UNIONTOWN — Citizens of Uniontown are speaking out against the alleged misuse of a $4.8 million grant and loan project to fix the city’s wastewater collection system.

Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, a group made up of Uniontown citizens, held a press conference in front of City Hall Tuesday morning to address what they call a failed attempt to fix the city’s wastewater problems.

“We need to take a stand, and that is what we are doing. We’ve had enough, and it’s come to the point where it is time for us to just stand up and fight,” said Esther Calhoun, president of the group.

According to members of the group, part of the $4.8 million was used to build a second spray field, repair the lagoon and make other repairs that were needed to the wastewater treatment system.

When the second spray field was proposed, citizens tried to warn officials that the project would fail because of the soil at the proposed location.

“As soon as we became aware of the site of the spray field, we started looking into it and complaining to everybody — the mayor, the city council and Sentell Engineering, who picked the spot,” said Ellis Long, the group’s secretary.

After the second spray field was constructed the Alabama Department of Environmental Management ruled it unusable, according to Long.

“[We] tried to prevent the misuse of federal grant money by explaining that this new spray field that was proposed would not work,” said Mary Schaeffer, a member of BBCFHJ.

“Our pleas were ignored by ADEM. The money was wasted, and there is still no plan to protect our streams and our public health from the constant release of pathogens.”

With the proposed solution to the problem out of the picture, citizens are looking for answers from local officials.

“We want our local and county officials to listen to the people and not ignore them. Talk to the people, not at them,” said Ben Eaton, vice president of BBCFHJ. “Work with the people instead of against them so we can stop the Alabama Department of Environmental Management from continuing to allow these problems to keep adding up on Uniontown and communities like Uniontown.”

Phone calls to Uniontown Mayor Jamaal Hunter were not returned, and ADEM wanted time to discuss the allegations before releasing a statement.

The Black Belt Citizens believe their civil rights to clean air and water have been violated because ADEM has allegedly allowed the wastewater problems to continue.

“We don’t have clean air or clean water. We really don’t have our freedom,” Calhoun said. “Right now we see that ADEM doesn’t [care] about what is going on or our local or federal government.”

Ellis and other group members want to see a better plan developed to treat the water.

“They need to treat [the water] or make a new wastewater treatment plant, so we can clean the water sufficiently, so it can be dumped into our local streams,” Ellis said. “Not only has the situation not improved, but it is worse than it was.”

Phone calls to the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday were not returned.