MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it is ending a settlement agreement regarding wastewater problems in a rural Alabama county where most residents are Black, closing an environmental justice probe launched by the Biden administration.
Justice Department officials said they were ending the agreement reached with the state regarding wastewater issues in Lowndes County. Federal officials said the decision follows President Donald Trump’s executive order forbidding federal agencies from pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“President Trump made it clear: Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria,” the statement said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in February issued a memo rescinding a Biden-era directive to prioritize environmental justice cases.
Wastewater sanitation issues are well-documented in Lowndes County. Poverty, inadequate infrastructure and a type of soil that makes it difficult for traditional septic tanks to work have sometimes left some residents with sewage in their yards.
The Justice Department in 2023 said its probe found Alabama engaged in a pattern of inaction and neglect regarding the risks of raw sewage for county residents. The Alabama Department of Public Health agreed to take several steps as part of the settlement, including not fining people with inadequate home systems, creating a comprehensive plan for the region and other steps.
The agreement was the result of the Justice Department’s first environmental justice investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat whose district includes the county, criticized the decision to end the agreement.
“It was about addressing a public health crisis that has forced generations of children and families to endure the health hazards of living in proximity to raw sewage, as the DOJ itself documented,” Sewell said.
She said that the Trump administration “has put its blatant disregard for the health of my constituents on full display.”
Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama’s state health officer, said his department will continue its work in the region. But he noted that work and efforts to help install new septic systems at homes is dependent upon federal and state funding. American Rescue Plan funds helped provide money for new septic system installations.
“It doesn’t change our intent to help as many people as possible,” Harris said. “The real question is going to be what the funding situation looks like.”
Catherine Flowers, an activist who brought attention to the problem in the county, said wastewater sanitation is a problem in many rural areas.
“I pray that today’s action means that this administration will make sanitation a priority for all who are affected throughout rural America,” Flowers said.
