Across the U.S., wastewater and sanitation systems are failing, contaminating water supplies and harming ecosystems. 

Many rural areas across the country, such as the Black Belt region in Alabama, do not have access to sewers and centralized wastewater treatment offered through public utilities. The vast majority of septic systems in this region function poorly or are failing due to factors such as unsuitable soil conditions, seasonal flooding and rising temperatures.

This project is piloting a new approach to wastewater treatment in rural Alabama to demonstrate that improved wastewater treatment technologies and management models can yield health, economic and environmental benefits for rural communities in the U.S. The project is testing and scaling wastewater treatment systems in several communities in the region. These systems will connect neighboring homes and businesses on a single system that collects, treats and re-uses water, reducing upkeep costs. The project will collect data before and after the systems are installed  to measure the health and environmental impact of improved wastewater treatment.

The project will also guide communities and local governments across the United States on how to use newly-available public funding to improve their wastewater infrastructure. It will work to identify the wastewater technology best suited to different communities based on factors like soil, geography and existing wastewater systems. It will also create metrics to identify under-resourced communities across the United States most urgently in need of improved wastewater systems to ensure that federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency effectively allocate public funding to them.

The project aims to provide immediate benefits to households at the pilot sites, including demonstrable improvements in public health and a reduction in toxic discharges to the environment. It will also provide a model for transitioning to more resilient and sustainable wastewater infrastructure, which could be deployed throughout Alabama and the U.S.

In Partnership With:

• Black Belt Community Foundation
• Consortium for Alabama Rural Water & Wastewater
• Rural Studio, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University
• University of Alabama
• University of California, Irvine
• University of North Carolina
• University of South Alabama