Ala. Code § 25-9-62
In any coal mine or coal mines or parts thereof wherein water may have been allowed to accumulate in large and dangerous quantities, putting in danger the adjoining or adjacent coal mines and the lives of the miners working therein, and when such can be tapped and set free and flow by its own gravity to any point of drainage, any operator or person having a mine so endangered, with the approval of the department, may proceed and remove the said danger by driving a drift or drifts protected by bore holes as provided by this chapter, and, in removing said danger, it shall be lawful to drive across property lines if needful. All coal removed in such driving from adjacent lands shall be paid for on the basis of $.25 per ton of 2,000 pounds. No person shall dam or in any way obstruct the flow of water from said mine or parts thereof when so set on any part of its passage to point of drainage.
Ala. Code § 25-9-62 (1975)