Wastewater failures for Lowndes County’s Black residents at center of DOJ investigation
A sign welcomes visitors to Lowndes County in White Hall, Alabama. The U.S. Department of Justice opened an environmental justice investigation in November 2021 into the Lowndes County Health Department, along with the Alabama Department of Public Health, for their wastewater disposal and infectious disease and outbreaks programs.
The U.S. Department of Justice is opening up an investigation into the Alabama Department of Public Health and Lowndes County Health Department over concerns that the wastewater systems in rural Alabama discriminate against poor Black residents.
The investigation, opened Tuesday, is looking into the health departments’ wastewater disposal and infectious disease and outbreaks programs.
In a press release, the department said it is examining whether ADPH and LCHD are violating Civil Rights Law and whether the departments’ policies have reduced Lowndes County’s Black residents’ access to sufficient sewage and water systems and increased their exposure to harmful infections associated with poor wastewater management, such as hookworm — an intestinal parasite widely eliminated elsewhere in the U.S.
Lowndes County, where the population is largely poor and Black, has had complaints of poor infrastructure leading to raw sewage pooling in residents’ yards or backing up into their homes.
“Sanitation is a basic human need, and no one in the United States should be exposed to risk of illness and other serious harm because of inadequate access to safe and effective sewage management,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the press release. “State and local health officials are obligated, under federal civil rights laws, to protect the health and safety of all their residents.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 blocks recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color or national origin. The probe into Lowndes County’s sanitation systems is the department’s first Title VI environmental justice investigation for one of its funding recipients. No conclusions have yet been drawn.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, WWNO in New Orleans and NPR.
Federal judge declines to order Trump officials to recover deleted Signal messages
The watchdog group American Oversight had asked a federal judge to order top national security officials to preserve any messages they may have sent on the private messaging app Signal.
Welcome to summer: U.S. braces for first significant heat wave of the new season
For many Americans, high humidity will make it feel in the triple digits. The National Weather Service is urging people to prepare to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat.
Trump says he’s close to ‘a Deal’ with Harvard, as judge grants injunction
Trump's Truth Social comments came as a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that would continue blocking the president's efforts to bar international students from attending Harvard.
Trump is no stranger to setting 2-week deadlines. Here’s how others have played out
Since his first term, Trump has promised action on everything from tax legislation to health care within a fortnight — only for his announcements to materialize months later or not at all.
A man is charged with attempting to kidnap Memphis Mayor Paul Young
Police say Trenton Abston, 25, came to Mayor Paul Young's home armed with a Taser. Officers allegedly found rope and duct tape in his car.
Voice of America gutted by Trump adviser Kari Lake
The Trump administration is slashing jobs at Voice of America's parent agency by 85%. Journalists who have risked their freedom to report for the broadcaster wonder what happens next.