“All life depends on clean water,” said Mike Clelland, an environmental affairs specialist with Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company. “So we have responsibility for the plants, the animals, the insects, the fish — everything that lives around a body of water really depends on us to help keep it clean.”
That’s why, back in 1999, an Alabama Power employee named Gene Phifer started a community-wide effort to clean debris from the waterways near Gadsden, Alabama. That effort grew into Renew Our Rivers, a program that brings together Southern Company employees and community volunteers to pluck trash and debris out of rivers, lakes, and shorelines across the Southeast.
To date, more than 15 million pounds of trash have been removed by more than 110,000 volunteers.
Watch the video to learn more about this award-winning environmental stewardship program and other efforts by Southern Company to keep local habitats and freshwater environments clean for the species that live there as well as the humans who depend on the drinking water our rivers provide.