Mound Bayou Water System Upgrades Bring New Investment to the Delta

Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in Bolivar County, was founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved settlers who built one of the nation’s first self-governed Black towns from 840 acres of Delta timberland. Nearly 140 years later, its roughly 1,500 residents are still relying on water and sewer infrastructure that was never built to last this long.

Mayor Leighton Aldridge has spent his five years in office pursuing grants and low-interest financing for a system that dates largely to the late 1970s.

“With the wastewater, it’s been a struggle because we’ve had sewer backups in homes, businesses and even at our lift stations,” Aldridge said. “Some of those lift stations are more than 20 years old, and they simply weren’t maintained the way they should have been.”

A System Stretched Thin

The city has already replaced its main lift station using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The new station carries wastewater to the city’s lagoon and is sized to handle current demand while allowing for future growth.

On the drinking water side, aging infrastructure has created a different set of problems. Mound Bayou’s primary well has been running around the clock because it cannot build enough pressure on its own. At times, crews have had to bring a backup well online just to keep up.

Mid-South Water estimated repairs to the primary well at roughly $45,000, plus another $10,000 to $15,000 in labor. Meanwhile, aging water lines have required repair after repair. Since taking office in 2021, Aldridge said the city has spent more than $120,000 fixing leaks, only to see increased pressure contribute to failures farther down the same lines.

“It’s been an ongoing cycle,” he said.

Investment Begins to Catch Up

That cycle could soon begin to change.

Mound Bayou secured a 20-year, $5 million loan through Mississippi’s Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) to drill a new well and replace aging water mains. It is a fully forgivable loan.

“I don’t believe Mound Bayou has received this level of infrastructure investment in at least 25 to 30 years,” Aldridge said.

Once the new well is online, the existing primary well can serve as a backup instead of carrying the system around the clock. Aldridge also expects the improvements to help address the brown, mineral-heavy water residents have experienced over the years.

Engineers are finalizing work plan approvals with the state before construction bids can go out, with work expected to continue through 2028.

Technical Assistance Behind the Scenes

Communities Unlimited (CU) has been working in Mound Bayou for some time. But since around 2022, CU’s Community Infrastructure Team has worked with Mayor Aldridge, city staff, the utility operator, engineers and other partners on the technical, managerial and financial work required to strengthen the utility over the long term, part of CU’s broader water and wastewater systems work across the region.

That assistance has included SRF coordination, pre-construction planning, asset management, security vulnerability and emergency response planning, cross-connection control, and rate studies. CU has also helped the city explore financing options for equipment.

Shannon McCranie, CU’s Mississippi State Coordinator, has led much of that work, working with the mayor, city staff, EPA, USDA, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).

The city pursued its new drinking water loan independently, but Aldridge said CU’s technical assistance has helped Mound Bayou build up its capacity.

“Their guidance has helped us better understand the process and positioned us to pursue funding more effectively,” the mayor said.

Extending Sewer Service Beyond Mound Bayou

One of the clearest examples of that work can be found just outside the city limits.

Dunlap is an unincorporated community of about 34 homes next to Mound Bayou. Residents receive drinking water from the city’s system but have never had centralized sewer service. Instead, households have relied on septic systems, some of which have failed and allowed raw sewage to pool in yards.

The area’s persistent poverty has made affordability a central consideration in finding a long-term solution.

Weighing Centralized vs. Decentralized Options

Through the EPA and USDA’s “Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap” initiative, two options were evaluated: extending Mound Bayou’s centralized sewer system into Dunlap or installing advanced decentralized septic systems.

The centralized option offered lower long-term costs and allowed Dunlap to use an existing utility rather than creating a separate entity to oversee and maintain individual systems.

In August 2023, Mound Bayou’s board and Dunlap residents unanimously chose the centralized sewer extension. The city secured $2.7 million through the federal initiative for the project. CU has supported the effort through rate studies, funding paperwork and affordability planning, while Cook Coggin Engineers has handled engineering work.

Aldridge said the Dunlap project is nearing completion. Two other outlying areas still rely on septic systems and could eventually need similar connections.

What Comes Next

The next markers of Mound Bayou’s progress will be new infrastructure in the ground and, eventually, fewer leaks, stronger water pressure and expanded sewer service.

As Mound Bayou moves from planning toward construction, Aldridge said CU’s value has been in remaining alongside the city as one of the partners helping it navigate that process.

“I just appreciate everything Communities Unlimited has done for Mound Bayou,” Aldridge said. “They’ve been there to help guide us, point us in the right direction and support us as we make important decisions for our community. Their assistance has been valuable as we work to restore our infrastructure and get the town back to where it needs to be.”