 | SUSTAINING THE FLOW Welcome to the May 2025 edition of ARA's partner newsletter, featuring highlights from our partners and organizations around our network to help keep us collaborating, informed and engaged. Read through below for comment opportunities, events, partner highlights, updates from the ARA team and funding, training, and hiring opportunities. See past editions of the newsletter here. |
| | | Dear Partners and Friends: Earlier this week, we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Kelly Marshall with the Alabama Rivers Alliance! As our Deputy Director, Kelly works tirelessly, and mostly behind the scenes, making sure the organization and our programs run smoothly. From her magical multitasking to her extraordinary event planning, she certainly makes it all look easy. Her consistent communications across the myriad of media platforms on behalf of not only ARA, but all of our network partners across the state, ensures that the hard work of our river protection movement is known by thousands of Alabamians and beyond. And, of course, her most noteworthy accomplishment in her 10-year tenure with ARA (on top of leading us through the process of new websites, new branding and new office) has been her leadership of the Southern Exposure Film Fellowship program. Without Kelly, we would have never had the vision and the skillset to take on this awesome program that has and continues to have a huge impact on the movement's ability to tell the stories of Alabama’s beautiful places and the special people dedicated to making a healthier and better life for their families and communities, while amplifying the real threats to Alabama’s rich environment and exploring solutions. It is with deep gratitude that I celebrate the past 10 years of commitment, energy, talents and fun that Kelly has brought to the Alabama Rivers Alliance! She wouldn't let us post it on social media, so please join me in toasting her at our 10% Tuesday at Rojo, her favorite landlocked place, on June 24! Hip Hip! Cindy |
|  | FEDERAL AND REGULATORY NEWS / COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES COMMENTS FOR FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT ON R.L. HARRIS DAM The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the relicensing of Harris Dam was released at the end of March. You can view the Final EIS here and file comments on it with FERC before it issues the new license! Strive to have your comments filed before June 29, 2025. Click here to learn more and submit comments. ADEM REVIEWING EPA'S DEEPWATER HORIZON MONITORING PLAN The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is reviewing a proposed environmental monitoring project submitted by the EPA’s Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Program and the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group. The project monitors the condition of estuaries in Mobile Bay over several years to help evaluate the effectiveness of restoration work. Comments are open for 15 days from May 21 to June 5, 2025, and details on how to comment are available here. |
| LEGISLATIVE UPDATES The 2025 legislative session ended on May 14. It was a mixed bag in terms of environmental legislation. Several good pieces of legislation passed, but unfortunately, some really bad ideas also came up this year. Click here to read a recap of the session from ARA's Policy Director Charles Miller. |
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|  | NEWS FROM ARA Summer is simmering which means the ARA office is transforming in to the Southern Exposure production office! We are thrilled to welcome an incredibly talented cohort of filmmakers to Alabama this summer to work with ARA and our partners all over the state to create four new short documentaries celebrating the special people and places of Alabama, while exploring complex topics and solutions. Click here to read about the new film fellows before anyone else! Our 2025 topics this summer will be: - Salamanders! Spotted, Red Hills, Webster's and ones you've never heard of - we're diving in to their world and the people working to protect them throughout the state!
- Pipelines / Data Centers. Increased energy and water demands from the rapid development of large data centers, driven by technological advancements like AI, are increasing threats to communities across the Southeast, including Alabama.
- Quarries - We'll explore the outdated practice of quarrying, and its devastating impacts on nearby communities. We'll hear directly from those who face the blasts up close and how the current inadequate regulation of this industry puts communities at risk.
- For many veterans, rivers, forests, and nature have offered peace, healing, purpose, and even survival. This summer, we’ll explore how access to nature and Alabama's rivers is a lifeline for those who’ve served our nation.
If you know anyone we absolutely should talk to about the topics this year, please reach out to Kelly at kmarshall@alabamarivers,org or send her a text! |
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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! -
Coosa Riverkeeper and SELC put Alabama Power Company on notice that Coosa Riverkeeper intends to sue to stop ongoing groundwater pollution from Alabama Power’s failed closure of its leaking toxic coal ash lagoon at the former Gadsden Steam Plant! Click here to read all about their notice of intent to sue. -
Our friends at Africatown-CHESS report that Mobile County has broken ground on a new Lewis Landing pocket park on Three Mile Creek! Lewis Landing is one of several Mobile County initiatives advancing the Africatown area, including other projects to restore Africatown’s historic structures, preserve its heritage, and support culture and heritage tourism. Read more here. -
It's Swim Guide Season! Check out all the hard work - and help share! - from our partners all summer with their Swim Guide reports on the Coosa, Cahaba, Mobile Bay and more! You can see results throughout the state on the Swim Guide app as well. -
Jefferson County Greenways has launched their new website! If live in Jefferson County, explore your backyard. If you're passing through soon, be sure to check out some great trails and more! -
Do you live in Central Alabama and have thoughts on ways to mitigate climate impacts locally? Submit your survey response to the Central Alabama Climate Action Plan here. -
ARA is working with the City of Montgomery and Friends of the Alabama River to gather feedback from the wonderful people of the River Region about what the Alabama River is to you. Click here to let us know your thoughts and share across the Montgomery area! -
Explore River Management Society's interactive map highlighting how federal staff reductions may impact rivers here. -
ARA, along with our partners at Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), published a new resource for homeowners: Alabama Decentralized Wastewater Ownership Options. This guide gives an overview of Alabama's wastewater management options and how communities can work together to manage these systems collectively. Read more about this collaborative work here. -
US EPA published the Water Affordability Needs Assessment Report with findings that 1 in 7 people in the US, or 19.2 million households, have unaffordable water. A permanent low-income water assistance program would require $8.8 billion annually in federal funding to close this current water affordability gap. Read more here. - WEBINAR TOMORROW - ADECA is working with the public and partners to develop Alabama's next Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). SCORPs allow states to identify their own priorities in how to spend federal funds. This collaborative process evaluates Alabama's current outdoor recreation offerings and identify priority actions to support the State in effectively managing its valuable assets for the next half-decade through developing clear management directions and funding opportunities at statewide, regional, and local levels. Join their webinar tomorrow, May 29, from 6-7 pm to learn more. Click here to register today!
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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| FUNDING | LEARNING | EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES |
| FUNDING OPPORTUNTIES - ONGOING OPPORTUNITY! Alabama Beer Company + ARA's DRIFT Fund for financial assistance for projects, applications open now! If you have any questions about the fund, please reach out!
- Alabama Mountains, Rivers & Valleys Resource Conservation & Development Council FY26 Grant Applications are open until June 30.
- EPA Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) to help community's access drinking water & wastewater funding.
- Ben & Jerry's National Grassroots Organizing Program (NGO) offers two-year unrestricted, general operating support grants on a rolling basis.
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TRAINING & LEARNING - Help your organization increase their impact with personalized funding technical assistance from the Southeast Climate & Energy Network.
- Become a Certified Alabama Master Naturalist! Click here to learn more.
- The National Wilderness Skills Institute, a free two-day virtual training for wilderness and wild and scenic river stewards from across the country and world, is happening in June. Learn more and register here.
- The Institute for Conservation Leadership is hosting a Virtual & Interactive Facilitation Skills Program in June.
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| Alabama Rivers Alliance
4439 5th Avenue South Suite 1000 | Birmingham, Alabama 35222
205.322.6395 | info@alabamarivers.org |
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