Well, what do you know? The Alabama Department of Environmental Management is just about the least funded and the least staffed state environmental agency in the nation. As if that is news to the good people of Calhoun County. Don’t get us wrong, we are happy the rest of the state and the nation are beginning to realize what a pitiful environmental agency we have here in Alabama. But this county — with its PCBs, lead and mercury — has long known the neglect of ADEM.
Now that everyone knows about the problem, there is talk of the Environmental Protection Agency stepping in to take over some of ADEM’s responsibilities. As this page has pointed out before, we would welcome that move.
The problem here, the reason the EPA is thinking of taking over, is money, or more accurately, the lack thereof. Our Legislature has the opinion that ADEM can run on less and less money each year and still, somehow be an effective environmental agency. In fact, the agency is operating on about the same budget as it did in the early 1990s while being saddled with a host of more responsibilities.
That, of course, is totally unacceptable. Other states around the nation have seen the importance of protecting the environment but not Alabama. Nationwide, state funding has risen 140 percent. In Alabama, funding has gone down.
So if the EPA decides to stand by and let Alabama sink what are we going to do? Well, our lawmakers could come up with some money. That would be a start, but even with a hefty infusion of cash, we would still be stuck with an agency that is rife with a do-little culture that has a penchant for looking out for what’s best for business, not what is best for the environment and people of Alabama. Most importantly, however, we would still be left with an agency that is basically required by law to do absolutely nothing.
That’s why most folks in Calhoun County wouldn’t object to an EPA takeover of some of ADEM’s water responsibilities. But we would also add that while EPA is at it, they should go ahead and take over the whole thing.
