ADEM holds hearing on proposed revisions to Administrative Code Division 35-16; no public testimony

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management held a public hearing in Montgomery on proposed revisions to ADEM Administrative Code Division 35-16 and received no oral testimony. Mary Frank Brown, the department's designated hearing officer, opened the proceeding and described the subject of the hearing as "the proposed revisions to ADEM Administrative Code Division 3 35 dash 16."

Cleethis Stallworth, chief of the environmental services branch in ADEM’s Land Division, summarized the department’s stated reasons for the changes. "The ADEM Administrative Code Division 3 30 five-sixteen is being revised to remedy a number of typographical and citation errors in the current regulations. In addition, text referencing division 5 environmental covenants has been added," Stallworth said. She told attendees the department would evaluate technical suggestions and respond to each comment received.

Brown said public notice of the hearing and the proposed rules had been published in the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Press-Register and the Montgomery Advertiser on Nov. 21, 2021, and that copies were filed with the Legislative Services Agency on Nov. 18, 2021. The department also published notice in the Alabama Administrative Monthly (vol. 20, no. 2) on Nov. 30, 2021, made proposed rules available at ADEM field offices in Birmingham, Mobile and Decatur and online at ADEM.Alabama.gov, and sent mailed notice to 2,646 individuals and organizations that had requested advance notice of rulemaking. An affidavit from the Legislative Services Agency director was submitted for the record as noted by the hearing officer.

Brown said the hearing was open to oral or written testimony and that all verbal and written comments would become part of the public record. She repeated procedural details included in the notice: persons not previously registered should complete a registration card, lengthy or technical statements should be submitted in writing for the record, and the hearing was not intended as a question-and-answer session. The department set a written-comment deadline of 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, to the ADEM offices in Montgomery.

The hearing officer and staff said all comments received would be considered before any final decision and that, after responses to relevant comments are prepared, the department would forward the final draft of the proposed rules, the hearing record and, if controlling views are submitted, a concise statement of principal reasons for and against adoption to the Environmental Management Commission for its consideration and possible adoption.

No public officials or members of the public filed registration cards to give oral testimony at the scheduled hearing; Brown noted that the record reflects no one spoke. The hearing was recorded by a court reporter and a transcript will be included in the public record. The hearing was then adjourned.