Legislature passes bill to protect Mobile Bay from dredging materials

February 3, 2026 – The Alabama Legislature passed compromise legislation that would protect Mobile Bay from the careless dumping of dredged earth back into Mobile Bay.

Currently the U.S. government (with substantial state support from the fuel tax) is making Alabama's shipping channel through Mobile Bay to the Port of Mobile wider and deeper to accommodate the newer bigger container ships. The improvements to the port will greatly increase the number and the size of the ships that we can accommodate at the Port of Mobile – an economic boon for the state.

While almost everyone supports the shipping channel improvements, shrimpers, boaters, beach goers, and residents who live along the coast have been horrified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allowed the company that is doing the dredging to just dump all the tons of dirt dredged off of the sea floor back in the bay. Residents claim that this is damaging to the oyster beds, shrimp fry, water quality, waterbirds, and their general quality of life.

To address these concerns, state Representative Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise) introduced House Bill 181 to address how those dredged materials may be used. This legislation had already passed the House. On Tuesday the Senate took up HB181.

HB181 was carried in the Senate by Senator Chris Elliott (R-Josephine).

Elliott said that "this bill deals with water quality and dredging."

"This bill deals with dredging in Mobile Bay and requiring that 70% of dredge material be used for beneficial use," said Sen. Elliott. "We have been working on this for a long time."

HB181 mandates that any entity dredging more than 1 million cubic yards per year in Alabama's coastal areas must use at least 70% of that material for "beneficial use."

Senator Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) introduced an amendment on the floor that simply said that, "Nothing in this section shall be construed to grant a third party standing to bring a private cause of action relating to this section."

Albritton said that "it doesn't prevent anyone from bringing a cause of action" but that the state could not be held as a party in that third party action.

"It is a very vanilla type amendment," said Albritton. "It simply says that if you agree to it you agree to it."

Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) told the Alabama Gazette that the amendment protected against "frivolous lawsuits."

The Albritton amendment was adopted in a 33 to 0 vote of the Senate which then considered HB181 as amended.

Sen. David Sessions (R-Grand Bay) said, "This is one of those areas where we had all of our marine interests on the same page."

Albritton said that the bill defined what a beneficial use is and required that 70% of the material be put towards beneficial use.

The bill defines beneficial use as: "(1) BENEFICIALLY USED. The productive and positive use of dredged material, including fish and wildlife habitat development, human recreation, and industrial and commercial uses. The term does not include the deposition of dredged material into public waters unless that deposition is part of a shoreline restoration or marsh creation project."

SB181 passed the Senate 33 to 0.

Sen. Elliott said, "Thank you for working with me on this."

"This is a meaningful bill that will do a lot to protect our bay for generations to come," said Elliott.

Elliott told reporters that this bill that benefitted "fisherman, shrimpers, oystermen, and just people like me and my family who enjoy the water."

HB181 went back to the House of Representatives where Rep. Marques recommended that they vote to concur with the Senate changes. The House voted to concur with no opposition.

Ledbetter said that this was a "compromise" piece of legislation that everyone worked really hard on."

HB181 now goes to Governor Kay Ivey (R) for her consideration.

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