BUTLER/CUNNINGHAM

This presents basic facts on Birmingham. We hope to add to it in the future.

This site will change from time to time. Basic organization will remain constant.

click here to contact Mike Polioudakis, site developer

polioej@acesag.auburn.edu

Level 2

ENVIRONMENT FACTS:

BIRMINGHAM

Selection of Similar Pages

The quality of air in Birmingham has already been mentioned. Birmingham has some other problems because it has a fairly high population concentrated into hills and valleys. Much of its surface area already has been paved over. Hilly areas tend to flash floods anyway, but when hilly areas are paved over, and they encounter the tropical storms typical of Alabama, flash flooding, and more persistent flooding, become real problems. Birmingham may be moving toward a comprehensive system of water management that will include man-made conduits to channel rain and preserve enough vegetation-covered ground to allow rain to move naturally.

Birmingham has more than its share of "brownfields". Some of these fields need to be cleaned up physically and chemically in order to be used again. There is a tendency to clean up these brownfields and develop them with housing to satisfy the needs of the growing population. However, such development can pave over enough of the soil area of the brownfields (or other areas of the city) so as to aggravate problems with water flow and flooding.

Cities located in hilly areas can have problems moving water and sewage about. Planners in Birmingham have proposed a "super sewer" at a deep level under much of the infrastructure that already exists, including, apparently the Cahaba River itself. A group of residents, focused around the Cahaba River Society, now opposes this "super sewer" in its present form. Please see button at left.