Alabama racial discrimination over sanitation stopped

The Biden administration, in a landmark agreement on Thursday, ruled that Alabama authorities discriminated against Black residents by denying access to adequate sewage systems and fining them for sanitation problems beyond their control.

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) agreed to provide basic sanitation services, end exposure to raw sewage and suspend criminal penalties against Lowndes County residents.

Discrimination
Federal probe found Alabama health officials took no action knowing Black Lowndes County has been hit by failing septic facilities. 

They didn’t stop raw sewage bubbling out of the ground into backyards. It in turn led to hookworm intestinal parasites.

First probe
Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits authorities that receive federal grants from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

This was the first-ever Title VI environmental justice probe.

In Lowndes County, a predominantly Black neighborhood, the household income between 2017 and 2021 was $32,000, while nationally it was $69,021.