Water security is an emerging area of concern in the US Southeast. Regional policymakers have traditionally managed water for economic gain over concerns for biodiversity and human health, but new governance frameworks are necessary to address the region’s developing water challenges. Climate change has increased the severity of drought and flood which has caused detrimental impacts on Southeastern industrial and agricultural sectors. Urban development poses serious threats to the region’s globally significant freshwater biodiversity. Aging water infrastructure and toxic pollutants have unevenly exposed socially and economically precarious groups to environmental hazards in the US South. Given these various concerns, regional water management stakeholders form a large and sometimes disconnected network of policymakers, conservation scientists, and grassroots environmental organizers. This study synthesizes expert stakeholder input to understand how new policies should balance needs for economic development, biodiversity conservation, and environmental health across these stakeholder groups. I focus this study on Alabama, a state at the center of regional water disputes including the decades-long Tri-State Water Wars and current litigation by environmental justice groups for better state wastewater infrastructure. This study is a qualitative, social science research project. I use semi-structured interviews with an inductive thematic coding analysis to rank key water management priorities in Alabama and synthesize policy recommendations for improved state water management. This analysis builds on studies of hydrosocial territories, a theoretical lens that examines inequities in water quality and access as the result of stakeholders’ competing political, social, environmental, and economic commitments. A critical qualitative approach is necessary because scholarship on Southeastern water governance has generally failed to examine how cultural and ideological norms affect water management practices. This study aims to produce policy recommendations that could enhance freshwater conservation efforts and build equitable water governance in Alabama. Broadly, the project speaks to how conservation social science can help achieve international policy goals of “water justice.”