 | SUSTAINING THE FLOW Thank you for subscribing to ARA's partner newsletter, featuring highlights from our 100+ partners and organizations around our network to help keep us collaborating, informed and engaged. Read through for comment opportunities, events, partner highlights, and updates from the ARA team; along with funding, training, and hiring opportunities. Read through our newsletter archive here to see Alliance news from the past 4 years! |
| | Dear partners and friends: As you read in our last newsletter, we have big news at ARA! Martha Hunter, our Director of Community Partnerships, officially retired, as of May 31. Martha has dedicated countless hours over the past ten years at ARA strengthening our river protection movement, while making connections all across the state. Her endless energy and her passion for getting to know people and getting them connected to other Alabamians who are working so hard to defend and protect our rivers throughout the state is unprecedented! Make plans now to join us on August 18 from 5-8 pm at Rojo in Birmingham to celebrate Martha! THAT MEANS WE ARE NOW HIRING! We are looking for our next Director of Community Partnerships. The Director of Community Partnerships plays an essential role in supporting and collaborating with our vast network of community partners and individual community leaders across Alabama and beyond. The person in this role ensures the Alabama Rivers Alliance’s policy advocacy work is grounded in the needs of our community and watershed partners and that our partners are informed and engaged in our broader statewide initiatives. The Director of Community Partnerships is responsible for uniting and providing leadership to Alabama’s network of local river and water-focused organizations, as well community groups with common interests, in order to maintain a strong statewide movement to protect rivers and to support the Alabama Rivers Alliance state policy work. Click here to read the full job description and apply today! Application deadline is July 10, 2026. |
|  | FEDERAL / REGULATORY / COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES ADEM RULEMAKING TO ADJUST FEE SCHEDULES The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is hosting a public hearing on July 7, 2026 to consider proposed revisions to their fees and costs schedule for permitting (Divisions 1, General Administration, and Division 6, Water Quality of the ADEM Administrative Code). Revisions considered adjust fees charged to air, coastal, water, hazardous waste, and other industrial users for the costs of permitting, licensing, certifications, or variances. Click here to read the proposed rules, summary of reasons, and public hearing details. USEPA ACTIONS AROUND PFAS: FUNDING & ROLLBACKS The US Environmental Protection Agency issued an additional $1 billion for the "Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities" program to help communities mitigate PFAS and other emerging contaminants from drinking water. This announcement coincides with and mentioned two proposed rules around PFAS relating to the National Primary Drinking Water Standards. One revision would not repeal standards for PFOA and PFOS, but allow water systems to apply for a two-year deadline extension. The second proposed rule change seeks to increase or throw out allowable levels for four PFAS compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, PFPO-DA). EPA is hosting a virtual hearing on July 7 and accepting commments through July 20, 2026. THE NORTHERN BELTINE REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN! The Army Corps of Engineers has announced their draft permit for the next 9.5 miles of the Northern Beltline. The Mobile District will receive written comments on the proposed activity until June 27, 2026. Comments should be submitted electronically via the Regulatory Request System (RRS) at this link. Alternatively, you may submit comments to Samuel T. Barber at [email protected] or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Attention: Samuel T. Barber, 100 Canal Street, Mobile, Alabama 36602. Please refer to “SAM-2011-01079-CMS” in your comments. |
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|  | NEWS FROM AND AROUND ARA COLLABORATION As part of our continued collaboration with partners across the state and nation to watchdog water infrastructure funding and ensure communities are aware of funding available to them, we joined our partners at Black Belt Women Rising and Southern Poverty Law Center at a meeting with ADEM's State Revolving Fund lead staff. We discussed their efforts to close out the rest of the American Rescue Plan Act funding projects, where we might best target our continued assistance to communities and how we can continue to advocate for preservation of funding for the SRF program to protect drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. CIVIC ENGAGEMENT We are wrapping up our ALSTARs training for 2026 and will be planning for the next training this fall. Thank you to all of our trainees this year who have been very patient as we navigated an extremely active legislative session and the many data center ordinances we've been advocating for at the local level -- not to mention redistricting! It has been a BIG year to engage in government in Alabama! ISSUE ADVOCACY SOLAR - We have recently developed a position paper titled “Protecting Alabama’s Waters During the Energy Transition” which lays out the benefits and considerations for water regarding solar energy, and specifically utility scale solar. You can check out the position paper here. DATA CENTERS - We are continuing to advocate for better state regulations, local ordinances and other policy solutions to protect our waterways and communities from the impacts of data center developments across the state. We are grateful to the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham for awarding a grant for our work on seeking sound policy solutions for data centers!
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| | | | PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS FROM ACROSS ALABAMA Amplifying the voices of river defenders in Alabama by celebrating news, wins of all sizes, milestones and ways others could use support. Submit your news so we can share! - The Red Hill community in Marshall County showed up in spades for the ADEM joint public hearing to discuss permitting Project New Road by Reeds Materials LLC. See more coverage from WAAY here.
- Congratulations to Justinn for her new changes! While maintaining her position as Coosa Riverkeeper's Staff Riverkeeper, Justinn will be stepping down down as executive director and joining Conservation Alabama as their part-time Senior Vice President of Water Policy and Advocacy. Read more on Facebook here.
- Black Warrior Riverkeeper is submitting comments in opposition to the proposed C&D Debris Landfill in Blount County. There will be a public hearing and vote at the Blount Count Commission on July 4, 2026. Read more from WBRC here.
- The 2026 Southern Exposure Film Fellows arrive in just a few days and we can't wait for you to meet them around Alabama this summer! Click here to read all about them and click here to read about their film topics this summer.
- Submit your art, photos, videos and/or poetry to the Friends of the Locust Fork River by June 30, 2026! Details and submission link here.
- Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition (MEJAC) has released a deep dive report, "Doing it Differently: Hard Earned Lessons from Engaging with a Proposed AI Data Center." Take some time to read through here.
- The U.S. WASH Convening featured Sherry Bradley to discuss ongoing challenges, project progress, and solutions for Lowndes County wastewater infrastructure. Read more in The Lowndes Signal.
- A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Mobile Baykeeper, overturning a lower court decision and sending the Plant Barry coal ash case back to the federal district court, giving the people of Coastal Alabama a chance to be heard! Click here to learn more and sign the coal ash petition.
- All 9 episodes out now for Upstream, Downriver "Women Water Warriors" YouTube series! Learn from these inspiring women fighting drought, industrial pollution, data centers, and other factors pushing our waterways to the brink. Added bonus, one of this year's Southern Exposure Film fellows collaborated on this project, along with several former SE film fellows!
- Gulf Village Green Stormwater Improvement Project, a green infrastructure solution for flooding and standing water, was completed in Prichard. This project marked the first-of-its-kind collaboration by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, Mobile Housing Authority, Light of the Village, and more. Read more here.
- The final batch of IIJA-boosted State Revolving Load Fund money was allocated from EPA to states, territories, and Tribes during May 2026. This marks the ending of boosted funding available for improvements to drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. Subsidized funding for mitigating PFAS from public drinking water is also available for another two years.
Please reply to this email or click below to submit newsletter items from your organization. We'd love to share your news with our 100+ partners across the region! |
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| Alabama Rivers Alliance
4439 5th Avenue South Suite 1000 | Birmingham, Alabama 35222
205.322.6395 | [email protected] |
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