In recent years, the overwhelming lack of wastewater infrastructure in Lowndes County drew significant attention to rural Alabama. But the straight pipes and flooding sewage doesn’t stop at county lines. 

The rich clay soil that often prevents traditional septic tanks from working in Lowndes extends throughout the Black Belt region, causing the same problems in at least a dozen more counties. 

Columbia World Projects — Columbia University’s international research initiative —  estimates that 90% of septic systems in Alabama’s Black Belt are functioning poorly or failing due to unsuitable soil conditions. 

Upon discovering this long-standing problem, Columbia partnered with Alabama stakeholders like the Consortium for Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater in 2020 to engineer a solution. 

They have completed the bulk of initial work in identifying communities in need and developing affordable technology, and now, Columbia World Projects is launching the second phase of its "Transforming Wastewater Infrastructure in the United States project". 

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The group will install its first working treatment system in Hale County, connect several communities to it, and help towns throughout the region access newly-available federal funding for wastewater infrastructure improvements. 

Project leader and University of Alabama professor Mark Elliott says they hope to accomplish all of this within the next year. 

“I'm really hoping that this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to right these wrongs,” Elliott said. “There are so many communities in the rural Black Belt that have never had adequate wastewater management.”

Once the Hale County system is established, it will serve as a “proof of concept,” so that the group can better predict budgets and timelines for future systems. 

Over the course of the entire project, Elliott expects that the groups will be able to install about five systems at a cost of about $15,000 per home. The costs should be covered by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Columbia World Projects will help communities access. 

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“A big part of it is actually helping them understand how to actually get the money. Most of these governments don't have a great capacity for applying for funding,” Elliott said. 

The Alabama State Legislature voted in January to approve spending $225 million in ARPA funds to help public water and sewer systems with the greatest infrastructure needs. $5 million is designated for “demonstration sewer projects in the Black Belt,” including the Columbia World Projects initiative. 

Since the state made this funding available, at least 398 water and sewer systems in the state have applied for either drinking water or sewer grants — which is more than 37% of all public water and sewer systems in the state.

“This is an historic opportunity to address long standing water and sewer needs to benefit hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of Alabamians,” Alabama Department of Environmental Management Director Lance LeFleur said in a press release. “There is nothing more basic to good health than clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater disposal.”

University of South Alabama professor and fellow project lead Kevin White is playing a key role in communication with various mayors, city councils and county commissioners across the region to help them access these funds.

University of South Alabama professor and fellow project lead Kevin White is playing a key role in communication with various mayors, city councils and county commissioners across the region. 

“The lack of wastewater management in the rural Black Belt is fundamentally a public health issue,” White said in a press release. “It's also about the lack of a critical developed world infrastructure that allows for economic growth and development, environmental protection, and public health protection.”

Elliott said it’s important to note that the Columbia World Projects group is not “competing” with other groups like the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program. In fact, White serves in a leadership role for both projects.  

While the BBUWP mainly focuses on helping Lowndes County and Columbia World Projects is starting in Hale County, they are working toward the same end of addressing the sewage crisis. 

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“The big difference between our two approaches is the BBUWP is doing systems for a single home, and we're doing systems where homes are networked together into a small sewer system,” Elliott said. “Instead of trying to get the wastewater into the ground, we actually move it to a central location and treat it, or we find another existing sewer system that already has responsible management that we can actually connect to physically to take that wastewater.”

Elliott says their first system is expected to go into Hale County this summer.

Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com.