Alabama Voices: Two million Americans are in a water crisis; some of them are your neighbors
November 22, 2019
Catherine Flowers and George McGraw – Special to the Advertiser Originally Published 9:00 AM EST Nov 22, 2019 to the Montgomery Advertiser Scenes from Lowndes County, where only 20 percent of homes are connected to sewer systems. In the Black Belt running through Alabama and Mississippi, the dark, clay soil that gives the area its name is notorious for causing water woes. Rainwater pools on the ground, because it can’t penetrate the dense soil. So does sewage. In Bibb County, for instance, municipal wastewater is pumped into a lagoon where it should evaporate. When it rains, that wastewater overflows from the