Cahaba River Conservation Groups Win In Alabama Supreme Court

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Cahaba River conservation groups earned a victory in the Alabama Supreme Court last week in a case concerning roughly 6,000 acres along the river, according to a Birmingham Business Journal report.

Cahaba Riverkeeper, Cahaba River Society and Southern Environmental Law Center claimed the Birmingham Water Works Board violated a 2001 settlement designed to conserve the Cahaba River Watershed by failing to create a proper conservation easement for the area, the BBJ report said.

The claim was deemed invalid in the Jefferson County Circuit Court last year and dismissed, but last week's ruling by the State Supreme Court reversed that decision and remanded the cause, sending it back to Jefferson County Circuit Court.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Alabama’s conservation easement statute protects not only this land, but land under conservation easements across the state,” said Sarah Stokes, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in a prepared statement. “We look forward to establishing in the circuit court that the Birmingham Water Works Board must fulfill its obligation under the signed settlement to create a permanent conservation easement for this critically important land.”

Read more about the Alabama Supreme Court decision in the Birmingham Business Journal.