Much of Marion has been without running water since early Friday, Nov. 21, and as of press time Sunday large parts of the city were still dry, with businesses closed, residents hauling bottled water, and local officials scrambling to arrange emergency supplies days before Thanksgiving.
The City of Marion first warned customers of trouble early Friday, in a public notice about a “10-inch water line break on Fikes Ferry Road” that could cause low pressure or a temporary loss of service in surrounding neighborhoods.
A day later, the city issued a broader “Water Service Alert,” saying that disruptions were being caused by two separate problems: a damaged primary pump and filtration component that had been removed and sent off for emergency repair, and a major leak somewhere in the distribution system that crews were still trying to locate and fix. The city told residents that the combination of the two failures was producing “low to no water pressure in many areas” and urged those who still had water to conserve it while work continued.
By the weekend, many residents had no water at all. Local restaurants began announcing closures on social media, some bluntly blaming the city’s inability to provide “daily necessities” and warning customers that they could not open without running water. Other posts from residents described long lines at water giveaways and said even bottled water was in short supply at times.
Perry County Commission chairman Albert Turner Jr. said Saturday that he had directed the county’s emergency management director, DeAndre Kimbrough, to coordinate an emergency response, including transportation for local dialysis patients and efforts to secure truckloads of bottled water. Turner said he had spent the morning working with the dialysis center to ensure patients could travel to Demopolis for life-saving treatments, and that the city and county highway department would work together on distribution once water was available.
On Sunday morning Turner announced a water distribution event for that afternoon at the parking lot of Sowing Seeds of Hope in Marion. He said the State Emergency Management Agency was sending 40 pallets of bottled water, with a local trucking company volunteering to haul the shipment into town. Volunteers were asked to gather shortly after noon to help unload and hand out water. Turner also said a second distribution was planned for Monday, and that city and county officials had “finally agreed to hook up the systems” so that water from county wells could be routed directly into Marion’s system, bypassing the city’s treatment plant while repairs continue.
City officials have also said a boil-water notice will be issued once service is restored, out of what Turner described as “an abundance of caution.” Residents are being told to expect that advisory in addition to the bottled-water distributions taking place Sunday and Monday.
The outage comes at a difficult time. Thanksgiving is Thursday, and many households are expecting out-of-town guests. Several residents posting online over the weekend said they were worried about how they would cook, clean, or even flush toilets if service is not restored soon. Others expressed frustration that the latest crisis was happening despite years of promises and millions of dollars in state and federal funding earmarked for Marion’s water system.
According to documents from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the City of Marion has been approved for just over $2 million in drinking-water infrastructure funding through the state’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, using federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The “Critical Needs Water Infrastructure Improvements Project – Phase 1” is intended to upgrade the city’s water treatment plant and distribution system to address items in a state compliance order, including improvements to flocculation, chemical treatment and sedimentation, and rehabilitation of aging lines.
In addition to that project, ADEM records show Marion was awarded a separate $145,000 grant for financial audits tied to its water system, and the Perry County Water Authority received nearly $1.9 million for its own water system improvements. Taken together, more than $4 million in ARPA-related drinking water money has been committed to Marion and Perry County in recent years.
The long-awaited upgrades have moved slowly. In 2023, ADEM listed Marion’s project in its statewide drinking water plan, noting that the city proposed treatment plant and distribution improvements specifically “to address items listed in a compliance order” issued by the agency.
By mid-2024, Marion officials had begun opening bids for phases of the work, including replacement and rehabilitation of certain portions of the system. Meanwhile, the city has continued to experience frequent service disruptions. In early 2024, a broken pump left many residents with little or no water for days, prompting emergency bottled water distributions and outside media coverage.
At that time, city leaders and state officials pointed to the ADEM-funded projects as the long-term solution to Marion’s chronic water problems.
Nearly a year later, though, the latest outage has renewed questions from residents about how long it will take for those promises to translate into reliable service at the tap. Many comments on social media this weekend suggested a growing impatience, with some business owners saying they were losing income and customers every time the city’s water system fails.
Not all of the online reaction has been critical. Some posts have praised Marion’s water department employees for working around the clock and thanked city crews and outside contractors for braving bad conditions to hunt for leaks and install repairs. Others have urged neighbors to be patient and to check on elderly residents who may not be able to stand in line for bottled water.
Still, the pattern of recurring outages, now arriving in the days before a major holiday, has underscored how fragile the city’s system remains even as the multi-million-dollar upgrade effort is underway. City officials have said they will provide more detailed updates as repairs progress and as plans for connecting county water into Marion’s system are finalized.
For now, residents are being told to conserve any water they still have, prepare to boil tap water once pressure returns, and rely on bottled water from the distribution sites. With Thanksgiving only days away, many here are hoping that this latest crisis will be resolved quickly, and that the long-promised upgrade and repair work will eventually put an end to the cycle of emergency notices, dry taps and long lines for bottled water.
