Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management

Our state’s legislature took a big leap forward during the 2008 legislative session by passing a joint resolution creating a Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management.  This committee directly addresses one of the six Priority Threats listed in the Alabama Water Agenda, Instream Flow, by ensuring that we keep enough water flowing in our rivers to meet the needs of generations to come.

The resolution, SJR28, creates a fourteen-member committee tasked with “developing the Alabama Water Management Plan to recommend…courses of action to address the state’s long-term and short-term water resources challenges.”

Five members of the committee include chairs of various house and senate committees of commerce, agriculture, and natural resources.  The remaining committee members will be appointed by the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate. 

We want to thank all our members and volunteers who have participated in Alabama Water Agenda action alerts and River Action Day as advocates of this important progress. The letters, meetings, and phone calls from Alabama citizens certainly played a role in the formation of this committee. We would also like to thank Senator Kim Benefield, D-Woodland, and Representative Greg Canfield R-Birmingham, for their leadership in the passing of this important measure. The Rivers Alliance will monitor the progress of the committee and keep you informed as we all move forward down the road to comprehensive water policy.

Committee Members

Below is a list of the members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management. For more information about each member, visit www.legislature.state.al.us.

• Sen. Kim Benefield, Chair (D-13)
• Rep Greg Canfield, Vice chair (R-48)
• Sen. Parker Griffith (D-7)
• Sen Ted Little (D-4)
• Sen. Wendell Mitchell (D-30)
• Sen. Arthur Orr (R-3)
• Sen. Quinton Ross (D-26)
• Sen. Harri Anne Smith (R-29)
• Rep. Chad Fincher (R-102)
• Rep. Thomas Jackson (D-68)
• Rep. Richard Laird (D-37)
• Rep. AJ McCampbell (D-7)
• Rep, Frank McDaniel (D-26)
• Rep Jeff McLaughlin (D-27)

Committee website

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/joint_committees/water-resources.html

Resolution

To view the resolution creating this committee, click here.

Subcommittees 

Four subcommittees have been created to explore various facets of water policy. Membership for each subcommittee is open to the public.

• Agriculture/industry/transportation/recreation (Chair Sen. Mitchell)
• Water management mechanisms/strategy/policy (Chair Rep. McLaughlin)
• Conservation/efficiency/water quality/drought management (Chair Rep. McCampbell)
• Water resource assessments, studies, data collection and storage (Chair Sen. Orr)

To sign up for the subcommittees or to receive email updates for committee and subcommittees, please contact Pamela Averrett at Pamela.averrett@alsentate.gov or 334-242-7875.