Events

Attendee	Description
Alistair Bebbington	Auburn University
Allen Bowen	USDA
Amal Bakchan	Texas A&M
Andre Ivey	Southern Poverty Law Center
Anniestacia Denton	Moonshot Missions
Avry Prewitt	Auburn University
Bria Hines	Communities Unlimited
Bruce P Stevens	Infiltrator
Chris Bruegge	U.S. EPA
Christine Robinson	Waggoner Engineering
Daniel Yeh	University of South Florida
Dustin Stokes	ADEM
Eva Dillard	Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Jack Slate	Southern Poverty Law Center
Jillian Maxcy-Brown	Auburn University
John Kinney	Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Kate Harrison	Gulf of America Alliance
Kathleen Kirkpatrick	EFCN and The Capacity Collab
Lacey Christian	University of South Alabama
Laura Erban	U.S. EPA
Lynn Broaddus	Broadview Collaborative
Mark Elliott	University of Alabama
Mary Foley	Waggoner Engineering
Mike Webster	Lixil
Olivia Harmon	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pete Sabo	Akin Industries
Sarah Silliman	Columbia World Projects
Sean McKinney	Auburn University
Shari Jones	Black Belt Women Rising
Sherry Bradley	BBUWP
Susannah Cleveland	Senator Katie Britt
Tommy Ricks	Water Finance Exchange
Tonya Nichols	Aquatronox
Victor D’Amato	NC Dept. of Environmental Quality
Wendell H Paris Jr	Black Belt Community Foundation

Agenda Item: Welcome/Website/Publications		Presenter: Dr. Mark Elliott
Discussion: Dr. Mark Elliott welcomed guests and shared the address to the consortium website at https://ruralwastewater.southalabama.edu/. Recent publications were acknowledged: Using Mixed Methods to Explore Socio-Technical Infrastructure Systems, April 2026, Amal Bakchan, Shima Nikkhou, and Michel Kordahi; Environmental pathogen hazards reveal need for improved sanitation infrastructure in Alabama’s Black Belt, April 2026, Olivia A. Harmon, Megan E. J. Lott, Mark Elliott, Emily McGlohn, and Joe Brown; The sewer divide: Challenges and new approaches for closing gaps in U.S. wastewater access, March 2026, Maura Allaire , Shima Nikkhou, Pei-Jyun Lu, and Amal Bakchan; Identifying Priority Research Questions for Decentralized Wastewater, December 2025, Bryan W. Brooks, Timothy Callahan, Jacob K. Stanley, Jamie Holodak, Kevin M. Stroski, Alissa H. Cox, Thomas W. Groves, Anish Jantrania, Jeff C. Moeller, Kris Neset, Christopher Walker, Harry Zhang, Amal Bakchan, Kelly D. Alley, Jim Bell, Allison Blodig, Eric Casey, Donna Cosper, Victor D’Amato, Mark A. Elliott, Greg Graves, Roxanne Groover, Robert Himschoot, Mary G. Lusk, Jillian Maxcy-Brown, David Meints, Rojelio Mejia, Matt Pace, Benjamin J. Ryan, Brian Scheffe, Tom Schimelfenig, June E. Wolfe, and Sara F. Heger; A National Inventory of Onsite Wastewater Treatment System (OWTS) Data, November 2025, Mallory A. Jordan, Mark O. Barnett, Mark A. Elliott, Jillian Maxcy-Brown, and Stephanie R. Rogers; and Shared Failures: Uniting Four Career Pathways to Overcome Decentralized Wastewater Workforce Challenges in Limited-Resource Rural Communities, November 2025, Michel Kordahi, and Amal Bakchan. Mark added that these are great contributions to the literature that members of our group are creating. Most are open access with links to the full article on the Consortium for Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management (CARWW) website, but anyone having trouble accessing the articles can reach out to request the documents. Dr. Mark Elliott added that consortium members recently participated in the Vessel U.S. WASH Convening (water, sanitation, and hygiene) in the U.S., convening in Washington, D.C. and the Gulf of America Alliance Technical Conference, which will be reported on later in the meeting.
Action Items:	Person Responsible:	Deadline:
Request access to publications as needed	All	N/A

Agenda Item: Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program		Presenter: Sherry Bradley
Discussion: Sherry Bradley stated that the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program (BBUWP) has finished their $2.1 million grant through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The grant took 3 years to complete. BBUWP has installed 151 systems in Lowndes County. Additionally, 49 systems have had soil tests, engineer design, and the permit to install. These systems are waiting for more funding. Once funded, there will be 200 total systems installed. Currently, BBUWP has a total of 5.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, but this is to be spread between 11 Black Belt counties (Montgomery, Macon, Bullock, Dallas, Wilcox, Perry, Marengo, Greene, Hale, Sumter, and Choctaw). This is not a lot of systems per county that would be installed, but it’s a beginning. In the project in Lowndes County, BBUWP takes a $20 monthly maintenance fee from the homeowner. In the 11 additional county projects, BBUWP will not be maintaining the systems. BBUWP created a customer service section. Issues arise in installed systems when people put grease or other problematic items into the septic system and park cars on top of the system. BBUWP educates the user on the system at the time of installation, and representatives are occasionally making visits to the homes that have installations through the program to re-educate on caring for the system. The ARPA funds need to be fully expended by the end of this year. Dr. Mark Elliott asked if the systems purchased with the ARPA funds have to be in the ground by the end of the year. Sherry Bradley replied that she thinks so. She contacted the senator just to see if the deadline could be extended by 6 months and is waiting to hear back. Susannah Cleveland with Senator Britt’s office asked Sherry Bradley to send her an email with that information, and she will check with Senator Britt. Dr. Mark Elliott asked that anyone from Congresswoman Sewell’s office or any other federal congressional office is on the line to let it be known if they can help. He also asked if it might be helpful to have organizations like NOWRA or WFX to come together and write a letter requesting more time to spend funds because the work can be very time-consuming, Susannah Cleveland replied that this could be helpful. Sherry Bradley added that BBUWP has 8 level 2 installers and 4 engineers, but it will take more than that in the time allotted. Dr. Mark Elliott also offered to email Jillian Maxcy-Brown who is part of the Alabama Onsite Wastewater Association (AOWA) to see if they could provide additional installers or get AOWA’s support in signing a letter. Additionally, a New York Times article was published a couple days ago about this issue and the termination of the DOJ settlement.
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Senator Britt’s office looking into possible extension of the ARPA expenditure deadline	Susannah Cleveland, Sherry Bradley	End of year

Agenda Item: “The Sewer Divide”		Presenter: Dr. Amal Bakchan
Discussion: Dr. Amal Bakchan, assistant professor at Texas A&M University and part of the team working on Alabama’s wastewater infrastructure issues since 2021 shared a recent publication (https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000525) written with Dr. Maura Allaire from Arizona State University, that specifically focuses on the governance of both planning and the management of decentralized wastewater systems. The paper focuses specifically on all unincorporated communities in the U.S., including issues such as those experienced in the Black Belt, and highlights how wastewater access is closely shaped by governance structure, planning systems, financing mechanisms, and institutional coordination. In many unincorporated communities, the local governments may lack the financial or administrative capacity needed to support the long-term wastewater infrastructure expansion and management. One of the issues is that those communities are outside the city limits or are left outside of these infrastructure planning and management decisions. Another key takeaway is the importance of more integrated or professionally managed approaches to decentralized wastewater service delivery. The study highlights the potential of clustered decentralized wastewater systems as a flexible solution to communities, especially when the sewer expansion may be difficult or very cost prohibitive. This study also emphasizes the role of responsible management entities (and what might be some of the advantages of regionalization, especially for these unincorporated communities), technical assistance programs and their importance, and the stronger state and federal support for these communities on how to move forward with more sustainable solutions.
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Agenda Item: Workforce Development		Presenter: Dr. Bakchan/Dr. Barnett
Discussion: Dr. Amal Bakchan discussed the collaboration between her research lab and Dr. Mark Barnett at Auburn University on workforce development. Another recently published paper (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestwater.5c00978) discusses workforce challenges for the decentralized wastewater industry. There is a shortage of workforce, especially those working on decentralized systems, and especially those in rural communities. This work shows that these challenges are occurring because of shortcomings that emerge at the intersection of many career pathways. What is causing this shortage? It’s because of a lot of problems that are emerging in other career pathways, such as professionals, engineers, planning, regulators. All of us working in the wastewater industry are contributing to having these problems. This study provides some recommendations and strategies to address those problems, shortages, and shortcomings, considering the roles of all the stakeholders and the four career pathways (skilled trade, regulatory, academics, and professionals). When discussing the workforce, there are 3 main pillars: attraction, training, and retention. They have an ongoing collaboration with the Alabama Community College System. There is a task force that was initiated as part of EPA projects and is continuing as part of a USDA project, developing a curriculum to be integrated into the Alabama Community College system. As a part of this effort, there is ongoing data collection nationwide for workforce retention. So far, 130 surveys have been collected. Anyone working on on-site or small community decentralized wastewater systems who would like to participate and provide insight and experience should contact Dr. Amal Bakchan at bakchan@tamu.edu. Dr. Amal Bakchan also provided some updates on the task force. The Alabama Community College System has a program called Skills for Success which provides training in multiple sectors, but they had a lack in wastewater treatment training. Two years ago as part of the EPA project a collaboration with Alabama Medical System was proposed to develop a task force, with members from the academic sector, regulators, operators, engineers, and installers, who all have years of experience, to develop a curriculum for wastewater treatment (centralized and decentralized) to be integrated into the Alabama Community College system. After the EPA project was terminated, this effort was voluntarily continued. Before the end of the year, the curriculum and hands-on activities will be available online. The task force is looking for additional funding sources to provide training and make this more accessible to people within the Alabama Black Belt. Dr. Mark Elliott asked Dr. Amal Bakchan if she has found other funding sources to apply for. Dr. Amal Bakchan replied that there are workforce development funding opportunities, but not specifically for water and wastewater. There are more for auto manufacturing and high-tech industry, but there is one program, the EPA Water and Wastewater Workforce Program, that is specifically for wastewater. This workforce development effort has the curriculum and the partners needed with the community college system, but needs additional funding to start attracting people and high school students to put into these programs. Dr. Mark Elliott asked if Dr. Amal Bakchan would be open to funding in $50,000 range (less than she initially had from the EPA grant that was terminated). Dr. Amal Bakchan replied that they are applying for any amount to expand this work. They are considering a collaboration with employers to cover part of the salaries of the trainees, and need funding to facilitate that. Dr. Mark Elliott opened the floor for additional questions. Pete Sabo, from Indiana, added that he was speaking to the head of wastewater at the Indiana State Department of Health who told him of the history of an ordinance from Purdue University, which used to be very involved with septic research. He added that one of their biggest leaders in researching passed away this past fall. As a land-grant university, Purdue proposed two different bills: one was the point-of-sale inspection and the other was a state bill that would take funds from a variety of resources to funnel that into ongoing research. Additionally, at the state level, Indiana has been very unsuccessful at regulating data center proliferation, but on the hyper-local ordinance level, Indiana has been successful. So local ordinances or a state senator bill could be helpful to obtain small amounts of funding. Dr. Mark Elliott requested that Pete Sabo introduce himself and which organization he is with, adding that we’re thrilled to have people from other states on the call. Pete Sabo introduced himself as a manufacturer on the private industry side with an environmental background from Mountain Justice Campaign, he is also with the Indiana Onsite Wastewater Professionals Association, Environmental Health Organization, and is starting a master’s in Public Health at Indiana University Bloomington. He added that loves seeing the work that is being done in Alabama. Dr. Amal Bakchan highlighted the importance of how losing one person in the industry can have an impact. There are a very limited number of people with expertise in decentralized wastewater. This is one of the topics highlighted in the workforce challenges paper. All interviewees mentioned that even when they have a new graduate, these new graduates are not trained for systems that are appropriate for these small communities.
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Agenda Item: Environmental Pathogen Hazards in the Black Belt		Presenter: Olivia Harmon
Discussion: Olivia Harmon, a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina, shared some information from a newly published paper titled Environmental Pathogen Hazards Reveal Need for Improved Sanitation Infrastructure in Alabama’s Black Belt. The aim of this paper was to understand the scope of the problem and health risks associated with the water and wastewater issues in the Alabama Black Belt. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted in a small-town with limited sanitation infrastructure in 2023. A range of enteric pathogens and environmental samples were measured, and those samples included soil and surface water in public areas, so not at the household level, but in any area around the town that was accessible to the public. The samples were analyzed by multiparallel qPCR, as well as with fecal indicator bacteria, E. coli, and enterococcus by culture. Samples were collected in January, February, and May of 2023 (29 surface water samples and 93 soil samples total). Twenty-four of the surface water samples were cultured for E. coli, and 19 of the soil samples were cultured for E. coli. Twelve of the surface water samples were cultured for Enterococcus, and 19 of the soil samples were cultured for Enterococcus. Twenty-six of the surface water samples and 55 soil samples were run on a custom TAC command array card (this looks at the DNA and RNA in the samples that shows up and looks for 48 different pathogens and source tracking markers). The soil was collected in the field and weighed in 3 different aliquots. One went for a moisture test, one aliquot went back to the University of North Carolina, where the DNA and RNA were extracted for molecular analysis, and one aliquot went to culture via IDEX at two different dilutions for both E. coli and enterococcus. Surface water was collected in the field, then two different aliquots were measured. One was filtered onto a membrane which went back to North Carolina for molecular analysis, and then two different dilutions went to culture via IDEX for E. coli and enterococcus. The soil samples were defined as impacted versus unimpacted. Impacted soil samples were defined based on visual identification and local knowledge. A community member was able to help with the visual identification of where samples near suspected failing septic systems or suspected discharge sites were. Samples were also collected as far away as possible from known or suspected impacted sites, and those were labeled unimpacted. Comparing these impacted and unimpacted soil samples, greater fecal contamination was seen near known suspected discharge sites when compared with these unimpacted or controlled samples, particularly with the culturable E. coli. In all the samples, several different pathogens were detected via qPCR, such as rotavirus and Cryptosporidium, which Mark Elliott just talked about, as well as our microbial source tracker, for human mtDNA. This gives evidence that some of the pathogens could be from human sources. By this study’s definition, all of the surface water samples in this town were impacted. Instead of doing the impacted versus unimpacted comparison here, surface water samples were categorized by spatial context. Localized surface water samples were collected near known discharge points around the community (ditches or temporary puddles), and community samples are collected from bodies of water, such as ponds or streams, and the community that represent the broader environmental conditions. In the community level surface water samples, 88% of the samples were positive for E. coli by culture, and 100% were positive for Enterococcus. Again, Cryptosporidium, adenovirus, and human mtDNA were detected at pretty high concentrations in the community and localized samples at levels comparable to samples taken from a sewage lagoon. No difference was found in the prevalence or the concentration of the enteric pathogens, between impacted and unimpacted areas.
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Agenda Item: Technical Assistance Helps Small Communities – Water Finance Exchange and Moonshot Missions		Presenter: Tommy Ricks, Anniestacia Denton
Discussion: Tommy Ricks, with Water Finance Exchange (WFX), shared the lessons that WFX has learned as a technical assistance (TA) provider in multiple states. There are three key areas, the first being ownership/governance. Who will own, manage, and apply for funding for a wastewater treatment system? The second issue is who will connect to the system. What will the capacity be to serve large farms or industrial sites, and how will these things affect the treatment needs? Will homeowners be required, via local ordinances, to connect if there is a sewer line in front of their home? The third key issue is funding. Tommy Ricks continues by highlighting the importance of proper onsite wastewater treatment for low-population-density areas outside of identified clusters. WFX’s tagline is “No community left behind,” meaning everyone should have the basic right to potable drinking water and sanitary waste disposal. Another recurring theme is economies of scale. Single low-income population clusters of 85 homes are not sustainable on their own, and communities need to work together. Regional solutions are critical. Management entities being eligible to apply for funding is also critical. This is something that TA can help with. It is essential to get contracts/interlocal agreements in place to ensure that sewer bills are paid before starting service. Another critical topic is the Brooks Act on federal acquisition requirements for selecting an engineer and ensuring that federal requirements are being met. Budgeting, board training, and job development were also listed as critical areas. These are all areas where TA is needed. Brent Fewell from WFX added that the opportunities for regionalization are real, and that the economic opportunities, environmental protection, and public health go hand in hand. Brent is stationed in Washington, D.C., and works daily with policymakers to try to remove barriers to opportunities for economic growth and regional development. Anniestacia Denton, with Moonshot Missions, started by sharing lessons learned on the utilities side. Most of Moonshot Mission’s work is with established centralized utilities. Some of the early lessons learned are that some communities might come in with an idea of a capital fix in mid. Funding is short in this industry. Investigation is a key first step to see if there is a way to avoid the capital expense with approaches such as process optimization, piloting chemical additions, or exploring watershed-based solutions where regulations allow. Many systems could use a total replacement of collection systems, which can be cost-prohibitive, so smaller-scale solutions can be a better option, such as manhole retrofitting. Smaller systems are often financially strained, so grants are often what they are looking for instead of a loan, but loans or rate increases often have to be a part of the solution. Building trust with these communities first and doing due diligence towards obtaining grants (e.g., USDA, CDBG, local power companies, regional commissions) is necessary to make these difficult conversations about loans and rate increases easier. Asset management is also a big factor. Funds often aren’t what is needed to cover what needs to be done, so asset management engagements can be helpful, and states are now pushing for this approach. Ongoing maintenance practices can also help to avert additional need for capital costs. Costs can be saved with free mapping software like QGIS, renting low-cost GPS equipment, starting small with spreadsheets for maintenance management, or using lower-tech maintenance management software than the most popular higher-cost options. The importance of workforce development has also been a key lesson learned. In regard to regionalization and consolidation, there are a lot of upsides (e.g., economies of scale, tying in people with failing septic systems), yet challenges exist. Ownership can be a challenge, especially when existing utilities/community leadership are concerned that changes could negatively impact current ratepayers. State regulators and legislators (through funding and regulatory changes) and TA providers (working as facilitators to reduce socio-political issues) can help with regionalization/consolidation solutions. Another lesson learned from one of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Closing America’s Wastewater Gap projects in Virginia is that strategies for prioritization of population clusters are key. An example of this, which can be time and cost-intensive, but is very useful, is direct community surveying. Grassroots local non-profits can be helpful as a trusted entity to assist with the surveying. This data can be added as a layer to maps with health department septic system records and regional planning districts.
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