Rachel Chai is Ph. D student in the System Engineering program at the University of South Alabama. She has done her bachelors and masters in Civil Engineering at the University of South Alabama. Her current research interests include Life Cycle Analysis of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems within the Alabama Black Belt.

Onsite wastewater treatment is used by 25% of the population in the United States of America (USA). Areas that heavily use onsite wastewater are rural areas like the Alabama Black Belt. The Alabama Black Belt can be defined as a 17-county region, which is largely characterized by the sparse population, low economic basis, and vertisol soil layers. Depending on the county, up to 85% of the county’s population uses onsite wastewater systems. The median household income for this region is $29K, which is below the USA’s poverty line at $31K and about half the whole USA’s median household income. Additionally, the vertisol soil layers do not allow water to percolate through the soil layers, often leaving water to pool on the soil surface. This lack of percolation causes most of the traditional onsite wastewater treatment systems to either fail, as effluent pools on the ground's surface. This study aims to determine which onsite wastewater treatment systems are viable and most appropriate for the Alabama Black Belt using a Life Cycle Assessment methodology, given the aforementioned challenges.  Cost, public health concerns, electricity usage, and carbon footprint are the factors inputted into OpenLCA, which are used to assess and determine the appropriateness of each treatment and disposal system. Weighing these factors using a multiple criteria decision analysis tool will allow stakeholders in the Alabama Black Belt to assess and choose the most appropriate treatment and disposal systems based on the available funding, resources, and treatment requirements for the systems.