NY Times: “For generations, the residents of Lowndes County, Ala. — a rural, mostly Black community bordering Montgomery — have lacked access to adequate sanitation. Many people funnel the sewage from their homes directly into their backyards, where it pools atop the dense, clay-like soil. The area has seen a resurgence of hookworm, which thrives in areas with poor sanitation. The parasite can drain people of their energy and impair cognitive development in children.
Lowndes is hardly the only place in America plagued with sanitation problems, but during the Biden administration, the county’s plight has become a symbol of environmental racism.
In May the Justice Department announced it had reached an interim agreement after an investigation revealed evidence of racial discrimination in the county’s ongoing sanitation crisis. The agreement will require Alabama’s Department of Public Health to stop imposing fines on residents who cannot afford functioning septic systems, and it will develop a plan to improve access to adequate sanitation infrastructure.
By almost any measure, this is a substantive win for environmental justice. The question is whether it will augur a broader change in how the federal government addresses environmental racism.
Activists are hopeful, but for some 30 years, progress has proved elusive.”