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The Birmingham Water Works serves over 770,000 residents across five counties. With a new leadership team in place over the past year, we’ve taken major strides to rebuild public trust, modernize this critical infrastructure and deliver better service – and our customers are noticing. Customer complaints have dropped by more than 95 percent, reflecting real, measurable progress. But now, all this progress is threatened by Senate Bill 330, which would derail improvements we’ve made and diminish the voices of people we serve.
SB330 will pause, and in many cases completely cancel, critically important work that is underway to benefit our customers in Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount, and Walker counties.
SB330 is an example of government overreach. It consolidates power over one of Birmingham’s most important utilities in the hands of a few people who have no knowledge of the system or its true impact on its service area.
Over several decades, the Birmingham Water Works experienced multiple issues as an organization because prior boards did not focus on system priorities but instead fell into personality conflicts and ethical lapses. The organization has been a political punching bag for decades – and deservedly so in some instances. However, there is a new board and new leadership that puts customers first. Across the board improvements in customer service, communication and water infrastructure are being made. At this key moment in our history, when this board has demonstrated consistently that providing the best quality water to our customers is our only priority, now is not the time for legislators to make this ill-advised and short-sighted decision.
The makeup of board appointments, as currently constructed, is an accurate reflection of our customer base. Nearly 92 percent of our customers reside in Jefferson County, with 41 percent of those in the City of Birmingham. Shelby County makes up 8 percent and Blount County less than 0.17 percent. These are the facts, and they completely counter the “statistics” some legislators have used to justify SB330.
SB330 would take this accurate makeup of the board and instead replace it with a board that includes appointments from the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and counties that represent only a small fraction of our customer base. This sudden and dramatic change would effectively silence the majority of Birmingham Water Works customers. SB330 would place outsized power in the hands of those who represent only 1/10th of the people we serve and politicians who live far away.
Senator Roberts’ bill creates a dangerous precedent for legislators in the capitol injecting themselves into very local matters not in their districts. If this bill is passed, what is to stop legislators from North or South Alabama enacting legislation that drastically impacts only Central Alabama without their input?
This shift would damage the steps we have taken to increase and improve our relationships across our five-county service area. The proactive working relationships our team now has with the municipalities we serve has been very impactful. Communications related to service disruptions, street and property repairs, and major projects have been well-received by elected officials and our customers. This higher level of communication did not exist prior to this current board.
And this board’s primary focus has been, and will continue to be, improving our system and customer service. Customer complaints have dramatically decreased from over 10,000 a month to under 500 due to our expansion of customer service leadership and a rethinking of the best ways to reach our customers. Additionally, this board is implementing a brand-new Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which allows for more accurate, frequent readings of customer meters. The delay in starting the AMI project was a failure of past boards and something this current leadership structure is fixing.
Under SB330, these critically important infrastructure projects, along with dozens of others this leadership team has initiated — including the much-needed rehabilitation of the Lake Purdy Dam, one of the key water sources of the Birmingham Water Works — would be impacted and delayed, meaning higher costs could be passed on to the customer.
We believe the urgency and dedication this board and leadership team has shown in addressing longstanding issues should allow for additional time to see them through. Gone are the days of leadership sweeping issues under the rug or delaying them for another time. This team is taking action to make the system better today and in the future.
We are directing more resources to customer service, critical infrastructure, and the long-term success of the Birmingham Water Works. This board is driven by what is best for our customers and we strongly believe SB330 will be a major setback to the great progress we are making.
We urge members of the Alabama House of Representatives to vote “no” on SB330. It would replace real progress with more politics.
