It has been said that one way to measure success is whether you left a place better than it was before you arrived. American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson explained it this way: “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded.”

As I look back at my 15 years at ADEM, I am confident Alabama’s environment is much better today than it was in 2010. 

I in no way claim credit for that success. Many people at ADEM, many civic, business and government leaders, many ordinary citizens across the state – all put in the work and the time to protect and preserve our incredible natural resources. 

The result: Alabama’s air, water quality, drinking water and land are all significantly cleaner and healthier than they were 30, 20 or 15 years ago.

That is not just an opinion. It is a fact based on hard data.

Let us start with air.

There are six basic air quality standards: carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, fine particles, ozone and lead. One by one, Alabama has met each of the air quality standards even as the standards have become tighter. In 2015, for the first time since the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1971, the state of Alabama reached attainment for all air quality standards. 

The story is similar for drinking water and surface water quality.

In 1982, the federal government required that states test for 23 contaminants in drinking water, and 82 percent of the water systems in Alabama were consistently in compliance with health-based standards. Today, we regulate more than four times as many contaminants, 95, and yet 98 percent of the water systems in Alabama have been continuously in compliance with those standards.

Only the state of Hawaii has had a lower number of drinking water violations than here in Alabama. 

Since 2022, the Department has awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants, loans and loan forgiveness to more than 500 public drinking water and sewer systems – improving these vital services for residents in every county in Alabama.

For surface waters – rivers, streams, lakes, etc. – we are required to assess and list those that are impaired, meaning they do not meet federal water quality standards for various pollutants such as nutrients, pathogens, metals, and suspended solids.

Since 1998, more than 14,300 miles of impaired rivers and streams in Alabama were identified as impaired. By last year, 9,300 miles had been removed from the list due to improved water quality.

For lakes, reservoirs, coastlines and estuaries, 1.1 million acres were identified as impaired since 1998. More than 455,000 combination acres have since been removed from the impaired list.

The designations Outstanding National Resource Waters, Outstanding Alabama Waters and Treasured Alabama Lakes are for those that meet the highest quality levels. In 1982, no state waters met the requirements. But by 2024, Alabama had more than 1,100 miles and more than 45,000 acres in those highest categories.

As measured by drinking water quality, reduced impaired waters and increased high-quality waters, water quality in Alabama is exceptionally good and continues to improve. 

Our land resources have shown similar improvements.

For example, in 1989, Alabama had 141 unlined municipal solid waste landfills, which carry the risk of leaching contaminants into groundwater. All have been closed, and today there are 30 state-of-the-art, lined landfills in Alabama handling municipal solid wastes.

Significant progress also has been made in recycling. The recycling rate in Alabama is more than five times what it was in 1989. That adds up to 3.6 million tons of wastes being recycled each year and not going into landfills. Since 2010, ADEM has provided more than $34 million in grants to local governments and communities to assist and encourage recycling.

More than 2,300 unauthorized solid waste dumps have been eliminated in Alabama since 2009, when the state enacted a $1-per-ton fee on solid waste disposed in landfills. And since 2006, 402 illegal scrap tire dumps containing more than 11 million tires have been cleaned up thanks to the state’s Scrap Tire Fund. 

By all measures, the state of the environment in Alabama is much improved. Our citizens breathe much cleaner air, enjoy higher quality water, and can be assured that our land is better protected. 

Of course, we have had our share of challenges over the past 15 years. The gravest was the BP oil spill in 2010 – just days before I started work at ADEM. Responding to that catastrophe taught many valuable lessons, the most meaningful being the need for government at all levels – local, state and federal – to work together to protect the environment and serve the people.

A byproduct of that cooperation is ADEM’s Coastal Alabama Field Office, a legacy of the efforts by so many to restore, improve and protect Alabama’s coastal areas.

It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with them and the countless other agencies, organizations, community groups, businesses and citizens whose efforts across the state help safeguard our air, water and land. Because of them, Alabama’s environment is much more than just “a bit better.”