Year 20 for John Kinney

John Kinney’s 20th Year at Black Warrior Riverkeeper

In 2026 we celebrate John Kinney’s 20th year at Black Warrior Riverkeeper! John, our staff scientist, has been a heroic member of Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s team since 2006. Since much of John’s good work takes place behind the scenes, I recently nominated him for The Alabama Public Service Training Initiative (APSTI)’s 2026 Unsung Heroes awards.

Housed in UAB’s Political Science and Public Administration Department, APSTI was created to advance a more effective, efficient, and responsive public and nonprofit sector by leveraging University expertise on behalf of nonprofit and government employees across the state. I am thrilled, yet not surprised, that APSTI selected John Kinney among its Unsung Heroes!

“While reviewing the nominations, the selection committee was struck by John’s ability to magnify the impact of interns, engaging them in tangible tasks that not only taught them relevant skills but also showed them the mission-related impact of their monitoring,” said Kristin Boggs, Director of APSTI. “That multiplier effect was also evident in his ability to translate important scientific data into actionable steps so that other decision-makers—like government officials, community members and the media—can be more effective in their roles, as well.”

I promoted John to his current position, Staff Scientist, in 2018 when he launched our Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program. Last year, John led our efforts to collect and analyze 825 water samples! John also investigates facilities’ compliance with environmental laws, provides suggestions to government agencies regarding rules and permits, assists with our frequent pollution patrols, and supervises several interns each semester.

John teaches our interns how to find and review polluters’ Discharge Monitoring Reports, giving students an opportunity to be among the first people to learn what various facilities are putting into Alabama’s waterways. John’s interns document the number and nature of Clean Water Act violations in each report. Many of the successful pollution lawsuits we have filed utilize the data interns compiled. Last year, John guided our interns to a new record for our nonprofit: the students reviewed Discharge Monitoring Reports for 844 facilities!

Please consider making a donation of any size to honor John’s 2 decades of hard work: blackwarriorriver.org/support-us/.

For cleaner water,

Charles Scribner
Executive Director

Click this image to read Mary Helene Hall’s 5/4/26 Bham Now article on John Kinney.