The small town of Uniontown has had a long fight dealing with sewage problems in their community.

The group, Black Belt Citizens (BBC) has been there for the ups and downs of fixing this situation. 

Some highlights this year started on Feb. 23 when the BBC documented a hole in the city’s sprayfield berm allowing sewage to enter Freetown Creek, which runs downstream towards Gee’s Bend.

It was after this that the BBC attended the Uniontown City Council meeting with more than 700 signatures on a petition asking for a new treatment plant and the removal of Sentell Engineering.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) estimated between 750,000 and 1 million gallons of sewage began overflowing on March 18, and the overflow into Freetown Creek is reported to be ongoing.

Numerous other publications have written stories about the problems Uniontown faces and the BBC has been working tirelessly to document problems and keep working to getting the problems fixed.

Residents of Uniontown met July 31, Aug. 9 and Aug. 16 to talk about the sewage crisis, and those present at that meeting came into agreement on common goals.

They agreed that Sentell Engineering should be fired, citing improper management of previous attempts to fix the situation. They want no more toxic wastewater from Arrowhead Landfill in the city’s sewage system, they want no more waste from Southeastern Cheese in the city’s sewage system, they want Harvest Select to be the industry that is sending wastewater to the city’s sewage system. Harvest Select will fund the majority of the needed upgrades and the citizens also decided they want no increases in residential water rates.

They have their goals, and they are making them happen in their community.

On Sept. 17, the BBC will host an urgent program on sewage issues at 4:30 p.m. at Uniontown City Hall auditorium.

They are not stopping.

The citizens in that town have the goals in place that they think will make Uniontown a better place.

We should learn from this group.

Any problem can be fixed with this amount of persistence and working together just like this group does.

Think of the possibilities for this community if we had enough people come together that have the same vision and goals for the city.

While Uniontown has a problem, they are not letting it stop them, they are working to make a difference.

We here have our problems as well, and we should not let that stop us from working to fix things in Selma.