Alabama’s Black Community Frustrated By Slow Progress On Sanitation Equity

Since settling a civil rights complaint over racially discriminatory sewage treatment in 2023, the state has made few changes.

Since settling a civil rights complaint regarding racially discriminatory sewage treatment with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023, Alabama has made frustratingly slow progress in achieving equity in Lowndes County, a historically significant area at the heart of the lawsuit.

According to Inside Climate News, the lack of urgency from the state has inspired the non-profit sector to take initiative.

A non-profit, Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Projects, run by Sherry Bradley, a Black woman, is hoping to speed up the equity that the State of Alabama seems determined to slow walk to the mostly Black and poor population of Lowndes County.

Over a year after the settlement, Alabama has only officially entered the planning stage, and has only signed contracts to begin the installation of up-to-date septic systems which are necessitated by the presence of heavy “red clay” soil in the area.

Lowndes County sits in Alabama’s Black Belt, which, according to the University of Alabama, is an area that has been home to “the richest soil and the poorest people,” a designation that stretches back to the days of slavery.

According to the university, the area typically features “declining populations, a primarily agricultural landscape with low density settlement, high unemployment, poor access to education and medical care, substandard housing, and high rates of crime.”

Due to the widespread poverty in the area, Bradley’s organization settled on a maintenance fee the local residents can afford, $20 a month after asking them directly what they would be comfortable paying.

The systems generally cost $28,000 not including any costs associated with installation like removing trees or upgrading electrical systems, according to Inside Climate News.

In contrast to Bradley’s more boots on the ground approach, the unwieldy bureaucracy of Alabama’s state government is taking a much, much slower pace but one that Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris is pleased with.

According to Harris, the state department’s inexperience in the area of installing septic systems means it has to contract that work out, so companies have to bid on the work, which takes more time.

“We have sanitation engineers who understand how these systems work, but that’s not the same as having people who install them,” Harris told Inside Climate News. “So we’ve contracted out that work, but overseeing big infrastructure projects is not something that we normally have experience with.”

The department has circulated a survey to approximately 10,000 residents in the county, but is waiting for more residents to respond as they analyze the responses they have received.

“It’s a way for us to get some sense of the scale of the project that we have, but also it lets us prioritize people, and understand who’s most at risk and who’s got the greatest need. Because there’s always going to be more need than we have resources to help with,” Harris said.

The Alabama Department of Public Health is required, per its settlement with the DOJ, to provide a Public Health Infrastructure Improvement Plan that has to meet both DOJ and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approval.

According to Harris, that plan should be finalized and submitted for their approval in the near future.

The State of Alabama’s improvements are largely being funded by the Biden-Harris administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, with some outside help from the Lowndes County Unincorporated Wastewater Project, a different non-profit from Bradley’s. They provided $1.5 million for the installation of septic systems.

“We’re just excited to finally see the fruits of all this labor that’s gone on for the past year. DOJ always understood this was going to be subject to funding availability,” Harris said. “We’re asking for what we can get and then making sure that we use responsibly the resources we have. There’s not a hard and fast number [of systems that need to be installed].”