Cleanup Efforts in North Birmingham Continue As Residents Wait
Vivian Starks, the president of Birmingham’s Collegeville neighborhood, loves being outside in her backyard. One of her favorite things to do there is work in her garden. She enjoys growing plants and raising tomatoes. She can only eat those tomatoes occasionally though because of the contamination in her neighborhood.
Neighborhoods in the city’s North Birmingham community have spent years dealing with soil contamination. North Birmingham, Collegeville, Fairmont, and Harriman contain properties with chemicals generated by factories in the surrounding area. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working on clean up efforts in these neighborhoods since 2013. The agency recently awarded the city of Birmingham a $400,000 grant to test the soil at commercial properties and identify contaminated sites.
The EPA says the city can then go after a grant to clean up and redevelop those sites if possible.
This is on top of decontamination efforts of residential properties already underway. EPA coordinator Richard Jardine oversees that ongoing project. He says the EPA “…maybe have about two more years to go,” reporting they have tested 1,400 residential properties and have about 600 more to go. Jardine says it’s been a challenge to do the work because of “trying to get permission to go on the [vacant] properties.”
Starks says the neighborhood is improving but wonders how long it will take to complete the work. “I don’t know. I don’t even think they know,” she says.
As the EPA continues to clean up North Birmingham, area citizens continue to wait. Starks says it is normal to smell strange scents and see particles coming out of the sky in Collegeville. “All I want is good air, good soil, and good water that’s all,” she says.
She says no one in her neighborhood plants anymore. “Everybody in this area always had pecan trees, peach trees and you can’t go through this neighborhood and find a peach tree now or a good fruit tree,” says Starks, “so that right there is telling you something.”
She loves gardening and hopes that her neighborhood can be the way that it used to be.
Crew of fatal US military crash included Alabama father recently deployed
The six U.S. service members who died in the crash of a U.S. military refueling aircraft included an Alabama father who had just been promoted and deployed. The U.S. government released the identities of the deceased service members Saturday.
Alabama poised to drastically overhaul utility regulation. Will it lower electric bills?
The Alabama Senate unanimously voted to expand the public service commission, and create a Secretary of Energy to address rising electricity prices. A bill in the House would go even further, requiring rate case hearings and limiting utility profits.
Musher from Alabama is going for back-to-back Iditarod wins
Riches and paid appearances haven’t followed Jessie Holmes since he won the world’s most famous sled dog race, the Iditarod, last year. He doesn't mind.
Bill would move Alabama to closed primaries
Right now, any Alabama voter can participate in a primary election. Lawmakers in Montgomery took up a bill this week that would change that system.
Auburn football player uses NIL funds to open a community hub in Birmingham
Jourdin Crawford, a freshman defensive lineman at Auburn, used earnings from a Name, Image, and Likeness deal to give back to his hometown.
Ivey commutes death sentence of inmate whose accomplice fired fatal shot
Charles “Sonny” Burton was sentenced to death for the killing of Doug Battle during a 1991 robbery. However, another man shot Battle when Burton had left the building.
