EHS hosts an annual Campus Clean-Up Day to provide education of environmental concerns relating to aquatic trash and to remove refuse and recyclables from the area surrounding the Black Warrior River. This event serves as an element of one of six minimum control measures of the Stormwater Management Plan. As part of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for stormwater discharges from regulated municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4), and the fulfillment of regulatory requirements by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), EHS utilizes this event to fulfill this public involvement requirement, to educated students, faculty, and staff, and to serve the surrounding Tuscaloosa community.
If not properly disposed of or securely contained, garbage can easily become what the EPA classifies as aquatic trash. Litter is often carried by wind and rain into storm drains, streams, canals, and rivers – most of the garbage that ends up in waterways can be attributed to land-based activity. This litter can create physical hazards in the forms of ingestion and entanglement for wildlife and poses a threat to plants by potentially smothering their growth.
The Black Warrior watershed, an area of land that drains, or “sheds”, water into a specific waterbody, covers 6,276 square miles in Alabama and is home to over 1 million residents.
It is also home to 11 different endangered species, including the critically endangered Black Warrior Waterdog, which is only found in the streams of the Black Warrior River System, according to Black Warrior Riverkeeper.
