Prioritize Funding for Prichard’s Water Crisis
Target: ADEM Director Lance LeFleur
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Every Alabamian deserves clean, safe water.
In Prichard, sewage spills flood the streets due to a collapsing infrastructure. Since 2021, more than 50 million gallons of raw sewage have spilled into the streets, creeks, and waterways of Coastal Alabama. The city’s drinking water is under threat, and many Prichard residents are paying high bills for unreliable water.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has the opportunity — and the tools — to help fix this. A comprehensive Master Plan, finalized in July 2024, and underlying Asset Management Plan, outline shovel-ready projects and long-term improvement plans. What’s missing is the funding to make it happen.
Tell ADEM to take action now and prioritize Prichard in upcoming infrastructure funding.
Sponsored by
To:
ADEM Director Lance LeFleur
From:
[Your Name]
We are grateful to ADEM for its leadership and for the critical funding already awarded to improve Prichard’s water and wastewater system. That investment marked a turning point in a community that has endured decades of disinvestment, chronic sewage spills, and serious concerns about water quality and public health.
We urge you now to build on that progress by continuing to fund urgently needed, shovel-ready projects in the Prichard Water Works & Sewer Board’s Master Plan through the State Revolving Fund (SRF) program.
The human impacts of this crisis are stark. Over the past five years, more than 49 million gallons of raw sewage have spilled into local streets and creeks—exposing residents, including children, to dangerous pathogens and rendering nearby waterways unsafe for swimming or fishing. Families are navigating past sewage spills on their way to school or work. Many pay high bills for water they’re unsure is safe to drink, and aging infrastructure continues to leak over 60% of treated water, draining resources from an already struggling system.
These conditions are unacceptable, and the burden falls hardest on low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods that have been historically overlooked. Delaying action now would only deepen this injustice.
But for the first time in decades, Prichard is positioned to change course. With a comprehensive Asset Management Plan, a Master Plan that prioritizes critical repairs, and a court-appointed receiver with the technical expertise to implement them, the utility has never been more prepared to deploy funds effectively. The receiver has committed to remaining in place long enough to ensure progress begins—and funding awarded this cycle would give the people of Prichard the dignity and stability they deserve.
We understand that questions about long-term governance remain unresolved. But those answers will not arrive before this funding cycle concludes. ADEM has the discretion to act now—and by doing so, can stabilize a fragile system, protect public health, and make any future solution more viable.
Please do everything in your power to move this funding forward as soon as it becomes available. The people of Prichard have waited long enough for safe, reliable water, and your continued support can help bring it within reach.
Sincerely,
