Saving the world underwater

Hunter Nichols meandered down the river and felt at peace. Beginning on the Cahaba River in Hoover, he had just embarked on a journey to travel down to the Gulf of Mexico with only himself and his canoe. 

Nichols’ love of the river began as a child growing up near Cahaba Heights when his mother often took him to fish in the river near U.S. 280. Traveling it was something he always knew he wanted to do. “I’ve always been fascinated by people who have canoed from this area to the Gulf,” Nichols said. 

Although he tried the trip for the first time in 2004, a flood prevented him from finishing. He tried again in the summer of 2011 and created a documentary, River Dreams, in the process. 

Nichols is not alone in his love of the river. The Cahaba is thought to be the longest free-flowing river in the state with some of the most diverse species north of the Amazon River. Its 131 species of fish in approximately 194 miles beats the 1,450-mile Colorado River’s fish species by about 100.  

What many river-goers fail to realize, however, is that the river is at risk of losing all of that. In fact, it might have been lost already. As Dr. Myra Crawford, executive director and riverkeeper of the nonprofit organization Cahaba Riverkeeper, points out, studies on the river have not been updated in almost 20 years. With the massive amount of development on the 280 corridor in that time, Crawford believes that the old data cannot possibly be accurate today. She and her colleague David Butler have set out to find the truth, starting with conducting bacteriological tests throughout the river. Although they are not finished, what they have found shows the possibility of large amounts of damage since the river’s last study. In several areas around 280, levels of E. coli were too high to be considered safe for swimming. 

“We want to be able to answer the public’s questions about what’s really happening to the Cahaba and be able to base our answers on current information,” Crawford said.

Damage to the river will not only affect recreational activities, but it will also eventually affect the water provided to 280-area homes. Crawford and Butler believe that the only way to combat the river’s damage is to get residents involved and informed. 

“The most important takeaway about the Cahaba River is that it is the primary drinking water source for one-fourth of the population of Alabama, and it is dying,” Crawford said.

Much of the river’s damage comes from urbanization, or the rapid development of business and residential properties. In these areas, Crawford explains, more rain and damaging runoff makes it into the river because concrete areas prevent the runoff from soaking into the ground. This causes the river to flood and widen. More waste and litter are also allowed to flow into the river, which affects the quality of the water and the life in it. 

Butler pointed out that many residents do not realize how drastically one area’s treatment of the river can affect its downstream neighbors. In areas such as Helena, Butler has reported E. coli levels at three or four times the safe limit. 

“A lot of people say that they’ve never thrown trash in the river,” Butler said. “If you’ve thrown something on the ground, you’ve thrown it in the river. Everything ends up there.”

For more information, visit the Cahaba Riverkeeper Facebook page.