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 City's formally adopted Fats/Oils/Grease (FOG) Management Program.
Sanitary Sewer Overflow Notice
Date: 8/16/2026
Discharge Volume: 500 gallons approximately
Location: 1400 Block of Cloverdale Rd.
Latitude: 33.199478
Longitude: -87.539794
Destination: SD to UT to Cribbs Mill Creek
Cause: Debris
Failure: Wastewater crews responded to a sewer discharge in the 1400 Block of Cloverdale Rd. Once on-site crews found a private lateral clean out overflowing due to a city line blockage. Crews quickly utilized jet truck to remove the blockage which restored normal flows and ended the discharge. SSO signage is in place. Crews cleaned and disinfected the SSO area. Follow-up CCTV inspection is scheduled. SSO volume and duration were calculated via field observation. The Tuscaloosa County Health Department as well as the Alabama Department of Environmental Management have been notified