sea Change for Health Care

Timeline: It’s Been a Long Time Since the World Learned of COVID on New Year’s Eve 2019

Educators, Psychologists Say Attending School at Home Hampers Students’ Development

Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

Jefferson County Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges

Fewer Cars on the Road but Traffic Deaths Rise

JeffCo, Birmingham Spend Federal Money on Housing Assistance, Other Needs

More than $359 million in federal dollars flowed through the hands of Jefferson County and Birmingham city officials in the past two years to help the area get through and get past the pandemic, and more money is yet to come this spring. Related: JeffCo Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges; Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

At first, Birmingham officials predicted that COVID-19 would have a dire impact on city coffers. Though officials had immediately responded to the pandemic by allocating $1.2 million to a loan program for small businesses that had been affected, by June 2020, business tax revenue had fallen by nearly 20%, leading Mayor Randall Woodfin to call the situation an “economic crisis” that would result in “painful” budget cuts. Read more.

Jefferson County Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges

Tony Petelos brought a lot of government experience when he took the job as Jefferson County’s first county manager. He had been a state representative, a commissioner of the Alabama Department of Human Resources and mayor of Hoover. But Petelos – like nearly everyone else – didn’t have much preparation for dealing with a pandemic “We had almost none,” said Petelos, who recently retired. “When the governor in March of 2020 shut everything down and then we decided to open back up in May, it was, 'OK, how do we handle this?' And not just us. Everybody was flying by the seat of their pants as far as, ‘What do we do?’ ‘How do we do it?’ and getting it done. Read more.

Fewer Cars on the Road but Traffic Deaths Rise

COVID had more than one way to kill people. Fatalities on state and national roadways that began to rise during 2020 has reached “an unacceptable crisis,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said earlier this year. Federal traffic analysts say the number of highway deaths began to increase in 2020 during the first stages of the pandemic and continued to rise through the first nine months of 2021. Read more.

Educators, Psychologists Say Attending School at Home Hampers Students’ Development

A mental health specialist says it will take years to determine whether students will recover from the effects of COVID-19 on their education. “I don’t think that we have seen the full effects of COVID on a generation,” said Malissa Galliher, clinical director of the Jefferson, Blount, St. Clair Mental Health Authority. Read more.