The U.S. Justice Department has terminated an agreement reached in 2023 to remedy decades of harm to residents of Lowndes County, Alabama, from the county’s ongoing sanitation crisis.
Nearly two years ago, the department reached an interim settlement with the Alabama Department of Public Health after an 18-month federal investigation found that Black and low-income Lowndes County residents have lacked access to basic sanitation services for generations.
As a result of systemic neglect by state and local officials, investigators found that as many as 80% of residents lack reliable sewage systems in Lowndes County, where nearly three-quarters of residents are Black and nearly a third live below the poverty line.
“[T]hese residents have been exposed to raw sewage in their neighborhoods, their yards, their playgrounds, schools and even inside their own homes,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in 2023. “Today starts a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Alabama, who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long.”
Residents have struggled with disease and public health risks from raw sewage rarely seen in the U.S., including hookworm and other tropical parasites that can cause developmental delays in children, the investigation found.
In addition to failing to provide basic services to Black and low-income residents, the investigation found that local officials had “threatened residents of Lowndes County with criminal penalties and even potential property loss for sanitation conditions they did not have the capacity to alleviate.”
The agreement required ADPH to implement reforms, such as not arresting residents for being unable to afford a new septic system, working with CDC to address public health risks, and developing a long-term public health and infrastructure improvement plan to improve access to adequate sanitation.
On the first anniversary of the agreement, ADPH said it had started a program to install new septic systems and was using information from a federal assessment tool to prioritize installation or repair at the most-at-risk residences. And in December, it issued a plan to install approximately 60 septic systems by the end of 2026, “under ideal circumstances and based on current funding.”
But on April 11, the Justice Department abruptly terminated the settlement agreement as part of what the administration said was an effort “to eradicate illegal DEI preferences and environmental justice across the government and in the private sector.”
ADPH told AL.com that installing sanitation systems is outside its funding responsibilities, but it will continue working on installation of septic systems until the previous funding expires. After that, a spokesman said, the department will “provide technical assistance to other organizations that may choose to engage in this work.”
EJI Rural Development Manager Catherine Coleman Flowers, who grew up in Lowndes County, filed the civil rights complaint that led to the historic agreement. She is concerned that Alabama could reinstate arrests and fines for people who cannot afford to comply with sanitation laws.
“With the agreement in place, there were no arrests. People tend to forget that when I started doing this work back in 2002, they were actually arresting people who could not afford working septic systems,” she told Capital B. “I pray that does not happen again—they don’t criminalize people, as opposed to trying to help them find meaningful solutions to treat wastewater, to protect their health and the public health as well.”
Ensuring resilient and sustainable sanitation is a nationwide problem, and she called on the administration to “make sanitation a priority for all who are affected throughout rural America.”
“We have heard from people throughout rural America where their systems are failing,” she told Capital B. “The soil does not discriminate there. There’s no DEI in soil.”