Trump administration kills landmark pollution settlement in majority-Black county | Alabama

the Trump administration Kill a teacher of civil civil rights colony Require Alabama To address Raw sewage pollution In the black majority, the residential areas southwest of Montgomery, and its rejection as a “illegal” agreement for diversity, shares and integration (Dei).

The decision may condemn the low -income persons in the province of Lowndes, about 40 miles southwest of Montgomery, to continue to live indefinitely without or failing to infrastructure.

Over the course of recent decades, the insecure wastewater has flowed from the toilets of some population to their squares because the government has not provided an infrastructure for sanitation, and the residents have not been able to afford the costs of sewage systems. The sewage systems in the area failed to reserve during the rain, causing the roof of raw sewage in squares, and some residents have dug a trench to try to drain them away from their homes.

Local officials did not help, instead, threatened the residents who did not prove new systems with the judicial seizure or the property. The Biden Administration negotiated the settlement Alabama Officials in mid -2013, using federal civil rights rules to solve environmental injustice for the first time.

“We will not pay” environmental justice “anymore as it is seen through a distorted lens,” said the Assistant Prosecutor of the US Department of Justice, Harrett Delon, said. “President Trump explained: The Americans deserve a government committed to serving each individual with dignity and respect, and to spend on taxpayers resources according to the national interest, not arbitrary standards.”

The advertisement comes yet Donald TrumpThe executive thing that prohibits federal agencies to follow up on initiatives and programs related to diversity, fairness and integration.

At least 300 families and about 80 % of sewage systems were affected It is able to fail In the area. The area is more than 70 % black.

“We are very concerned,” said Catherine Flapers, an environmentalist and environmental activist who was born and brought up in Lundes Province, but is now working on this issue from Hinsville. Flaor said that failure in wastewater is not just a problem here, but throughout America. “The question is: Do Trump administration Will this make this priority? “

The Ministry of Health said that it will continue to work with the residents to fix the problem as long as the financing is available, but this is still a question. Lowndes sits in the “Black Belt” in the country, and many who struggle in rural or non -listed areas, where the poverty rate is about 30 %.

Soil similar to the clay in this part of the country makes the area not suitable for water drainage; Most of the houses in Lowndes are not a drug addict for municipal sewage lines, instead dependent on costly sewage systems.

Many residents are facing serious health risks. An independent study In 2017 I found a ring wormWhich has been largely eliminated in the United States. The Ministry of Justice in 2021 Opening the investigation After years of complaints, and with the increase in floods with the climate crisis. She found that local officials “failed to take meaningful measures to treat these conditions” and often left the population to their motivation for themselves.

“The situation has nothing to do with DEI”.

“It comes to basic human rights, basic water rights, basic sanitation rights, and everyone deserves it – has nothing to do with a single group,” Stox.

In some cases, “I threatened the residents of Lowndes with criminal penalties and even a possible loss of property for sanitation conditions, they had no ability to mitigate,” the Ministry of Justice found.

Christine Clark, a former lawyer at the Ministry of Justice, said when the deal was announced:

Alabama’s health officials agreed to a set of procedures to treat this situation, and made great progress in some of them. In December, the agency issued a plan that called for the installation of 60 sewage system by the end of 2026. This goal is now a question.

in Statement of local mediaThe Ministry of Public Health in Alabama said: “The installation of the sewage systems and the relevant infrastructure outside the authority or the responsibilities granted on ADPH under the state law.

“However, ADPH will continue to work with sub -researchers to install sewage systems … until the allocated financing ends,” continued. After that, it will provide “technical assistance to other organizations that may choose to engage in this work.”

Among those who work with the local population Sindi Lauri, the executive director of Alabama Rivers Alliance. The Guardian newspaper told that all funding so far has come largely through federal roads, and “there is not enough money to cover the need.” There are no charitable groups.

“They feel as if they were forgotten,” said the flowers in Lowndes.

“They pray and hope that the program and financing will continue,” said Flores.