Conservatives uneasy as environmental groups angle for control of Alabama's water supply

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A debate over future control of Alabama’s water supply will be front and center at the Alabama State House Tuesday as environmental groups plan to make their presence felt during a meeting of the Legislative Committee on Water Policy & Management.

The environmental groups have dubbed Tuesday “Rivers of Alabama Day,” according to an email sent out by Alabama Rivers Alliance leader Mitch Reid. Reid urged his members and affiliated organizations to get “engaged in the efforts to develop a water management plan” to replace Alabama’s current framework.

Among the primary issues in any water management debate are “riparian rights,” which state that Alabama landowners whose property lies alongside a body of water have the right to reasonably use that body of water, since it flows through their property.

The environmental groups are angling for an overhaul of the current system, an effort that conservatives worry could jeopardize private property rights along Alabama’s waterways, which could in turn negatively affect economic development projects.

Alabama environmental groups have played a prominent role in efforts to stall or shutter economic growth projects in the state in recent years. Perhaps most notably, several of the groups came together to file a lawsuit blocking construction of the Northern Beltline on the grounds that it would impact waterways.

Once completed, the beltline will be a 52-mile highway in Jefferson County.

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers approved a permit for the project, but the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit on behalf of Black Warrior Riverkeeper Inc. challenging it and seeking to block construction. The start date of the project was up in the air for months because of the suit.

A U.S. District Court judge ultimately ruled against the environmental groups, calling their requests “useless and redundant” and concluding that they were not seeking a compromise solution to the project, but were instead working to squash the development all together.

Other environmental groups have been increasing their presence in the state through high-dollar advocacy efforts funded by out-of-state interests. At least six Alabama-based environmental groups received grants last year from a national environmental foundation. In all, roughly $3 million was pumped into the state to fund various green energy or global warming-related advocacy efforts.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed a new Drought Management Plan in 2013 and a new Drought Act in 2014, but in spite of the Alabama Office of Water Resources indicating the state has plenty of water to meet current and future demands, the environmental groups continue to push for an overhaul. A similar effort in Georgia cost the state roughly $30 million over three years.

Drought conditions are not typically front-page news. However, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and likely Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina recently weighed in on California’s drought conditions, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of “overzealous liberal environmentalists” who she says have held sway over the state’s water policy in recent years.

The Alabama Free Market Alliance (AFMA), a conservative advocacy group, warned Tuesday that a similar situation could happen in Alabama if Republican lawmakers are not vigilant.

“The enemies of economic freedom in Alabama are carrying their agenda to our State House,” AFMA Chairman and Republican National Committeeman Paul Reynolds said in an email to his members Tuesday morning. “Obama has unleashed the most liberal of the left, radical environmentalists, to do his bidding and carry his agenda in red states…(They) have no regard for the consequences of their policy positions.”

Reynolds noted that two of the organizations affiliated with the Alabama Rivers Alliance are on AFMA’s 2015 “Watch List,” which they describe as Alabama “groups actively working against the principles of freedom in our own state.”