A small Alabama town is getting $23 million to upgrade a sewer system that has been overflowing for years.

The Montgomery Advertiser reported the money is coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reconfigure the city’s wastewater treatment system.Mayor Jamaal Jones says the wastewater in a lagoon near Robert C. Hatch High School is supposed to be treated and piped to a spray field six miles away where grass can absorb the water.

Jones says the 1970s system was designed for a town of less than 1,000 people.

Uniontown has about 3,000 residents and the lagoon and spray field are lakes of half-treated sewage.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby announced the grant, saying failure to invest in community water projects has a bad effect on public health and the economy.
 (Associated Press, copyright 2018)

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