A new report from a national environmental watchdog found Alabama reduced the budget for its department of environmental management by about 49% from 2010 to 2024.

Only three states cut their environmental agencies’ budgets by more than Alabama did over that time period, according to a report released early Wednesday from the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

“Not only will the federal pollution cop no longer be on the beat, state authorities may not show up either,” the report says. “Many states will not be able to shoulder more environmental oversight responsibilities because of years of their own cost-cutting.”

The group argues that cuts to state environmental agencies weakens enforcement of environmental regulations, including control of air and water pollution.

In total, around 90% of environmental oversight programs have been delegated to the states, according to the report, meaning states are primarily responsible for enforcing environmental regulation.

In 2010, ADEM had a budget of around $115 million. Adjusted for inflation, that translates to around $163 million in 2024 dollars, according to the report. But in 2024, ADEM’s budget was around $84 million, a decrease of $79 million from the inflation-adjusted 2010 budget.

In that time, ADEM’s staff shrunk from 608 employees to 586 employees, a decrease of 3.6%, according to the report.

The report used ADEM’s actual expenditures, minus the money from the clean water and safe drinking water revolving funds, which are in part provided by the federal government.

AL.com reached out to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and other state officials for comment. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

The Environmental Integrity Project did not say why Alabama’s environmental agency budget was cut in the report. But it noted that Alabama’s environmental budget decline was the result of steep cuts over one or two years.

Only Mississippi, South Dakota, and Connecticut cut their environmental agencies’ budgets by more. Between 2010 and 2024, Mississippi cut its budget for the Department of Environmental Quality by 71.4%, the highest cut in the nation.

In 2010, Alabama’s budget for ADEM ranked 28^th in the nation. The state had a larger budget for its environmental agency than other, more populous states like Colorado and Massachusetts, according to data from the report.

But by 2024, only eight states had smaller budgets for their environmental agencies than Alabama.

In total, around 27 states in the U.S. cut the budgets for their environmental agencies over that time period, the report found. Seven states, including Texas, reduced their environmental agency budgets by at least one third over that 15-year period.

During that same time period, the budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency that oversees state environmental agencies, has decreased by around 40%, according to the report.

In May, President Donald Trump’s administration proposed reducing the EPA’s budget by 54% in 2026, in line with Trump’s stated goal of reducing federal agencies’ size and delegating environmental action to the states.

Congress will vote on the budget for the EPA, as well as other federal agencies, in January.