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BBUWP efforts highlighted amid funding cuts

CNN’s Isabel Rosales visited Lowndes County last week. She met with leaders of the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program (BBUWP) and local homeowners to see what has become of efforts to solve the area’s decades-old wastewater disposal problem since the Trump Administration’s executive order to dismantle Biden-era DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) programs.

Rosales stopped in Hayneville, sitting down with BBUWP Executive Director Sherry Bradley and President Perman Hardy at the organization’s office before touring local homes where raw sewage still runs from a straight pipe out of two family homes, down the hill and onto the ground. The feature, aimed at highlighting the continuing need for federal funds to accomplish solutions, aired Friday, May 27 on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 at 7 p.m. CST.

Lowndes County resident Mautree Burke-Clarke showed Rosales around her property, where a failing septic system had collapsed, resulting in sewage that backs up into the home on occasion.

“[Fecal matter] will come back into the house,” Burke-Clarke said. “Sometimes it’ll come through the kitchen sink and then sometimes it’ll come through the bathtubs. The odor is unbearable.

With the cost of a system suited for Lowndes County’s Black Belt soil ranging upwards of $30,000 Burke-Clarke told Rosales she can not afford to replace the failed system. And in the county composed of 72% Black residents with a median household income at just over $35,000 per year, she is not alone.

Calhoun homeowner Willie Perryman welcomed Rosales and BBUWP leaders to see his home, a house-trailer situated on property his grandfather purchased more than six decades ago. Bradley said Perryman, who lives with his wife on the hill also occupied by another family-owned trailer, graciously opened his back yard to the news crew to show CNN viewers the conditions under which some Alabamians live.

While onsite, Bradley took Rosales into Perryman’s back yard where she viewed the puddles of raw sewage emanating from a PVC pipe under the home. According to Hardy, news crew personnel expressed their disbelief that such a situation could exist in 21st century America.

“One of the reporters grew up in the rural part of Ohio,” Hardy said. “He was intrigued about how the situation in Lowndes County, a sewage issue like this, can exist in the 21st century.

“I said, ‘It’s not that the people don’t want to do better. They just can’t afford it and [wouldn’t see improvement] if a program like BBUWP wasn’t there to help.” 

Rosales pointed to President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease “illegal DEI” program funding and the resulting Department of Justice (DOJ) directive to terminate a May 2023 agreement with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) meant to ensure Lowndes County residents received the help they need to safely dispose of wastewater. An $8 million grant meant to benefit eight Black Belt counties including Lowndes and nearby Wilcox counties has fallen to subsequent funding cuts, but Bradley said the work would still continue.

“We were a sub-recipient of a grant to Texas A&M,” Bradley said. “I received an email that the grant had been terminated, but we are still expanding because we have other grants.”

The report has generated renewed interest in supporting BBUWP, which to date has installed 122 systems with another 60 standing ready for installation. Bradley said the Lowndes County’s wastewater problem and the work of those laboring to solve it are being highlighted internationally and donors have connected via the organization’s website to support the efforts.

An article by Edward Maille in the french international publication Reporterre in April is one example of recent attention BBUWP has gained. Maille visited Lowndes County on April 24 and also talked with Perryman, 70, about the pollution puddling in his back yard.

“It’s my urine and my germs that leak,” Perryman told Maille. “I need someone to take care of it. I’m angry because I can’t get help.”

To watch the CNN report, visit cnn.com. Check out the Reporterre article at reporterre.net.