MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama legislators passed a bill on Thursday that would strip Birmingham of control over the state’s largest water board and transfer power to the governor and surrounding suburbs, reigniting a decades-long, polarizing debate.
Proponents of the bill point to frequent rate hikes and say that the move will prevent catastrophic events that have happened in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, or Detroit, Michigan. Opponents of the bill say that it is a power grab that diminishes the power of Black residents in Birmingham, Alabama.
Birmingham city officials currently appoint six of the nine board members’ seats, giving Birmingham leadership unrivaled influence over the decisions affecting the city’s water. Board members approve rate hikes and manage infrastructure projects.
If signed into law, SB330 would make the board just seven people. The mayor of Birmingham and the Birmingham city council would appoint two board members, while the governor, lieutenant governor and three neighboring county commission presidents would each appoint one board member.
Five counties rely on the Birmingham Water Works Board, but over 40% of the utility’s 770,000 customers are concentrated in the city of Birmingham, and 91% are in Jefferson County. The new system would give more weight to Birmingham’s neighboring counties that house the reservoirs that supply the system.
Republican lawmakers from the Birmingham suburbs sponsored the bill, saying that it will improve the efficiency of the system. They say aging infrastructure and lack of investment means residents pay for water that just gets leaked out of old pipes.
“So many elected officials have been getting so many complaints, and I’m sure yours have too, about the quality and the price of Birmingham water,” said Republican Rep. Jim Carns, who represents Blount County, one of the places that will now appoint a board member.
The water board had approximately $1 billion in debt in 2023, according to the most recent financial statements, and the board has the second highest credit score, according to bond rating agencies.
Carns said that the regional board would make the utility more frugal. AL.com reported that the utility has been accused of lacking transparency in recent years and has sometimes made costly errors in distributing bills. Trust in the board was further undermined in recent years after high-profile ethics scandals.
Many in Alabama’s vocal Democratic minority conceded that the board wasn’t perfect, but they also condemned the move as a political takeover that would wrest power from Birmingham’s majority Black residents and redistribute it to customers in the city’s mostly white suburbs.
“Frankly the language used today was insulting, with words like competence being thrown around as if the city of Birmingham is not growing by leaps and bounds,” Democratic Rep. Kelvin Datcher of Birmingham said after the bill passed. He questioned how the new board’s composition would address any of the bill sponsor’s concerns about efficiency.
Democratic legislators also took issue with the fact that they were excluded from the overall process.
“Each of us in this chamber would be rightfully concerned if outside representatives attempted to dictate how water systems operate in our districts without consulting us or even including us at the table, or, hell, even the room where this legislation was created,” Rep. Neil Rafferty of Birmingham said.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin joined Birmingham city council members for a press conference to echo those concerns.
“The ratepayers deserve to be at the forefront of this conversation, and they have not been,” Woodfin said. “Let’s call it what it is. This is a political power grab. This is not in the best interest of our citizens.”
The bill passed along party lines 66 to 27. It now goes to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk.
