Citronelle Water System Gets $12 Million for Meters, Well and Water Main

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has made $12 million in drinking-water financial assistance available to South Alabama Utilities for a planned modernization of Citronelle’s water system.

The borrower is the Utilities Board of the Town of Citronelle doing business as South Alabama Utilities. ADEM’s April 1, 2026, notice describes work that would replace approximately 16,500 existing water meters, add groundwater supply and treatment capacity, and extend a major water line through Citronelle.

Planned water-system improvements

The meter replacements would use advanced metering infrastructure, commonly called AMI. Unlike the existing drive-by meter-reading system, the new meters are designed to transmit usage data electronically. That would change how water-use information is collected for the utility’s customers.

The project description also includes a new groundwater supply well and a treatment facility. Treatment equipment and supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, controls are included in the listed scope. SCADA systems are used to monitor and control utility equipment, although ADEM’s notice does not provide a separate operating schedule for the planned facilities.

South Alabama Utilities also plans approximately 12,000 linear feet of new 12-inch water main. ADEM identifies the work locations as Citronelle-owned property or existing utility corridors, placing the planned improvements within the city’s existing water-infrastructure footprint.

For residents and other water customers, the project’s stated scope means potential changes to meter reading, additional groundwater supply and treatment infrastructure, and new water-main capacity. The notice does not state whether customer rates will rise or fall, and it does not announce construction, a start date or a completion date.

Environmental review and public comments

ADEM issued a categorical exclusion from further environmental review under the state review process cited in the notice. The agency also established a formal written-comment period for the project.

Written comments were due within 30 days of the April 1 notice. That period gives residents and other interested parties an opportunity to submit written input on the proposed drinking-water improvements through ADEM’s stated process.

The funding announcement makes assistance available and identifies the project’s planned components, but it is not an announcement that the work has been completed. The next identified public step is the 30-day comment period associated with ADEM’s notice.