By Karen Bareford, Ph.D., Cahaba River Society’s River Sustainability Director. She leads our efforts to reduce pollution, erosion, and flooding impacts on the river, improve climate resilience, promote water equity, protect biodiversity, and increase healthy green spaces and river access for all.

In August 2024, Cahaba River Society and Cahaba Riverkeeper signed a consent judgment with the Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) in the circuit court for Jefferson County, Alabama. The judgment provides 75-year restrictive covenants for land surrounding Lake Purdy and a portion of the Cahaba River. The covenants “retain, enhance, manage, protect, and preserve the natural scenic, forested, and open spaced conditions and wildlife habitats of the property, in order to maintain and enhance the water quality of Lake Purdy and portions of the Cahaba River as a source of water supply.”

Cahaba River Society and Cahaba Riverkeeper are responsible for ensuring that the BWWB fulfills the covenants and manages the land in ways that protect the forest so that it can protect the high quality of water that serves as the drinking water source for much of Birmingham.

Proper Use to Protect Drinking Water

The judgment allows the BWWB to conduct activities consistent with the covenants’ purpose. In other words, the BWWB can build and maintain roads, bridges, culverts, and other infrastructure needed to manage the property for the long-term water quality of Lake Purdy. They can build trails and buildings (e.g., a visitor center) to provide reasonable public access and take actions “necessary for the normal operation of its water system.” For example, the BWWB can carry out a planned road expansion along the lake’s south end to give equipment and personnel the access needed to perform planned repairs to the Lake Purdy Dam.

Cahaba River Society and Cahaba Riverkeeper staff can perform an in-person inspection and two drone flights yearly to confirm that no unauthorized activity is being conducted on the property.

Compliance Monitoring Begins

Wil Rainer, Cahaba River Society’s Field Programs Director, David Butler, Riverkeeper at Cahaba Riverkeeper, and I performed the first in-person inspection on November 7th, 2024. We asked to see several sites along the BWWB access road that runs south of Lake Purdy and places where satellite imagery showed what appeared to be land disturbance.

We entered into the inspection hoping to make connections with BWWB staff and create a sense of camaraderie, communication, and increased engagement regarding our mutual goal of protecting the land that ensures the quality of the city’s drinking water and helps to minimize the costs of treating that water for ratepayers. Three BWWB staff met us at the historic BWWB Cahaba pumping station to begin our inspection. They were gracious and generous in answering our questions and helping us understand each location we visited and plans for forest maintenance. We believe we made good inroads towards our goals and began better understanding the land we will be monitoring.

Our Donors Make Clean Water Possible

We want to thank our members and supporters. Your donations helped us secure this historic land protection and fulfill our responsibility to monitor this land around the drinking water source for more than 60% of Birmingham’s residents.

We depend on our donors to fund drone flights and community engagement activities to build relationships with BWWB and municipalities along the Cahaba River. Please contact me if you are interested in financially supporting these efforts or volunteering your time.