MONTGOMERY — State Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Citronelle) presented House Bill 484 to the Alabama House Committee on Transportation, Utilities and Infrastructure on Wednesday that would remove reservoirs on public waterways from the state's list of critical infrastructure facilities.
"This bill is a result of one of our citizens, which is here today, Andy Elsworth, that was arrested for trespassing on a critical infrastructure because of this law, on a public lake, a navigable waterway in Mobile County," Stringer outlined.
The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS) brought charges against Elsworth in September 2025 for fishing on Big Creek Lake. MAWSS closed the lake to boating and fishing in February 2025, saying it needed to protect the "only source" of water for the area's 350,000 residents.
Since then, Stringer and a group of concerned citizens have been fighting to reopen the lake to the public.
"Our state has stocked this lake with over 900,000 bass. The Department of Conservation has said this is a public waterway," Stringer said. "...This bill is going to protect our public's access to public waterways. It's going to help distinguish between true critical infrastructures and public waterways. This bill is going to also prevent the criminalization of just people fishing on our public waterways. It supports outdoors tourism in Alabama while maintaining protection for our actual critical infrastructure."
State Rep. Napoleon Bracy (D-Prichard) argued against the bill in committee, saying that MAWSS has already attempted to make a "good-faith" compromise by allowing outside vendors to operate limited boating and fishing, meaning no privately owned boats would be permitted.
Stringer said that contradicted MAWSS's original reason for closing the lake, which he said was already suspect, given the other ways the lake could currently be contaminated.
"We've got a pipeline that runs under the creek. MAWSS has not tried to do anything to get that moved. The traintrack that carries hazardous material that comes over the lake, they've not tried to sue the railroad or change any of that. The only thing they have done is arrest a citizen for trying to catch a fish," he said.
The Committee approved an amendment by State Rep. Leigh Hulsey (R-Helena) to exclude waterways within 50 miles of the coast from the bill.
However, the bill was carried over at Bracy's request.
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