Let's shed some light on sewage!

 

I truly want to thank the city for such a beautiful display of lighting under the bridge over Jack Warner Parkway. It really highlights the underbelly of the bridge but I'm not sure why.

Green-ways and parks are crucial to the health and well being of communities. They give people places to go and feel like they are in nature even if it is surrounded by a concrete jungle. 

Green is good except when it is the color of local streams and ditches at some of Tuscaloosa's most chronic sewage overflows. They are a lot more frequent and voluminous than most people might imagine.Since I first engaged with the city sewer department there have been many promises of improvement but very little follow through beyond words on paper and campaign commitments.

I admit that the city has improved in some areas of sewage overflows and we thank them for the robust notification system that was put in place even if it has fallen off in recent months. Most of the really meaningful changes to the system, at least in the Hurricane Creek watershed only came after notices of federal lawsuits in 1999 and 2000 demanding that generators be placed at chronically failing lift stations. Actually there was a lot of change right after that. City leaders made all sorts of promises to deal with the sewage overflows in more rural areas draining into the Hurricane Creek basin. Those promises have still not been honored for the most part and the some of the sites that were chronic then still are today.

I can't remember exactly when I met Jarrod Milligan but he had just been named Tuscaloosa's new sewer head. He called me into his office and wanted to "work on common problems" within the system. My major complaints from 2005 were brought up again when I met Jarrod. Many of them still exist.

For those who may not know. Sewage all flows down hill along naturally occurring drainage's like creek beds when possible. It's called gravity flow. When it reaches a low point and can not continue, there are large pumping stations (Lift Stations) which collect the sewage and force feed it into another line leading back to the treatment plant under pressure. Lift stations are our major source of chronic, ongoing overflows but not the only source.

Pump trucks line up to haul sewage away

I told Milligan about Lift station 10 on Keens Mill Road and how it had been ongoing problem for years. He said it was "High on the list of priorities". 

It still hasn't been repaired and is responsible for more than 950,000 gallons of raw sewage being discharged in the last 5 years of the permit according to their own reporting. Those discharges come into Hurricane Creek just above the public park on Hwy 216. In many of these cases there was vary little public notice and no report when it was clear for swimming.

Vacuum truck spreads sewage onto Keens Mill Drive

 

 

Trucks can be seen regularly overfilled and slopping raw sewage onto the roadways.

 

 

 

The standard procedure for LS10 overflows is to take it to the Eastwood Middle School and dump it in a manhole right outside of the faculty entrance. As you can see in the video clip attached, they dumped it out and left. No signage or disinfectant. 

Sewage debris outside faculty entrance

 

 

Photos up close show sewage debris left in the street in the direct path of what I was told is the faculty entrance. Did anyone notify the school? There is no signage warning people to avoid contact.

 

 

JVC site, 2019. Sewage debris hangs out of cover

Not far from this location is the old JVC plant. It is closed now but the sewer line still belches sewage into a wetland of Cottondale Creek. There is no lift station associated with this chronic source of pollution but it is so severe it can't be ignored. I have had conversations with Mr. Milligan about this one and sent him photos of sewage debris laying all over the ground. He sent a crew out there within 2 days to pick up the debris and I appreciate that. However, it's not my job to inspect the lines and report to the city and ask them to do their job! 

JVC overflow. Feces and other debris on ground

 

What started out as something I have bragged about has fallen into the category of more broken promises. For all the praise I gave them for the notices, I wish I could now recant. Over the 5 year period of the city permit, there have been 1,530,848 gallons of sewage "self reported" just in the Hurricane Creek basin from only 4 of our discharge sites. That does not take in the entire Black Warrior River.

JVC site 09/25/22 Ecoli level "too numerous to count"

 This failure is both preventable and absolutely not allowed under the current permit. It has only been reported as losing 6,300 gallons but I know for a fact there has been more.  Just recently I found sewage standing all around the manhole but no signage, cleanup and or disinfectant and more importantly, no rain in over 3 weeks. There had been NO email notice as promised under the new "robust notification" alert procedure. It wasn't reported and has ignored for years.

 Lift Station 42 on Hargrove Road is another another chronic site which was was one of the earlier discussions I had with Mr. Milligan. I actually engaged the city long before then but this article will cover mostly the permit period of the last 5 years. For the sake of history let me say that this site has been the subject of many discussions with city officials dating back to Mayor Dupont. It was built decades ago for the capacity at that time. Since then there have been several subdivisions permitted and added to the system by city planners with no regard for the overloading of the infrastructure. The system is simply overloaded and in spite of all the promises, it can't be fixed without a major overhaul in my opinion. Besides the overflows from this site in the amount of 110,500 gallons over 5 years there is the H2S gas problem .

Hydrogen Sulfide is one of the most corrosive gasses known. It also is a carcinogen. There have been a few news stories in recent years about the neighbors petition to "fix" the problem. The fix would be humorous if it wasn't so pitiful. The first fix was to hang balls of deodorant which resembled huge toilet pucks!

Toilet pucks installed for odor. No effect on H2S

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toilet pucks installed for odor. No effect on H2S

Toilet pucks installed for odor. No effect on H2S

The odor devices may mask the odor but do nothing at all for neutralizing the H2S gas. As stated above this gas is extremely caustic as well as carcinogenic. There is a very strong odor associated with H2S which has been described as "rotten eggs" or something dead rotting. While the city did take action after the 33/40 stories ran, it was not the only problem, which I will go into later. Nothing the city did will address the air discharge of the corrosive gas.   

 

 

 

 

Look at the photo taken in 2016 and take note of the fence condition. 

Now look at the same fence taken this year, 2022. In only 6 years, the H2S has eaten the galvanized steel fence. Even the galvanized poles have rotted through. Photos I have taken show the degradation of the galvanized chain link fence from H2S corrosion. It has literally rusted the steel away to a pile of dust! PEOPLE have been breathing the same gas that ate this fence in only 6 years!

 I am not sure what this new device does BUT does it stop the H2S escape? STOP rigging symptoms and fix the inundated infrastructure. It's obsolete and no amount of rigging is going to magically give it more capacity. 

There's more.

 

Residents live only 300 feet away

 Lift station 40 in the Brookwood area was built to service Mercedes when it was built. Since then there have been many spin-off businesses built which again has over taxed the infrastructure. I started getting calls from residents about odor. It was the old familiar "rotten eggs" or "something dead rotting".

 

I first used a drone to find the location where the smell was coming from. It turned out to be yet another H2S gas problem. When I saw the first photos of the site I was puzzled by the deep holes surrounding the pumps wet well. They are all on the side of Little Hurricane Creek.

Lift station 40 is not an old pump station. It was built right on the bank of Little Hurricane Creek in an area that had to be back-filled. The deep holes I saw were subsidence and washed out base from overflows. You can see from the photo that the concrete slab on the right is hanging in the air. It was not built like that. The dirt or fill material that was there when it was built has long ago washed away and into the creek. 

Look closely at the photo on the left and you can see that the concrete slab on top has about a 1 inch gap between the well and the top slab. That is where the overflows come from and the smell when it's pumping. In a more recent event, on 09/25/22, I was able to get a drone overhead while an overflow was ongoing. I was surprised at the amount of sewage flowing into the creek. If you watch the video clip included here you can see sewage flowing out of 2 places under the top slab.

If you watch the video clip below you can see for yourself the volume coming from the site and entering the creek. According to the city incident report it was only 1,000 gallons. I seriously question the validity of that claim. The pump truck showed up on scene at about 1:01 P.M. and started pumping at about 1:07. I later followed the truck back to the sewage plant taking 28 minutes to make the trip with no stops so it stands to reason that it took that long to get there. That makes it at LEAST 35 minutes from the time they left the plant. That's just drive time. (TURN SOUND OFF)

 

 

At one time the city had the most robust notification system in the state. I even endorsed it and bragged to my other Waterkeepers Alabama group that it could be used as a model. That is no longer true. I feel like we have fallen back several years and can no longer count on the city's notification system. Case in point: right across the creek from that sign through the woods is a small community who have lived there long before the sewage pumps were installed. They have NEVER been notified of any sewage issues behind their houses unless I tell them. 

 

The city notices claim that "The affected area was cleaned and disinfected. Signage is in place." That was once true but I ask you to look at some of these photos taken 5 days after the last dumping into Little Hurricane. I did see them with back pack sprayers I took for disinfectant but as far as cleanup? It had not been completed 5 days later.

                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

Remember what I said above about H2S gas? That is the smell that inundates the neighborhood with poisonous gas. Here again, at lift station 40 in a few short years the gas has rotted the galvanized fencing to the ground!

Please understand that this article only covers 4 of the more chronic discharges in the Hurricane Creek watershed alone. During the last 5 years of their permit the city has dumped 1,708,693 gallons of raw sewage into the Hurricane Creek basin, according to their own self reported figures. There are many more in the basin and hundreds more in the Black Warrior River basin. For me to get excited about spending 60 million+ for pretty lights downtown is impossible as long as I know that money would have been better spent or repairing the outlying decrepit infrastructure. I know the city will cry about "that's another pot of money" but I have seen this administration shift funding in the past to facilitate special projects by council people and the mayor. 

No more promises! Fix this chronic and ongoing violation of the permit, AL0022713 . Go to the ADEM E-file and click the water category and then type in the permit just as written. It is filled with self reported overflow reports. I personally do not trust their figures. I sincerely believe they underestimate most incidents based on my observations. 

Let's shed some light on the sewage issue. I am calling on all concerned citizens who are on the Tuscaloosa city sewer collection system to document the conditions around your neighborhood. If you see something say something to me and I will investigate and document what is going on throughout the entire city collection system if possible. I am especially interested in issues facing Hurricane Creek and it's tributaries. Send me an email to hccreekkeeper@gmail.com 

If the politicians who allow this to continue won't change their politics, then we must change the politicians!