HAYNEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said an environmental justice probe found Alabama engaged in a pattern of inaction and neglect regarding the risks of raw sewage for residents in an impoverished Alabama county and announced a settlement agreement with the state.
The departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced the results of the environmental justice probe and a settlement agreement with state health officials to address longstanding wastewater sanitation problems in Lowndes County, a high-poverty county between Selma and Montgomery.
The agreement is the result of the department’s first environmental justice investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it will not be the last, because the “fight for environmental justice is an urgent one” and the impacts of climate crisis have exacerbated the health risks faced by marginalized communities.
“For generations, Black rural residents of Lowndes County have lacked access to basic sanitation services. And as a result, these residents have been exposed to raw sewage in their neighborhoods, their yards, their playgrounds, schools and even inside their own homes,” Clarke said.
The Department of Justice did not accuse the state of violating federal civil rights law but said it found two areas of concern: The potential use of fines to punish people with inadequate home systems and what it called inadequate action to assess and address the potential health risks from raw sewage.