The City of Tuscaloosa has over 700 plus miles of sewer collection lines with 66 active lift stations and over 12,000 manholes. The Water & Sewer Department also operates the Hilliard N. Fletcher Water Resource Recovery Facility, which treats over 17 million gallons of wastewater each day. The Water & Sewer Department provides uninterrupted clean water and sewer services to Tuscaloosa residents.
Additionally, the collections network of the Water & Sewer Department has a robust maintenance plan which includes acoustic pipe inspection, closed-circuit TV pipe inspection, gravity line maintenance cleaning, gravity line replacement, system point repairs, manhole inspection, manhole rehabilitation, system smoke testing, and a formal Fats, Oils & Grease (FOG) program.
Finally, an achievement that the department is especially proud of is reducing the number of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) per year to a fraction of what it was in previous years. SSOs have been reduced by over 80% since 2009. This improvement is primarily due to the increased frequency of sewer manhole and line inspection, cleaning, and rehabilitation, combined with the formalized FOG program.
Sanitary Sewer Overflow Notice
Date: 7/2/2024
Discharge: 1,500 gallons approximately
Location: Enterprise Ave NE & Halsey Cir NE
Latitude: 33.302359
Longitude: -87.497886
Destination: SD to UT to Lake Tuscaloosa
Cause: Damaged by Contractor
Failure: City crews responded to the intersection where they found a broken sewer forcemain. It was determined that the line was broken by a third party contractor. City contractors were dispatched and made repairs to the line which ended the discharge. Crews disinfected affected areas and SSO signage is in place. Volume was calculated via field observation. The Tuscaloosa County Health Department and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management have been notified.