Mt. Carmel, an unincorporated community in western Iowa, has a church, parsonage, community center and 39 homes. Each had a septic tank discharging through a common 6-inch clay tile sewer to daylight in a farmer’s field.In 1999, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) condemned the community, but provided no solution. The local U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) office would not fund a lagoon or provide a solution. In 2008, it put the project out to bid, and Dicker-son Mechanical in Colfax, Iowa, won it. Owner George Dickerson Sr. worked with Jim Carroll, P.E., at the USDA to design the
