Solutions in Uniontown? U.S. Water Alliance approved for environmental justice project

The city of Uniontown and its water and sewer board have been subject to plenty of lawsuits over the years — including three from the state over water pollution violations. Every one of them points out problems with the town’s wastewater disposal system, and most allege that the Perry County town and its sewer board should be doing more to fix them.

This month, they took a step toward progress.

In a meeting on Oct. 10, the board voted to accept a project proposal from the U.S. Water Alliance to evaluate alternative wastewater disposal options and perform a sewer rate study, which would assess future revenue and expenses. The group said its funding is through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

“Neither USDA or Alabama Rural Water Association objected to the work, so that was a first in the three years I’ve been monitoring the situation I’ve seen that,” Birmingham environmental consultant Lynn Phillips said. “This is the first positive thing I’ve witnessed in Uniontown in a long time.”

The U.S. Water Alliance is a national nonprofit that helps communities sustainably manage their water, which it calls “life’s most precious resource.” As a whole, the group’s mission statement says it aims to “to show in practice how capital investments by local utilities and governments can be guided by community members to improve outcomes.”

The alliance’s director of local engagement and senior advisor for distributed infrastructure, Paula Conolly, said the group first became interested in starting a project in Uniontown because community members reached out asking for some technical assistance with the sewer system.

Instead of the common wastewater treatment plant, Uniontown operates a lagoon system. Essentially, pipes pump sewage into a localized area where solids settle to the bottom and the liquid effluent gets sprayed over a field. In the field is where natural microbes and soils should absorb the effluent and degrade the pathogens. This is the most natural method of wastewater management, but it doesn’t always operate as it should.

In Uniontown, this has led to sewage flowing where it shouldn’t and the resulting pollution lawsuits. The U.S. Water Alliance has worked with several communities across the U.S. on similar issues, and with the permission of the city, it will move forward in Uniontown.

Part of the U.S. Water Alliance’s team attended the board’s October meeting to explain their project.

“Our next steps are to meet with the community to communicate our role in this process and gather input about their needs and priorities,” Connolly said. “We will also engage an engineering firm to review an existing alternatives assessment for Uniontown's wastewater treatment and disposal system and work with the Water and Sewer Board to refine its needs for additional rates and affordability analysis.”

Terry Jackson, project manager for the Uniontown Water and Sewer Board, said he hasn’t been in communication with anyone from the U.S. Water Alliance, but he looks forward to seeing what comes from their study

“They’re going to look and see if our water rates are too low or too high, and they'll present their findings to the board,” he said. “It’s free to the City of Uniontown, so I think it’s going to be some valuable information that comes through. I think they’re going to be upset when they get their findings in. I’ll put it that way.”

The alliance has not yet announced a timeline for its project, but with board approval, its wheels have started turning.

Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser or donate to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: U.S. Water Alliance takes on new wastewater project in rural Uniontown