A protester at recent UAB rally holds photo of drinking-water intake located just 800 feet from site of proposed Shepherd Bend mine. Photo by Jesse Chambers.

In the new issue of Black & White (March 22-April 4), David Pelfrey has a good piece about efforts to stop a coal strip mine at Shepherd Bend on the Black Warrior River near Cordova.

If you’ve followed the story — including the reporting we’ve done at Weld Local — you know that the University of Alabama is a large land and mineral-rights holder at the site, and that mine opponents have turned up the PR heat on the UA, especially the trustees.

Pelfrey does a good job of trying to pierce the rather Delphic pronouncements of the University on the subject of whether they intend to allow mining at the site, a move that could potentially poison the drinking water for about 200,000 people.