ADEM issued the notice July 16, 2026. It identifies the site as Ashville Texaco, located at 36950 Highway 231 W. in Ashville, Alabama, and requires IRA Phillips Inc. to implement a corrective action plan for remediation.

What changed at the site

The notice places a named Ashville fuel facility under state environmental remediation requirements. The action is a requirement to carry out a corrective action plan; it is not a record showing that cleanup has already been completed.

ADEM’s St. Clair County environmental-record listing also records the Ashville Texaco underground-storage-tank matter and dates the related permit or notice activity to July 2026. Together, the records establish the state’s formal response to the reported soil or groundwater impact at the property.

For people who live, work or conduct business near the Highway 231 site, the practical significance is that the property is now subject to a required remediation response. The source packet says that response may involve environmental monitoring, cleanup activity and additional public information about potential contamination. The available records do not document that those activities have begun.

What the records do not establish

The ADEM materials do not identify the contaminant involved, measured concentrations or the size of any contamination plume. They also do not identify affected wells or say whether drinking-water supplies are affected.

The notice does not establish that residents were exposed or that drinking water is unsafe. No sampling result or health-agency finding supporting either conclusion appears in the approved records.

The notice also should not be described as proof of a newly occurring spill. It documents required corrective action, but the available material does not necessarily identify when the release occurred.

Next step for the operator

IRA Phillips Inc. is required to implement the corrective action plan for the Ashville Texaco site. That is the next known action in the record.

The approved documents do not provide a further public deadline for the plan, a cleanup completion date or the operator’s current remediation status. They also do not include site sampling results. Any assessment of the contamination’s extent or its effect on nearby wells would require information not provided in the current record.

ADEM’s July 16, 2026, public notice names IRA Phillips, Inc., of Gadsden, as the party required to implement the plan. The agency identifies the site as Facility I.D. 12534-115-011417 and the incident as UST22-09-07.

What ADEM’s notice says

The notice states that the release from an underground storage tank resulted in soil and/or groundwater remediation requirements. ADEM lists remediation by in-situ injection as the proposed method.

In-situ injection generally refers to treating affected material at the site by injecting a remediation substance or amendment underground. The public notice does not identify the substance, treatment volume, injection locations, monitoring-well requirements or projected completion date. Those details would need to be confirmed in the full Corrective Action Plan and related records.

Public-comment deadline

ADEM’s notice allowed written comments and written requests for a public meeting within 15 days following the notice’s publication date. The notice is dated July 16, 2026, so that 15-day period would ordinarily have expired by August 3, 2026. The notice says a public-meeting request must state the nature of the issues proposed to be raised.

ADEM says copies of the Corrective Action Plan are available through its public-notice system and for inspection at the agency’s Montgomery office. The agency’s UST corrective-action page also says the public may search scanned file material by incident number or arrange a file review with the department.

What happens next

ADEM’s program information describes a general sequence that can include preliminary and secondary investigations, groundwater monitoring, risk assessment, preparation and implementation of a corrective-action plan, and eventual issuance of a no-further-action letter if requirements are met. That general sequence does not establish which steps have been completed at Ashville Texaco.

The July 16 notice records a required plan and a proposed treatment approach. It does not establish that cleanup has been completed, that construction or injection work has begun, or that ADEM has issued a no-further-action determination.

What the notice does not establish

The notice does not say that Ashville Texaco is closed or that fuel sales must stop. It does not declare an immediate public-health emergency, and it does not establish that contamination has reached private wells, drinking water, nearby homes, waterways or public property.

The main accountability questions for future updates are whether IRA Phillips implements the Corrective Action Plan, what monitoring ADEM requires, whether the agency reports additional site findings and whether ADEM eventually determines that no further corrective action is needed.

Sources

• ADEM Ashville Texaco corrective-action notice, July 16, 2026

Hearing details (and the written-comment deadline)

ADEM’s notice says the public hearing will be held in the Main Hearing Room at the ADEM Central Office, 1400 Coliseum Boulevard, Montgomery.

• Hearing date/time: Tuesday, July 7, 2026, 10:00 a.m.
• Written comments deadline: Comments must be received by the Hearing Officer prior to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, 2026

The notice also emphasizes that attendance isn’t required to provide data, views, and arguments—written submissions can be made by the deadline.

What rules are being proposed for change

According to ADEM’s public notice, the proposal would address fee schedules and related structure in:

• Division 335-1 (General Administration)
• Division 335-6 (Water Quality Program Volume II)

CPI-U cost adjustments: why this matters for budgeting

A central part of the proposal is an annual cost adjustment concept for certain application fees based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)—specifically the “All Items – U.S. City Average” measure maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In plain terms: the fee framework described in the rule text is designed to allow fee changes to track inflation over time, not just remain fixed.

ADEM also proposes changes to specific fee-related rules within Division 335-1, including adjustments and clarifications connected to permit application fees.

New “Other Fees” chapter and UST fee language re-organization

In addition, the notice says ADEM proposes adding a new chapter—335-1-8 (“Other Fees”)—that would cover items such as disposal fees, underground storage tank fees, and provisions for worthless instruments.

For underground storage tanks, ADEM’s notice also says revisions to Division 335-6-15 would remove the tank fee amount from Division 6 and instead add references to Division 1 for the yearly underground storage tank regulation fee. That kind of re-organization can change how UST requirements are referenced in the administrative code (even if the underlying fee concept remains tied to the same annual obligation).

What Demopolis-area stakeholders should do next

• Confirm applicability: The rulemaking is statewide, but it is listed for Marengo County on ADEM’s county schedule (Demopolis is in Marengo County). Review the proposed rule text to see whether your facility’s permitting/registration situation ties into the Division 335-1 or 335-6 fee provisions being amended.
• Plan for inflation-based adjustments: Because the notice describes a CPI-U-based adjustment approach, budgeting may need to account for fee updates over time—not only for whatever fee levels exist today.
• Consider submitting comments by 5 p.m.: If you believe the proposal’s fee structure, applicability, or how UST-related language is organized should be changed, comments must be received by the Hearing Officer before 5:00 p.m. on July 7, 2026.

This is a proposed rule under a public hearing process—not a final adopted fee schedule yet. The final impact depends on what ADEM ultimately adopts after the hearing record closes.

Sources

• ADEM Notice of Public Hearing (Division 335-1 and 335-6 rulemaking; July 7, 2026)