On Monday, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL, invited members of the media, members of government offices and utility experts to Lowndes County to talk about sanitation and public safety for the Black Belt region.

A meeting was held to talk about solutions to septic sanitation from all angles including the management of the sites and how to pay for them.

Money is always an issue, and Sewell is working hard to get money appropriated to fix this problem.

This situation is similar to a situation in Uniontown where $4.4 million was spent to attempt to improve the town’s aging wastewater treatment system.

A wide range of issues with the city’s antiquated treatment systems — including leaking pipes, several instances of wastewater seeping in to nearby creeks and two wastewater spray fields that cannot handle the current water usage levels — left city leaders and engineers looking for a way to pump treated water elsewhere, according to previous Selma Times-Journal reports from 2014.

The problem of wastewater sanitation is a problem that needs to be addressed, and we commend Sewell for taking a stand and tackling this issue in her district.