The Fishers’ Right To Know
Is that fresh-caught fish safe to eat? In too many rivers across the rural South, the answer is a hard ‘no.’ Failing sewage systems, agricultural runoff, and politically powerful polluters have all contributed to worrisome water quality in some of our most treasured southern waterways. And, too often, state regulators are little help. It begs the question: Do people enjoying that water have a right to know what’s in it? The team at Coosa Riverkeeper in Alabama has answered that question with a resounding ‘yes.’ Listen to learn how they’re using every tool in their tacklebox to ensure folks understands the risks, and many rewards, of enjoying Alabama’s beautiful and biodiverse waterways.
Episode Transcript
BROKEN GROUND: The Fishers’ Right to Know
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Host: One June morning in 2019, residents of west-central Alabama woke up to a floating, stinking, mosaic … tens of thousands of dead fish, lining the waters of Mulberry Fork on the Black Warrior River.
WVTM 13 News: The Alabama Department of Environmental Management investigating after a Tyson Farms wastewater spill released an estimated 220,000 gallons of partially treated anaerobic lagoon water …
Host: “Partially treated anaerobic lagoon water” is basically sewage … in this case, filled with chicken poop, blood, feathers, bones left over from poultry processing. It was enough pollution to basically suffocate a lot of fish.
News Anchor: The contamination in the water killed an estimated 175,000 fish.
Host: Unfortunately, fish kills like this have become a regular occurrence along many rural waterways in the southeast.
News Anchor: A chemical spill killed hundreds of fish in a Brunswick, Georgia canal …
Reporter: The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency found thousands of dead fish …
Anchor: An eastern Carolina community is dealing with a massive fish kill …
Anchor: Dead fish show up along …
Host: But let’s go back to the Tyson Farms fish kill for a moment. Once people noticed all the dead fish, ADEM, the state’s department of environmental management, rushed to take water samples and test for E- coli. And the numbers were OFF THE CHARTS – more than 32 times the maximum level safe to swim in. With that information, you might assume the state would be quick to warn the public … but no. It was a full week before they shared the results. In the meantime, people like this man got sick.
Mark Griffin: There’s so much bacteria just ravaging my body …
Host: Boat repairman Mark Griffin was interviewed by his local TV station.
Mark Griffin : Several surgeries in one day, you know, cutting out bacteria, meat, and, uh, part of my bowels …
Host: The whole incident begs the question: why did it take the state so long to inform the public about something that could be so harmful? And given how many industrial neighbors use the state’s rivers to carry away waste, how does this pollution effect our ability to safely fish and swim in some of our most treasured southern waterways?
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Host: This is Broken Ground, a podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center. I’m Leanna First-Arai, your host. Here at Broken Ground, we dig up environmental stories in the South, and introduce you to the people at the heart of them.
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Today on Broken Ground, we’re headed to Alabama to explore what we’ve started to call a “rural waterways paradox.” That is: while the southeastern U.S. – and Alabama in particular – boasts unparalleled aquatic biodiversity and some incredible fishing, it’s also home to waters that regularly land high on the country’s “most polluted” list. Agricultural runoff, failing sewer systems and industrial waste all contribute. And there’s not always a fish kill to signal a warning. Sometimes toxins build up in fish over months or years and they just keep swimming, ultimately posing a health risk to anyone who eats them. Add on the additional layer that many of the poorest rural communities here in the South depend on our rivers for food … and that “rural waterways paradox” honestly becomes a human rights issue.
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Justinn Overton: So many people, myself included, go swimming, and then a day later I get an email from ADEM that was like, oh, there was 100,000 gallons of sewage …
Leanna First-Arai: Ugh!
Justinn Overton: … spilled upstream from where I was swimming.
Leanna First-Arai: Goodness!
Justinn Overton: Yeah!
Host: This is Justinn Overton, an Alabamian who grew up playing and fishing in the Coosa River and its lakes.
Justinn Overton: I grew up eating fish outta Logan Martin Lake, a whole mess of crappie. And we did not know that we were eating fish that were impacted from pollution.
Host: Justinn has a vivid memory of her first experience with polluted water. She was visiting her grandmother’s house in Anniston.
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Justinn Overton: I was outside and, and there was, a little creek and I wanted to get in it. My dad, he was like, ‘You cannot, Justinn Elizabeth.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m definitely gonna.’ ‘Justinn, it will make you sick.’ And I remember being like, ‘What?’ It gave me, like, a moment to pause that there was something lurking in this place that I felt very safe.
Host: What Justinn didn’t know THEN was that Anniston, Alabama was the first place in the U.S. where polychlorinated biphenyls were made. “PCBs” are the odorless, tasteless toxic chemicals that were used in a wide range of products – from electrical transformers to copy paper. They were manufactured in Anniston from 1929 to 1971, near the home where Justinn’s grandparents lived.
Justinn Overton: It is literally the birthplace for this known carcinogen.
Leanna First-Arai: Mm-hmm.
Justinn Overton: Like, now that I’m adult, I look at it, I’m like, my dad didn’t want me to play in a ditch, that makes sense. (laughing) But that creek in my childhood eyes – that ditch in my adult eyes – had PCB-laden sediment in it.
Host: As she got older, Justinn says she realized just how potent that invisible waste was.
Justinn Overton: My grandfather was a city councilman in Anniston and he died when my father was quite young and attributed to cancer. There’s no way to say for sure that’s because of our family’s proximity to the property, it certainly, I think, played a role.
Host: Justinn’s family was actually among thousands of plaintiffs who ultimately won a legal settlement against the chemical companies Monsanto and Solutia that manufactured those PCBs.
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Host: It’s that legacy pollution that Justinn says she thinks about as she goes about her day job.
Justinn Overtonn (on video): Hey y’all. It’s Justinn with Coosa Riverkeeper.
Host: For the past twelve years, she’s been working with a non-profit organization that helps protect the Coosa River.
Justinn Overton (on video): We’re out here patrolling the river, holding polluters accountable, but we’re also making sure that you can answer some simple questions. Is it safe to swim here? Are the fish safe to eat? And how does …
Host: Cooler still, she took the organization’s helm four years ago, becoming the only female Riverkeeper in Alabama.
Justinn Overton: Yeah, yeah! I’m very grateful. I get to protect the river that I grew up visiting and provided my drinking water most of my life, so I feel very, very fortunate.
Leanna First-Arai: Who is it that you are doing this work for ultimately?
Justinn Overton: I do it for the old men that fish on five gallon buckets. You know, the ones that have probably been fishing longer than I’ve been alive.
Leanna First-Arai: Mm-hmm.
Justinn Overton: Because they’re at a disadvantage because of their age because of how long they’ve been fishing and maybe eating the fish, but I’m out there for the grandpas.
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Ronald Woody: I’m 72 years old. I’ve been fishing the bigger part of my life.
Host: On our trip to join Justinn in person on the Coosa, the podcast team met Mr. Ronald Woody on a different river – the Chattahoochee. We found him fishing for crappie just below the West Point Dam, right on the Alabama-Georgia state line.
Ronald Woody: Yeah, this one of my favorite spots right here. Because you can really catch any kind of fish you want, really, from catfish to a bream. And then you got your yellow perches. But mostly I just be fishing for crappie.
Host: As Mr. Woody explained, these crappie form the better part of his daily meals.
Ronald Woody: I normally wake up in the morning, boil me some, uh, grits, toast, and fry one. Then, if I don’t have nothing to eat for dinner, I’ll wind up frying two more.
Paige Polk: Do you ever, uh, share any of the fish that you catch with other people?
Ronald Woody: Oh, I have about four or five older people – older than me, you know. Like, womens that used to fish, they can’t go fishing because they have arthritis or something like that. Can’t get out. I normally clean them and pack them and take them to ‘em. But one lady told me, ‘Hmm, you ain’t got my favorite in here.’ I said, ‘What is that?’ ‘Bream!’ (laughing) I said, ‘Well, hell, I be throwing them back, they so small.’ She said, ‘Well, that’s the best!’ (laughing) She just be kidding around, though.
Leanna First-Arai: Yeah.
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Leanna First-Arai: Hey there, ma’am!
Justinn Overton: Welcome to Logan Martin Lake on the Coosa River.
Leanna First-Arai: Thank you.
Host: In pursuit of meeting others who depend on Alabama waters, like Mr. Woody, we joined Justinn and a couple members of her team on the Riverkeeper’s patrol boat, the “Olive Two.”
Justinn Overton: The reason why it’s called Olive Two is Popeye, the sailor man was first inspired by the Coosa River, and so t his is our homage to that.
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Justinn Overton: We’re going to be going fast for a little while and then we’re going to go up Choccolocco Creek. May I turn the music on while we go fast?
Podcast Team: Yes! Go! Yes, please.
Justinn Overton: All right.
(Music plays from on-board speaker)
Host: We’re only traveling a dozen or so miles on the Coosa today, but the river is much longer – 220 miles in Alabama alone. Dams built by Alabama Power have formed six lakes here, popular for fishing and swimming. Importantly, the Coosa River also provides drinking water for nearly one million people. At the moment, we’re headed to one of the river’s tributaries.
Justinn Overton: So this is the mouth of Choccolocco Creek.
Host: Today the creek looks nothing short of pristine. But the fact is: it’s part of one of THE MOST polluted waterways in Alabama.
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Host: Like many rural waterways, the Coosa suffers big time from runoff from agricultural operations – including waste from factory farms – but is also found to have high levels of legacy pollution like PCBs and a substance called methylmercury. We’re talking stuff from old industrial neighbors upstream – neighbors like agrochemical company Monsanto and the coal-fired Anniston power plant owned by Alabama Power.
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Justinn Overton: There are a lot of people that live on this particular creek that have some very nice pieces of property and some very nice houses that are situated in an area with sediment that’s laden with PCBs and fish consumption advisories. But you’ll also see how stinking beautiful it is and sort of the tragedy behind the fact that not all things that can hurt us look scary because this place looks pretty normal.
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Host: The “fish consumption advisories” Justinn mentioned are part of an annual report that the Alabama Department of Public Health has been issuing since 2002. The 30-some page report details the results of yearly testing performed on a range of fish found in Alabama water bodies. And it gives pretty specific recommendations about what can and can’t be eaten. Here’s an example: on the Tombigbee River, in the vicinity of a place called McIntosh landing, it’s not safe to eat more than one meal – that’s 8 ounces – of black crappie per month, due to mercury contamination.
WKRG News 5 Anchor Mel Showers: We’ve got a community alert tonight.
Host: Local media tends to cover the report’s annual release.
Fox 54 News Anchor Keneisha Deas: The Alabama Department of Public Health’s latest advisory might have you tossing back the fish you caught to eat …
WKRG News 5 Reporter Debbie Wiliams: Fish samples were taken from 46 sites from around the state, including right here …
WHNT 19 News Anchor Darryl Burke: The goal is to let people know the potential health risk associated with consuming certain fish …
WHNT 19 News Anchor Jerry Hayes: Think twice before frying up that catch.
Host: Despite that burst of coverage when the report is published each year, it can be surprisingly difficult for fisherfolk to learn about the advisories.
Lucas Allison: Uh, we found out a lot of people don’t have access to internet. Um, you know, so a lot of people can’t access fish advisory information that is posted by our state agencies because all they really do is post it online.
Host: Lucas Allison works with Justinn as the Field Manager for Coosa Riverkeeper. He and the team have been out surveying anglers to get a sense of how accessible the fish advisory information is to those who most need it. So far, the team has surveyed about 400 people, and found that even when those folks ARE able to access info online …
Lucas Allison: There’s a whole other level to it where, um, you might just not be able to translate that, uh, information through words, you know?
Abby Brown: Science is hard to understand, um, especially in a state where literacy in general is very low.
Host: This is another member of the Coosa Riverkeeper team, Director of Community Engagement Abby Brown.
Abby Brown: A lot of people think they’re gonna get a stomach ache from eating the fish and they’re like, ‘My stomach doesn’t hurt after I eat them. I haven’t grown a third arm yet.’ (laughing) But we’re having to really make sure that people understand that these are long-term health effects.
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Abby Brown: If you eat it for years, that you can develop cancer because of it. Or, you know, being a female and being a woman of reproductive age, that’s really concerning to me because I have personally met many people, um, while doing angler surveys where they’re like, ‘Wait, so my pregnant wife shouldn’t be eating these fish?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, no, uh, well like please follow the advisories.’ But people just don’t know about them.
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Host: We saw proof of that soon enough when Justinn stopped to chat with a fisherman while refueling the boat.
David Kynard: Great day to go fishing. Feels good out. Nice little breeze, yeah.
Host: David Kynard was fishing, he said, for “whatever was biting.”
Justinn Overton: Are y’all aware of the advisories? Like, has anybody talked to y’all about, like, places that you shouldn’t eat the fish before?
David Kynard: Not really. I typically don’t keep them anyway. I throw them back.
Justinn Overton: If y’all ever do see people eating fish, it’s not illegal to eat fish from the river, we’re just trying to make sure that, like, people have the best information possible to make informed decisions. Like, what you do – you’re a grown-ass man – you do what you want to do, but, like, I feel like everybody deserves to know that information.
David Kynard: … what you’re putting in your body for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Justinn Overton: For sure. For sure. Well, if y’all are ever out and you get a big fish, we’re on Instagram and Facebook. Tag us in your pictures and we’ll share them. Coosa Riverkeeper.
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Host: Justinn and her team know that some folks, like David, are just out here for fun, and they’ll throw back the fish they catch. But that’s certainly not the case for everybody.
Lucas Allison: So we are at Highway 77 boat ramp right now, off of Choccolocco Creek. And it is a very busy day, which is awesome to see.
Host: But what’s not awesome is that there’s a major fish advisory for this section of the Coosa. “Major” because it doesn’t just suggest limiting the amount you eat for this or that type of fish – it recommends you avoid eating ANY fish caught here AT ALL.
Justinn Overton: Yeah, you should not eat anything out of this creek. And yet, you know, with the data that Lucas is collection, we have data to prove that lots of people are still eating from this water body because they look at it and they’re like, ‘Well, it doesn’t look like there’s contamination in it.’ Right? Because you can’t see it. And that’s the type of pollution that’s oftentimes the scariest, is the kind that you cannot see.
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Host: To learn more about how we got where we are, I sat down with another Alabamian who quickly straightened me out on the state of the problem.
Sarah Stokes: I am Sarah Stokes. I’m a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Leanna First-Arai: How is it that Alabama waterways have been allowed to become so polluted?
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Sarah Stokes: I don’t think Alabama waters are so polluted. I, I – remember there’s 132,000 miles and 5,000 miles of those are impaired. But because our state is a rural state, 80 percent of the counties in our state are rural, the land is doing a great job of cleaning a lot of the pollution that would harm a more municipal area. Um … I forgot your question. I just got offended when you said that Alabama waters are so polluted.
Leanna First-Arai: Duly noted, I appreciate that nuance. (laughing) I used to live in Louisiana and we always would escape to Alabama (laughing) because we, we got, you know, got sick of the swampy waters and wanted to go see some clean, fresh water (laughing) …
Sarah Stokes: Not many people know this, but Alabama is ranked number one in freshwater biodiversity in the entire country.
Leanna First-Arai: Wow.
Sarah Stokes: Yeah.
Leanna First-Arai: That’s a big deal.
Sarah Stokes: And our wetlands are called America’s Amazon, because we have this incredible biodiversity that’s really a secret to the world.
Leanna First-Arai: Mm-hmm.
Sarah Stokes: But we do have issues. And so let’s talk about some of the problems that the fish have.
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Sarah Stokes: The number one reason that fish can’t be eaten in Alabama is mercury contamination. What happens is these coal- fired power plants spew mercury into the air, and then it settles into our waterways, and it is changed into methylmercury. That methylmercury is then consumed by smaller fish than eaten by bigger fish and it bioaccumulates. And these fish then have methyl mercury in them. And then we eat those fish, which causes this contamination.
Host: Methylmercury is a neurotoxin. It can effect the central nervous system, and impair brain development. And it can cause significant birth defects if ingested during pregnancy. Compounding that issue is the fact that methylmercury is NOT regulated under the Clean Water Act. There’s also the issue of aging sewage systems, like a case Sarah’s been working on in Tuscaloosa, where sewage is literally leaking into parks and onto city streets.
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Sarah Stokes: When you don’t invest in infrastructure, whether it’s because you don’t want to, because your citizens aren’t voting for it, or because you don’t have the money, because our state is one of the poorest states in the nation. Then you’ve got a problem with wastewater and pathogens getting into your waterways that make it unsafe for people to swim and people to fish.
Leanna First-Arai: Yeah.
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Host: Okay, so, the first problem is methylmercury, an issue anywhere coal is burned. The second is failing sewage systems, increasingly common across the rural South. And the third problem? Well that’s some legal antics that Sarah says is unique to Alabama which makes it far more difficult for organizations like SELC to stop pollution at its source. It goes like this ….
Sarah Stokes: The polluter will pollute. We will file a notice letter telling the polluter that they need to correct their action.
Host: Correct it, or SELC will take them to court. But then …
Sarah Stokes: If the state agency wants to protect that polluter – usually it’s a municipality or a, a big entity that has a lot of political capital like Alabama Power – the state agency will come in and file a suit.
Host: If THAT suit is based on the same claims that SELC was making, then SELC can no longer file its lawsuit.
Sarah Stokes: And then what happens is they settle with that polluter for basically just a slap on the wrist. And so the polluter doesn’t correct the issue in the long term. Other states, like North Carolina, like Virginia, like South Carolina, like Georgia, their agencies don’t step in when SELC files a case.
Leanna First-Arai: Are you implying that this is kind of strategic on their end, like, this has become such a pattern that …
Sarah Stokes: Oh, yes! They have said that it’s to block our suit.
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Host: So if the state makes it difficult to stop pollution at its source … and if it’s slow to notify residents when spills happen … AND if its fish consumption advisories aren’t really reaching the people who are eating the fish … what can be done? Coosa Riverkeeper Justinn Overton has an idea or two.
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Justinn Overton: I’d like to bring your attention to this sign right here.
Host: Her team has been putting up signs, to reach fisherfolk where they are. Here near the dock at the highway 77 boat ramp, a pair of shiny white signs sport a picture of a fish on a plate with a bright red “no” sign through it. And they say …
Justinn Overton: It’s advised to not consume any quantity of any species of fish in Choccolocco Creek. To review the advisories and more information, please visit Coosa River dot org slash fish guide or call our toll free hotline at 844-219-7475.
(Dialing phone)
Justinn Overton: And then it’s all in Spanish and I took eight years of French so I don’t speak Spanish.
(Phone rings)
Hotline: Thank you for calling the Alabama Fish Consumption Advisory Hotline.
Host: You might assume the hotline would be a state effort, but it’s actually hosted by Coosa Riverkeeper and sponsored by another nonprofit called the Alabama Rivers Alliance. The state plays no role.
Hotline: For the Coosa River and Lakes, press one.
(Phone beeps)
Hotline: On Choccolocco Creek, it is advised to not consume any quantity of any species of fish. En el arroyo Choccolocco, se recomienda que no consuma ningún tipo de pescado.
Leanna First-Arai: Do not eat.
Justinn Overton: Yeah.
Leanna First-Arai: No comas nada.
Justinn Overton: This was a special moment when we put these signs up for me.
Host: Justinn points out another sign, this one belonging to the state. It’s bent and faded and would be hard to read even without the bullet holes that pierce it. It has only a single sentence, in English: “Do not eat fish from this water.” Justinn says it’s been here a LONG time.
Justinn Overton: My whole life and I’m 35. So as long as I’ve been around. The other thing to consider between these two signs is that our sign obviously has lots of different ways to get more information. This just says don’t eat fish.
Host: After posting several dozen of their more detailed signs around hotspots on the Coosa, Justinn and her team began partnering with the Alabama Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to post additional warning signs around the state, at all of the public boat ramps run by the department.
Justinn Overton: These signs are fantastic, but we’ve reached a ceiling in terms of where we’re able to put them because a lot of boat ramps are private. And for instance, Alabama Power’s fishing piers, they won’t let us put signs there. Even though that is a public access point, it is one of the most popular places for the average person to go fish, especially if they’re fishing for supper, but it is their property.
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Host: If you’re wondering why the state’s largest power provider wouldn’t want the folks it serves to know what’s in their fish, Attorney Sarah Stokes has a theory.
Sarah Stokes: Mercury is caused by coal-fired power plants. Alabama Power is the number one reason why mercury is in our rivers and lakes. Alabama Power is a very, very political beast and they don’t want this information out there. That is my suspicion.
Host: But what about others who control access to Alabama rivers?
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Mike Kennedy: Fishing’s been on fire.
Host: We met Mike Kennedy, General Manager of the Southern Harbor Marina on West Point Lake in Lanett, Alabama – near where we met Mr. Woody.
Mike Kennedy: It’s kind of the hidden gem, if you will, of all the lakes.
Host: He rents boats and cabins to fisherfolk from all over the South.
Mike Kennedy: I know that there’s a lot of people around here and they’re eating everything they catch. So, um, catfish, crappie, hybrid, striper, largemouth not so much. It’s real fishy.
Host: Mike does worry about what goes in the water.
Mike Kennedy: There was a spill of I think it was 300,000 gallons of raw sewage that actually went into the Chattahoochee. That’s a problem. If we can get it out there that, hey, this isn’t a poo poo lake, it’s a clean lake, you know, that helps us.
Host: There’s only one fish advisory currently on West Point Lake: the large mouth bass that Mike said were “real fishy” have mercury in them, so the state says nobody should eat them more than once a month.
Mike Kennedy: If they can put it on a sign to help educate the public, then I think that’s better, especially from a health standpoint. I think public knowledge is a good thing no matter what you do, cause they know something they don’t tell us.
Host: So would he be open to placing a fish consumption advisory sign near his dock?
Mike Kennedy: I necessarily don’t think we would put it here. They would have that freedom to do that at all the government-ran, uh, boat ramps. That’s something we’d put in a newsletter just to let people know, just for, you know, educational purposes and stuff.
Emily Richardson-Lorente: So if these signs were up here would that be bad for business?
Mike Kennedy: Yes and no. Um, a lot of my people that come here, they’re going out on a boat and going fishing anyways.
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Host: The challenge of convincing owners like Mike to post fish advisories on their privately owned docks is one of the reasons why Coosa Riverkeeper – along with other water protectors across the state – has been working hard over the past couple of years on an even bigger solution – a piece of legislation called the “SHOR Act.” That’s an acronym that stands for “Safe and Healthy Outdoor Recreation.”
Justinn Overton: So the SHOR Act would codify the Fish Consumption Advisory Program. Right now, if they just decided that they didn’t want to do it anymore, they’re not required by law to test fish tissue and issue these advisories. So first and foremost, we want to codify that. In terms of the signs, the signs would be required to be posted at all of these public boat ramps or fishing piers, even if they’re privately owned.
Host: The SHOR Act would also create a panel for community input, and require that fish consumption advisory information be given out when people purchase a fishing license.
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Justinn Overton: We were really thrilled and excited because it was a big deal. It was our first time introducing a bill within this coalition. And it passed unanimously through the House, no issues. Passed through the Senate, and there was some divergence in some of the language between the Senate bill and the House bill that wasn’t able to be resolved before the session ended.
Host: So they vowed to reintroduce the bill this year, confident now that people on both sides of the political aisle agree: everyone has the right to know that the waters they swim and fish in are safe. Right? Well, not quite.
Justinn Overton: There is a lot of opposition.
Leanna First-Arai: Really!?
Justinn Overton: There is a LOT of opposition. And a lot of it is coming from our state agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
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Host: That’s the same agency that tests fish and provides data for the annual fish consumption advisories. Why on earth would they be against making their own information more accessible?
Justinn Overton: I mean, I got some theories. I think that there is a misconception that if people know this that they will not buy fishing licenses. Thus, they will not be fishing.
Leanna First-Arai: Hmm.
Justinn Overton: So I think it’s sort of like this is a dirty secret, we’re gonna do it, but we’re not gonna elevate it.
Host: As a Riverkeeper, Justinn deals with a kinda similar dynamic in her own work. Picture it like this: in one hand, she’s waving a red flag, warning everyone about the river’s dangers. In the other, she’s holding a pom-pom, cheering for the Coosa like she’s its number one fan. It’s a balancing act, and the truth is not everyone appreciates the effort.
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Justinn Overton: Yeah, there are some people that think that what we’re trying to do is kill jobs. And we’re trying to get people to not enjoy the river by publishing water quality information. When in fact, that’s the opposite of our goal. I want people out there, I just want them not swimming in sewage. I want them not eating fish with known carcinogens. And you know, and our state motto is “We dare to defend our rights,” but there are so few rights that we have as individuals. And I feel like something that is really low hanging fruit should be the right to know if there’s sewage entering a waterway near you.
Host: CBut clearly not everyone agrees on that ‘right to know.’ Justinn also has a second hunch about why the SHOR Act has faced so much opposition – one that echoes Sarah Stokes’ theory about Alabama Power.
Justinn Overton: If people know about this, they’re going to ask, ‘Where did the PCBs come from? Where did the methylmercury come from?’ And industry doesn’t want people asking questions.
Leanna First-Arai: Mm-hmm.
Justinn Overton: Now there are a lot of industry groups that are against this bill.
Host: According to Justinn, these industry groups include Alabama Power, the Business Council of Alabama and a trade association called Manufacture Alabama, among others.
Justinn Overton: There is something incredibly wrong with that.
Leanna First-Arai: Mm-hmm.
Justinn Overton: And I think that’s why so many people get so frustrated with their local or their state or the federal government because we see the way that industry captures our state agencies.
Leanna First-Arai: Yup.
Justinn Overton: So I’m not really sure what to necessarily tell folks to do right now, but I think it’s important to ask the question: how and why is our state environmental agency and these pro industry groups able to kill a bill when they have no vote? No vote.
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Host: Remember Mister Woody? That fisherman who catches fish for the older women in his neighborhood? It’s folks like him who stand to be impacted most by industry groups blocking the SHOR Act. Mr. Woody’s story reminds us, as attorney Sarah Stokes says, of what makes this so deeply an environmental justice issue.
Sarah Stokes: It’s not the sport fishermen and the ones who are in competition for the biggest fish. They’ll throw their fish back, but it’s the people who are actually eating the fish that are harmed.
Host: And, Sarah adds, it’s essential to remember that despite those powerful corporate forces working to crush the SHOR act, industrial neighbors can actually be allies.
Sarah Stokes: The majority of industry is not polluting. They are following the law. And it’s not fair to those industry that other industry gets a leg up by not following the law. So, when I say industry, I mean, there’s only a few bad actors and those actors ruin it for our state.
Host: I have to say, when the podcast team first started working on this fishing story, we really thought we’d be able to end the episode on a happy note, with the passage of the SHOR act. But for the 2nd year in a row, the bill actually did not pass. But Justinn’s not taking it personally.
Justinn Overton: I think it’s a lot easier to fight a bill if you don’t understand what it’s about.
Host: So Justinn and her crew want to help the folks in charge better understand what they’re fighting for.
Justinn Overton: Getting those people on this boat is a very high priority for me. We got to get them in their community with our members and connect grass tops and grassroots.
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Host: ‘Grass roots’ like fishermen Davy Jones, and the man he taught to fish, Sam Bennett. They’re featured in a video on the Riverkeeper’s YouTube channel.
Davy Jones: We used to eat a lot of fish. I mean, we caught catfish, stripe, bass. But over the years, the contamination just got so heavy. So we don’t eat them anymore.
Sam Bennett: I was surprised when you stopped keeping fish.
Davy Jones: Well, I wasn’t going to risk it. When I carried the fish home and cooked them, a lot of people would eat them.
Sam Bennett: Right.
Davy Jones: And I wouldn’t be responsible for somebody getting sick.
Sam Bennett: I think that it’s good that we have the advisories. It’s good that Coosa Riverkeeper has, you know – doing as much as they are on social media. I think it’s good that they have the hotline. But there’s a lot more opportunity for more. I mean, it’s a no-brainer. The fish are dangerous to eat, (laughing) and, uh, you should be educated on that.
Davy Jones: I may not be able to eat them, but I can still catch them. I’m never going to quit.
Host: The team at Coosa Riverkeeper has no intention of quitting either.
Justinn Overton: We’re trying to also think a lot bigger and think a lot longer range than just like, what can we fight right now? How can we inspire people without frightening them and empower them to vote differently, to contact their elected official, and to make better choices as consumers. Damn, that was good! I mean, damn!
Leanna First-Arai: Rolls off your tongue. (laughing)
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Host: That does it for this episode of Broken Ground. If you’re interested in learning more about Alabama’s fish consumption advisories, the Coosa Riverkeeper’s amazing work, or if you’d like to see photos of some of the lovely water protectors who we interviewed, head to our website: Broken Ground Podcast dot O-R-G.
Broken Ground is a podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center, one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. It’s produced by Emily Richardson-Lorente, Noa Greenspan, Paige Polk, Jennie Dailey and me, Leanna First-Arai. With special thanks to Ko Bragg, Sam Lenga, and Pria Mahadevan. Our theme music is by Eric Kuh-newt-sen. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love it if you’d write us a review on your favorite podcast app. We read them all. Thanks for listening.
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