Lagoon systems: wastewater treatment plants in Alabama
142 plants · 55% of the state · 79 MGD reported by 119 plants
Klarifi identifies 142 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants with lagoon systems in Alabama, 55% of the 257 plants in the state (79 MGD reported by 119 plants). The largest is Five Mile Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Fultondale at 11.64 MGD.
Lagoon systems treat wastewater in large earthen ponds over weeks of retention time, with or without mechanical aeration. They serve thousands of small towns because they are cheap to run, but they struggle with ammonia and nutrient limits, fill with sludge over decades and are the plants most often converted or upgraded when a permit is renewed.
The largest lagoons in Alabama
| # | Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | NPDES permit | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five Mile Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | Fultondale | 11.64 | AL0026913 | Jun 2026 | 1 |
| 2 | Albertville Waste Water Treatment Plant | Albertville | 7.76 | AL0020192 | Apr 2027 | 21 |
| 3 | Cypress Creek WWTP | Florence | 6.86 | AL0023884 | Dec 2026 | 4 |
| 4 | Jasper Town Creek WWTP | Jasper | 4.17 | AL0023418 | Sep 2029 | 2 |
| 5 | Turkey Creek WWTP | Pinson | 3.88 | AL0022926 | Jun 2026 | 1 |
| 6 | Phenix City Wastewater Treatment Plant | Phenix City | 3.85 | AL0022209 | Jul 2026 | 244 |
| 7 | Cahaba River Wastewater Treatment Plant | Hoover | 2.98 | ALL023027 | Dec 2030 | 1 |
| 8 | Russellville WWTP | Russellville | 2.63 | AL0027987 | Jul 2027 | 5 |
| 9 | J. E. Ham WWTP | Sylacauga | 2.56 | AL0020001 | Jun 2030 | 0 |
| 10 | City Of Union Springs Utilities Board | Union Springs | 2.43 | AL0060445 | Apr 2026 | 100 |
Contacts and project signals for every plant on this list
Klarifi adds verified decision-maker contacts, permit limits, discharge monitoring data and the capital projects planned in each city, filterable by technology, size and compliance record.
Other technologies in Alabama
Lagoon systems in other states
Lagoon systems in Alabama: questions
Sources and methodology
Flow, permit and violation figures come from the EPA's ICIS-NPDES discharge monitoring records. Population served comes from the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022. Treatment structures are identified by Klarifi's review of aerial imagery, and capital improvement projects are extracted from published municipal budget documents. Violations are counted over the last three years of monitoring reports.
Data refreshed October 26, 2026.
Wastewater terms: WWTP · POTW · Biosolids · Sludge dewatering · Biological nutrient removal · all terms