After an investigation into failing sewage systems in Lowndes County, Alabama, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have concluded that the Alabama Department of Public Health and county Health Department engaged in a “consistent pattern of inaction and/or neglect” and despite their awareness of problems “failed to take meaningful actions to remedy” the conditions that disproportionately affected Black residents of the rural community, according to the administration’s findings, which were obtained by NBC News.
As part of the findings, the federal departments have come to an “interim resolution agreement” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act with the state and county agencies that, if followed, would substantially change the way local officials have been dealing with residents who have failing systems or no systems at all and have reported being forced to live amid raw human waste.
According to a 15-page signed contract reviewed by NBC News, the state and county agencies have agreed to take a number of actions, including suspending “enforcement of sanitation laws that could result in criminal charges, fines, jail time, and potential property loss for residents in Lowndes County who lack the means to purchase functioning septic systems.” The departments have also agreed to conduct a survey to figure out which residents need sewage systems or septic tanks and how to prioritize those needs.
Within one year, the state agencies will also be required to create a “plan to improve access to adequate sanitation systems and address public health risks associated with raw sewage exposure,” which many county residents have complained they’ve been dealing with for generations. And Alabama officials have also agreed to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to measure the level of health risks different populations experience from raw sewage exposure and adopt any public health recommendations provided by the federal agency.
The agreement also mandates that the state and county health agencies “consistently engage” with community residents, local government officials, environmental experts and advocates as well as develop a public health awareness campaign to ensure residents receive “critical health and safety information related to raw sewage exposure.” The agencies must also “create or supplement education materials for health care providers for Lowndes County residents, including school-based health centers and community-based organizations, to provide more information on symptoms and illness related to raw sewage exposure.”
On Thursday, Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Melanie Fontes Rainer, the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Civil Rights Office, and other officials will announce the findings and agreement in an afternoon press conference in Alabama.
The move comes after the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services opened a civil rights investigation in November 2021 to assess whether the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department were operating in a manner that discriminates against Black residents. As part of the voluntary interim agreement, the federal departments have agreed to suspend their investigation, which could be reopened if the local agencies do not comply with it.
The effort was part of a growing push by the Justice Department to treat the failure of local governments to deliver adequate services — particularly when it comes to environmental issues — as a possible civil rights violation that should be investigated and litigated.
For years, residents and activists in Lowndes County have demanded help for the community, where many live with raw sewage pooling all over their neighborhoods and yards where children play and adults scrape out a living. Residents have said the lack of advanced, centralized treatment facilities that are common in larger cities has led them to pay for sewage to flow into the lagoons which often emit the foul odor of human waste.
In parts of the county, the plumbing systems in some of the houses are tied into the county system but aren’t working properly, or the connections have failed entirely. Many rely on pumping their sewage into holes in their yards.
In Lowndes County, which is majority Black, the poverty rate is 22 percent, about double the national average. At least 40 percent of homes have inadequate or no sewage systems. As a result, many residents use PVC pipes to carry waste from homes into open holes in the ground, a method known as “straight piping.”
The officials from the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services say the state and local 1health agencies cooperated throughout the investigation and that the agreement puts them on a “path forward towards ensuring the development of equitable and safe wastewater disposal and management systems in Lowndes County.”
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