Victory for Public Health and Public Pariticipation!

Today the Environmental Management Commission passed a rule change that will reduce the allowable cancer risk levels in Alabama’s waterways from 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 1 million!  This initiative was first brought to the Commission’s attention by the Alabama Rivers Alliance and 17 other environmental organizations in the spring of 2007.  After almost of year of hard work by the citizens and the Commission, the right decision was made today!  We commend the EMC for making this decision and all of the citizens and organizations who worked so hard to keep it moving forward.

Another important step was made today by the EMC.  They voted to hold 2 of their meetings outside of Montgomery in other parts of the state to encourage more attendance by the public.  The ADEM Reform Coalition, a coalition of 41 member organizations from across the state including the Alabama Rivers Alliance, recommended this idea in our original Blueprint for ADEM Reform published in 2002.  The idea of moving the meeting locations and times to accommodate working citizens is Blueprint recommendation #20.  We commend the Commission for recognizing the importance of fostering more public participation and awareness in the important work of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

The Commission also passed several other important water quality rule-making changes that will help improve the standards under which Alabama’s waterways are protected.  Citizen advocacy and participation does work and today we saw results of those efforts!  The Alabama Rivers Alliance would especially like to thank attorney, David Ludder, who has been a steadfast source of leadership, knowledge, and hard work on all of these initiatives.