Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the termination of an environmental justice agreement Friday.  The directive, which follows President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Programs and Preferencing,” immediately ends the May 2023 agreement between the DOJ and the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) meant to ensure Lowndes County residents could live without fear of criminal penalties for not having septic systems that work in Blackbelt soil.

Since the April 11 directive, Lowndes County residents and officials, still grappling with the decades-old wastewater disposal crisis, have expressed concern for the continuance of grants funding recent efforts toward supplying sewage systems to residents. Health department representatives issued this response to those concerns:

“The federal Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have terminated their Interim Resolution Agreement with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) regarding sanitation concerns in Lowndes County,” Ryan Easterling, a spokesperson for ADPH, said in an email. “The installation of sanitation systems and related infrastructure is outside the authority or responsibilities conferred upon ADPH by state law. Nonetheless, ADPH will continue working with subgrantees on installation of septic systems as contemplated by the Interim Resolution Agreement until appropriated funding expires. After that time, ADPH will support and be available to provide technical assistance to other organizations that may choose to engage in this work.”

Trump’s order forbids federal agencies from pursuing programs or initiatives related to DEI, including those related to “environmental justice.”  The agreement closure is one of several recent steps the administration has taken to “eradicate illegal DEI preference and environmental justice across the government and in the private sector,” a Friday media release from the DOJ explained. The department, the release noted, is working quickly to close such cases in compliance with the directive issued by U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “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.”

Catherine Coleman Flowers, founding director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice responded to the news.

“Resilient and sustainable sanitation is a problem in rural communities across the US,” she said. “The people of Lowndes County exposed this issue to the American public. I pray that today’s action means that this administration will make sanitation a priority for all who are affected throughout rural America.”

The DOJ’s agreement with ADPA resulted from an 18-month investigation into the Alabama agency’s response to Lowndes County’s decades-long wastewater disposal crisis. In May 2023, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark announced that the Justice department had reached a voluntary agreement pledging ADPH would suspend criminal penalties and liens for citizens not having proper sewage-disposal systems; examine public health risks within Lowndes County, launch a public health awareness campaign, provide public health educational material for Lowndes County health care providers, conduct assessments to determine appropriate septic and wastewater management systems, create a sustainable and equitable public health and infrastructure improvement plan and consistently engage with the community.

On May 22, 2023, Daria Neal, deputy chief in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, addressed Lowndes County Commissioners to detail the agency’ findings and described the Alabama agency’s consistent pattern of inaction and/or neglect concerning the health risks associated with raw sewage. Citizens express distrust in the ADPH to carry out the terms of the agreement, but Neal assured citizens the federal agency was committed to ensuring Lowndes County citizens could live without fear of criminal penalties for not having septic systems that work in the Blackbelt soil.

One year later, the DOJ announced progress taken to advance sustainable and equitable solutions for onsite wastewater management for Lowndes County residents:

* Selected the first set of residences whose wastewater systems will be installed or repaired for free via a local, not-for-profit entity that will manage ADPH’s Lowndes County Septic System Improvement Program;

* Suspended criminal enforcement of state sanitation laws in Lowndes County against residents without the means to purchase functioning, ADPH-permitted septic systems;

* Conducted a public health information campaign, including the development and dissemination of flyers concerning the health risks associated with exposure to raw sewage, how to mitigate exposure to raw sewage and proper septic system maintenance;

* Launched its Environmental Health Assessment (Assessment) to identify and prioritize residences for septic system installations or repairs based on data analysis of which homes face the most serious environmental and health risks from exposure to raw sewage;

* Created and filled a Lowndes County Community Liaison position and an outreach/grant manager position for Lowndes County and Black Belt communities to oversee implementation of ADPH’s Public Health and Infrastructure Improvement Plan (PHIIP); and

* Submitted the PHIIP, which sets forth plans to avert future public health risks and implement sanitation solutions for the community.

While the direct impact of the settlement termination remains unclear, Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program (BBUWP) Executive Director Sherry Bradley said the program responsible for installing more than 100 residential systems in Lowndes County will proceed with its work.

“I have not received any news officially about [whether] a grant we have would cease,” Bradley said. “The administration in Washington did ask us to look at our language, and we did. They asked us to conform to the language they are looking for, and we did; that was the end of it.

“The BBUWP has several grants that we pull from to install septic tank systems. We have a grant through the [ADPH], but if that grant was taken away today, we still would operate. We’re not looking to slow down. In fact, we are moving ahead with 11 more counties and will start work very soon in those counties.”

 U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) released the following statement in response to the Department of Justice’s termination of the environmental justice agreement in Lowndes County:

“This agreement had nothing to do with DEI. 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. By terminating it, the Trump Administration has put its blatant disregard for the health of my constituents on full display.

“Access to adequate wastewater infrastructure is a basic human right. Without support from the Trump Administration, it is vital that the Alabama Department of Public Health continue to do its part to remedy this injustice. I will continue fighting to address Alabama’s rural wastewater crisis and get our communities the infrastructure they deserve.”