The Department of Justice announced April 11 that it will immediately end an investigation into Alabama and Lowndes County public health departments’ discrimination against Black residents in policies and practices regarding sanitation.
The move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order banning federal agencies from pursuing initiatives and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
A year ago, the Department of Justice found evidence that, in Lowndes County, people did not have access to proper sewage systems, leaving residents to use straight-line piping, an illegal method that often deposits raw sewage a short distance from the home.
A Montgomery Advertiser project by Hadley Hitson revealed that 80% of Lowndes County homes lack reliable sewage systems.
A straight line sewage pipe from a home in Farmersville, Ala., is seen as Congresswomen Terri Sewell takes a group of engineering and health experts to homes with sewage problems in rural Lowndes County on Monday, July 30, 2018.
“For generations, Black, rural residents of Lowndes County have lacked access to basic sanitation services, and as a result, these residents have been exposed to raw sewage in their neighborhoods, their yards, their playgrounds, their schools and even inside their own homes,” said Kristen Clarke, the former assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. “They’ve had to deal with sickness, disease and public health risks that result from their reliance on straight piping.”
Under Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is abandoning this investigation.
“The DOJ will no longer push environmental justice as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” said Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general 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.”
More: Previous Coverage DOJ finds evidence of discrimination in Lowndes County environmental justice investigation
Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser’s education reporter. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @gladlyalex.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Justice Department ends probe into sewage problems in Lowndes County
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