Appropriate drinking water and wastewater management infrastructure is key to public health protection, environmental health protection, and economic development in rural areas, just as it is in urban and suburban areas. While improperly-treated and untreated sewage discharges from both municipal systems and individual homes have been documented, there remains a need to address public health threats, water contamination ramifications, and potential solutions to these basic infrastructure needs. Importantly, because of clay soil conditions in the Black Belt region, traditional onsite wastewater systems, such as septic tanks and drain fields, cannot adequately infiltrate wastewater into the ground. These conditions (lack of sewer infrastructure, clay soils, poor economic conditions, etc.) have resulted in the presence of raw sewage on the ground surface at 50% of the rural homes in many Alabama Black Belt counties.  This is an unacceptable public health issue in a broad region of Alabama and the mid-south.