April 16, 2025 Story by: Editor
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) has issued a statement criticizing the Department of Justice’s decision to terminate an environmental justice agreement with Lowndes County, Alabama.
Justice Department officials ended an agreement reached with the state regarding wastewater issues in Lowndes County. Federal officials said the decision follows President Donald Trump’s executive order forbidding federal agencies from pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“This agreement had nothing to do with DEI,” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) said. “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.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it is ending a settlement agreement regarding wastewater problems in a rural Alabama county where most residents are Black, closing an environmental justice probe launched by the Biden administration.
“Access to adequate wastewater infrastructure is a basic human right,” Rep Sewell said. “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. By terminating the settlement agreement, the Trump Administration has put its blatant disregard for the health of my constituents on full display.”
In November 2021, the DOJ and federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a civil rights investigation into the ADPH’s enforcement of sanitation laws in Lowndes County.
The DOJ, HHS and ADPH reached an “interim resolution agreement” in March 2023 that required ADPH to prioritize properties in Lowndes County for septic and wastewater management systems based on their risk of exposure to raw sewage.
“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “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.”
The program was being implemented by the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program with $3.5 million in federal funds.
However, the DOJ announced that its Civil Rights Division will immediately close the “environmental justice” matter. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in February issued a memo rescinding a Biden-era directive to prioritize environmental justice cases.
Source: Birmingham Times/ AP News
