Drinking Water for Uniontown, Round 7 Delivery
We ask for your support in the seventh drinking water donation drive for Uniontown to be held in Homewood at All Saints Episcopal Church (110 W Hawthorne Road) from Wednesday – Thursday May 12-13.
We will be loading the truck (thanks to Alabama Beverage) on Thursday, May 13, so you are welcome to drive by between 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM that day. We will load directly from your car, and drive the water directly to Uniontown. All Saints Church will also be collecting water on Wednesday, May 12 after 1 PM. One can leave water at the front of the church, at your convenience. All Saints Episcopal Church, Canterbury United Methodist Church, and the Black Belt Citizens group are organizing the event for increased access to clean drinking water. Please donate water in either cases or gallons and just drive by and drop it off! This will be a rain and shine event! Please wear a mask and practice social distancing!
Most Uniontown residents already rely on bottled water for household needs. A survey in 2019 by Black Belt Citizens and Dominican University revealed that 100% of those surveyed purchased bottled water. In 2017, the University of Alabama in Huntsville tested over 50 homes, and lead was found in 20 samples of water. I am including the report from this, but here is a summary:
*Out of 59 samples, 12% were well water 3.5% had lead levels higher than the EPA’s action limit of 15 ppb (range 16.1-51.14), 10,4% had levels higher than the health limit of 5 ppb (range 16.1-51.14) , 10.4% had levels higher than 5 ppb (range 5.17-51.14) and 20& had lead levels higher than the detection limit of 3 ppb (range 3.1.3-5.4).
*ppb = parts per billion
In 2019, Black Belt Citizens acquired a recycling trailer and immediately began recycling plastic bottles. In 2020, we hosted 4 similar events totaling over 1,500 cases. In May of 2020, Coca-Cola Bottling Company United (Birmingham Office) donated cases of bottled water plus 450 recycling bags to Uniontown, so the bottles WILL NOT END UP IN THE LANDFILL – the largest in the state of Alabama! A photo from the May 2020 delivery is attached. In 2021, we hosted 2 similar events totaling over 2,000 cases.
Black Belt Citizens members and partners are actively working towards clean water, advocating for improvements to Uniontown’s sewage and more including community-based recycling! Please participate in this event and or beyond! Thanks to everyone who makes this work possible! I thank you in advance for joining me in this ministry. Please feel free to sustain the efforts here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BlackBeltCitizens.
3.14.2021 Crimson and White “Uniontown is polluted with coal ash. Here’s how some UA students are helping“, https://cw.ua.edu/80979/news/uniontown-is-polluted-with-coal-ash-heres-how-some-ua-students-are-helping/
12.13.2017 UAH News “Two UAH researchers undertake cross-college lead poisoning study of rural Alabama town”, https://www.uah.edu/news/research/two-uah-researchers-undertake-cross-college-lead-poisoning-study-of-rural-alabama-town
8.14.2017 News21 “Crumbling pipes, tainted water plague black communities” https://troubledwater.news21.com/crumbling-pipes-tainted-water-plague-black-communities/
Adam Johnston, Coordinator, Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, 205-847-0835
