Environmental group to preserve peninsula near old coal mine in Jefferson County

An environmental group says it will preserve 366 acres near the site of an old coal mine in west Jefferson County.

The Freshwater Land Trust announced that Drummond Company has donated another 107 acres of a peninsula that sits where Mulberry Fork, Locust Fork and the Black Warrior River connect in the Black Warrior River basin.

In 2016, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, the Southern Environmental Law Center and Public Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Drummond Company for polluting an abandoned coal mine. In 2022, a federal judge approved a settlement that required Drummond to clean up the leaking coal mine site.

“In addition to that, they agreed to do one of two things: to either contribute $1 million to the Freshwater Land Trust to use on a supplemental environmental project in the area, or to contribute a specific piece of land,” said Eva Dillard, an attorney with Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

Drummond did not respond to a request for comment.

More than a million people live in the Black Warrior River basin, which provides drinking water for Birmingham, Bessemer, Cullman, Jasper, Oneonta and Tuscaloosa. The basin is also home to more than 180 freshwater species — 11 of which are listed as federally endangered or threatened.

“Preservation of the Mulberry and Locust Fork confluence has long been a goal of mine because it is such a special place at the formation of the Black Warrior River,” said Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, in a press release announcing the donation.

Mulberry Fork flows 122 miles and the Locust Fork flows 158 miles through the Cumberland Plateau to form the Black Warrior River, Brooke said. The Black Warrior River flows for 168 miles and empties the Tombigbee River.

The land trust said it has conserved 1,962 acres in the Black Warrior River watershed.