Plans to expand two coal mines near Tuscaloosa has local environmentalists concerned about the fate of an endangered species of salamander living in the Black Warrior River watershed. 

Warrior Met Coal is planning to expand two of its coal mines near Tuscaloosa, situated within the Black Warrior River watershed. The Bureau of Land Management announced earlier this month that they would be leasing the federal land that Warrior Met Coal is seeking to expand onto. Bidding for this land starts on Tuesday. If Warrior Met Coal were to expand, their mines would encompass nearly 14,000 acres of land in total.

Expansion is projected to nearly double the coal output for the company — the federal government estimates that there is around 53.2 million tons of federally owned coal to be mined in the planned expansion area, as well as 49.9 million tons of privately owned coal that could be mined following expansion. Additionally, expansion is expected to create hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in incremental revenue. Increased coal output would also benefit the Port of Mobile, from which coal is exported to Europe and Asia.

Local residents have warned that they are already seeing environmental impacts on nearby creeks, such as the Little River Creek, which are tributaries to the Black Warrior River, according to Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Local residents have reported that the creek is muddier and cloudier than usual just from the construction of surface infrastructure meant to expand the mines.

Environmental impacts from mine expansion raise concerns for the many species that live in the Black Warrior River watershed. This includes the endangered Black Warrior waterdog, a salamander that lives in only a few creeks within the river basin. 

The Black Warrior waterdog was listed as an endangered species in 2018, as its population declined due to runoff from mining and other development. The waterdog is especially vulnerable to poor water quality due to its external gills. This vulnerability also makes the waterdog an important indicator species, meaning that its population levels and health help indicate the health of the river system as a whole.

The waterdog is just one species that lives in the watershed. Other threatened species also dwell in the area, including the flattened musk turtles, a threatened species of turtle that lives exclusively in the upper Black Warrior River Basin.

The federal government said in its analysis that plans to expand mining in the area “may affect but is not likely to adversely affect” these two species or any of the 14 other local endangered or threatened species they examined that live in the river basin. 

Black Warrior Riverkeeper has submitted comments to the federal government opposing mine expansion.

Alabama top stories in brief

Alabama executes Geoffrey Todd West, despite requests from son of murder victim

• Death row prisoner Geoffrey Todd West was executed by the state last Thursday for the 1997 murder of Margaret Parrish Berry. This was Alabama’s fourth execution of the year, and the third in 2025 that used nitrogen gas as the execution method.
• West was executed despite a public campaign carried out by Will Berry, the son of the murder victim, opposing West’s execution. Will Berry asked Gov. Kay Ivey to halt West’s execution and accompanied a group delivering a petition to Ivey’s office asking her to halt the execution.
• West also expressed a desire to meet with West in order to forgive him, a request he said the Alabama Department of Corrections denied because of the department’s policy forbidding victims’ families from visiting inmates.

Heavy metal contamination in Mobile River near AL Power plant rivals 2008 environmental disaster

• A new study has found levels of arsenic and cadmium in the Mobile River, near Alabama Power’s Plant Barry, that rival the 2008 Kingtson TVA coal ash spill in Tennessee — one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
• The study found that cadmium concentrations in the river’s suspended sentiment to be as high as 4.2 milligrams per kilogram. After the Tennessee spill, cadmium levels were observed at 2.2 mg/kg. Meanwhile, arsenic levels in the Mobile River were observed to be as high as 44.6 mg/kg. Arsenic levels after the Tennessee spill ranged from 10 mg/kg to 57 mg/kg.
• Arsenic and cadmium are both carcinogenic. Both heavy metals are found in coal ash, which is the byproduct of burning coal for energy production. The coal ash pond at Plant Barry contains nearly 22 million cubic yards of coal ash saturated with water. 

Founder of Alabama’s American Village dies

• Tom Walker, the founder and president emeritus of the American Village in Montevallo, died last week.
• Walker founded the American Village in 1995, as a way to teach American history and civics to Alabamians. Since the campus, which features Revolutionary War-era building replicas and historical reenactors, opened in 1998, more than 800,000 school children have visited on field trips.
• In recent years, Walker helped raise more than $18 million to build a replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall at the American Village, hoping it would be a centerpiece of the state’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence next year. The replica opened last Thursday, the same day Walker died.

Pharmacy board held illegal meeting before payoff to former executive

• The Alabama State Board of Pharmacy was found by the Examiners of Public Accounts to have violated the state’s open meetings act by holding a closed meeting while discussing a termination settlement with the board’s former executive secretary. 
• Examiners said that the board did not disclose in its minutes that they discussed a termination agreement involving a payment with public funds. Additionally, examiners said the BOP sent incorrect information about the meeting to the governor. 
• At the meeting in question, the BOP agreed to a $150,000 lump sum settlement with former Executive Secretary Donna Yeatman, in addition to payment for more than 1,000 hours of accrued annual leave and sick leave.
• The BOP, which licenses the state’s pharmacists and pharmacies, has been criticized by examiners in the past, with the legislature’s Sunset Committee finding 14 significant issues with their operations from 2019 to 2023.

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