Unneccessary Reservoirs: Threats to Streams and Wetlands

Is it for drinking water? Is it for recreation? Is it for agriculture? No one seems to be able to say for sure. All that is certain is that Conecuh County in southern Alabama wants to build a 2,650-acre reservoir on Murder Creek, a tributary of the Conecuh River. The impoundment would cause extensive damage to natural aquatic systems and wildlife habitat for no clearly justifiable purpose.

SELC and the Alabama Rivers Alliance are providing a counterweight to pressures to pursue this unnecessary project, which would destroy more than 1,400 acres of wetlands and more than 100,000 linear feet of streams.

Elsewhere in southern Alabama, SELC and its partners are pushing back against pressure to build a 1,500-acre reservoir in the biologically rich and largely pristine watershed of the Choctawhatchee River, which flows through the Florida Panhandle to the Gulf of Mexico. The Little Choctawhatchee reservoir would inundate almost 17 miles of streams and 1,120 acres of wetlands, including bottomland hardwood swamps.

SELC will make certain that the Army Corps of Engineers gives thorough scrutiny to the reservoir’s environmental impacts and at how the area’s water needs can be met in less destructive ways.