"Advocates allege the state hindered Black residents from receiving critical federal funds."
"Sewage collecting in crudely dug trenches. Failing septic tanks that send waste bubbling into backyards. These are some of the common sights across Alabama’s Black Belt, a strip of 24 continuous counties blessed with deep fertile soil but long plagued by inadequate wastewater infrastructure and the commensurate parasitic disease.
It’s a problem, advocates say, that the state has the resources to address.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, opened a civil rights probe last week into the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and its implementation of a federal program designed to boost water infrastructure in communities across the country. The decision comes after advocates filed a complaint in March alleging that, for years, the state has hindered Black residents in rural areas from obtaining federal funds to update their wastewater systems.
It’s a region where children play on sewage-laden soil and an overwhelming stench envelops some neighborhoods for weeks on end."
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