Alabama Power is being honored by Keep America Beautiful for its role in the "Renew the Coosa" river cleanup program. The first place award for litter prevention will be presented Dec. 6 during Keep America Beautiful's national conference in Washington.

"The great news is that each year, Alabama rivers are getting cleaner. Renew the Coosa has truly become a movement," said Lisa Dover, executive director, Keep Etowah Beautiful. "It has become an annual event where people from every age group and community sector work hand in hand to make our communities a more wonderful place to live." The Gadsden-based organization nominated Alabama Power for the national award.

Alabama Power helped launch Renew the Coosa in Etowah County in May 2000, after employees from Plant Gadsden became concerned about the amount of litter and debris found in and on the banks of the Coosa River. What began as a small community cleanup and restoration project has now expanded to include six Coosa River lakes, as well as lakes on the Black Warrior and Tallapoosa rivers.

"Because of Alabama Power's involvement in the effort, it has grown into the largest clean up of its kind in the country," Dover said.

Today, the Renew the Coosa campaign involves 1,700 volunteers, including Alabama Power employees, Keep Etowah Beautiful volunteers, homeowner and boat- owner organizations, environmental groups, schools and civic associations. Together they contribute more than 15,000 volunteer hours a year on the cleanup. This year alone, volunteers removed more than 142 tons from the river systems -- everything from shoes, tires, boats, bottles to a refrigerator.

Congressman Robert B. Aderholt, whose district includes Etowah County, praised Keep Etowah Beautiful and its partners in the effort in a letter to Keep America Beautiful. "I believe your organization should be held up as a national model for communities around the nation who would like to improve their environment. The outreach you have already accomplished at Neely Henry, Logan Martin, Lay, Jordan, Mitchell and Weiss Lakes confirms the success of this project."

  Below are the approximate totals for Renew the Coosa cleanups in 2002:

  H. Neely Henry Lake           113 tons
  Lay Lake                       15 tons
  Lake Logan Martin               6 tons
  Lake Jordan                     4 tons
  Weiss Lake                      3 tons
  Mitchell Lake                   1 ton

  TOTAL                         142 tons

Keep Etowah Beautiful is a non-profit organization established to maintain a sustained litter reduction program and encourage and promote community beautification. Keep Etowah Beautiful is a Keep America Beautiful affiliate and is under the direction of executive director Lisa Dover.

Keep America Beautiful is a national nonprofit public education organization dedicated since 1953 to empowering individuals to take greater responsibility for enhancing their local community environment. Keep America Beautiful focuses on litter prevention, beautification and community improvement, the minimization of the impact of waste on communities, and the improvement of public places. KAB has more than 500 community affiliates across the country and 22 state affiliates lead the way in protecting and enhancing local environments.

Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company , provides reliable, affordable electricity to more than 1.3 million customers across Alabama, while keeping retail electric prices more than 15 percent below the national average. Southern Company serves 4 million customers with nearly 37,000 megawatts of generating capacity. Southern Company has more than 500,000 shareholders, making its common stock one of the most widely held in the United States.

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SOURCE: Alabama Power; Keep Etowah Beautiful