October 10, 1998
1) Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club Endorsements
2) Georges Hammers Dunes and Oyster Beds
3) Is TVA Non-Power Funding Alive?
4) Cahaba Shiner Found in the Black Warrior
******************************************
Quote of the Week:
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs
defenders." - Edward
Abbey
*******************************************
1. Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club Releases List of Political
Endorsements
- The long awaited Sierra Club endorsement list was released this
Friday.
Elizabeth Meriwether, the Alabama Sierra Club's energetic and
tireless
political chair stated in a press release, "Alabama is at
a turning point in
the protection of its environment. If we are to meet both the
environmental
and economic challenges facing our state, we must have strong
leadership that
understands that we cannot have sound economic growth without
protection of
our water, air, and natural resources. The candidates we have
endorsed
exemplify this leadership."
The following is the Sierra Club list of endorsed candidates.
Federal Office:
U.S. House of Representatives District 3 - Joe Turnham
State Offices:
Governor - Don Siegelman
Attorney General - Terry Butts
Secretary of State - Jim Bennett
State Senate - District 2 - Tom Butler (Huntsville)
District 6 - Roger Bedford (Russelville)
District 18 - Rodger Smitherman (Birmingham)
State House of Representatives - District 38 - Bill Fuller (LaFayette)
2. Hurricane Georges Causes Environmental Havoc - Several
environmental
damage reports have been streaming in since hurricane Georges
made landfall a
week and half ago. The following are excerpts from the Mobile
Register.
"I've never seen such an obliteration of the frontal dune
system" George
Crozier of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. " I would say we lost
30 feet of
beach."
"Most of the undulating dunes and swales that once framed
views of Alabama
beach and ocean are as level as a mall parking lot." Mobile
Register's
Environmental Editor Bill Finch's opening paragraph in 10/4/98
story "Dunes
'obliterated in wake of Georges".
From a Mobile Register story on Alabama's oyster beds written
by reporter
Mark Holan:
"Preliminary indications are very grim right now."
Vernon Minton, director of
the State Marine Resources.
"It looks like 80 to 90 percent is gone" said Avery
Bates an Irvington oyster
harvester... "The bottom is like a highway in some places,
it is so hard",
Bates said, comparing the loss of the "gravely bottom"
for oysters to the
loss of topsoil from a farmer's field.
"Officials closed the reefs Sept. 28th because of possible
contamination from
storm runoff."
3. TVA Non-Power Funding Last Ditch Efforts - Two plans
have emerged in the
battle to restore TVA's non-power funding. House members led by
TVA Caucus
Chairman Zach Wamp, R- Tenn and Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. are proposing
a final
year $50 million allocation.
Tennessee Senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson are pushing
a plan to allow
TVA to refinance $3.2 Billion in debts to the Treasury Department's
Federal
Financing Bank, saving $100 million a year in interest over the
next decade.
The savings would then be plowed back into the non-power program.
With budget talks being held all weekend to overt a government
shutdown, do
these proposal stand a chance? Stay tuned...
4. Cahaba Shiner Found - Good news for a beautiful fish.
The Cahaba shiner
which was placed on the endangered species list in 1990, has been
discovered
by state conservation officials in the Locust Fork arm of the
Black Warrior
River. Previously found only in the Cahaba River watershed, surveys
have
shown that the shiner population had been reduced over the years
as a result
of deteriorating water quality and habitat conditions. Biologists
with the
Geological Survey will be conducting further studies to determine
and define
the Cahaba siner's range.
Please share BEN with friends and fellow conservationists.
If you have any questions about BEN, contact Pat Byington at
205-226-7739 or pkbyington@aol.com
