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: 8/4/2026
Discharge Volume: 100 gallons approximately
Location: 1100 Block of 15th Ct.
Latitude: 33.205136
Longitude: -87.557342
Destination: SD to UT to Cribbs Mill Creek
Cause: Debris
Failure: Wastewater collections crews responded to a MH discharge in the 1100 Block of 15th Ct. Once on site crews utilized a jet truck to remove the blockage and restore flow which ended the discharge. Follow up CCTV inspection is scheduled. The affected spillage areas were cleaned & disinfected, SSO signage was posted. 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