The Alabama Department of Public Health says it will not resume issuing fines and citations to Lowndes County residents for inadequate sanitation.
www.al.com
04/16/25
The Alabama Department of Public Health says it will not resume issuing fines and citations to Lowndes County residents for inadequate sanitation.
However, residents of the rural county are still left in limbo following the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision last week to
terminate a settlement with ADPH to address sanitation in the county.
“This is going to devastate a lot of people,” said Stephanie Wallace, a resident of Lowndes County and project manager for the nonprofit Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. “It took forever for the help to come, and for it to just be cut off like that… I was shocked.”
Improper sanitation is an issue not just in Lowndes County but
across Alabama’s Black Belt, where dense soil makes it difficult for septic systems to function. Some residents have even resorted to “straight piping” wastewater directly into the ground, an unsafe practice that can lead to health problems as raw sewage can end up in yards.
Prior to the settlement agreement, residents could have faced criminal penalties, including fines and even jail time, for not having adequate sanitation at their home.
But in 2023, the
Justice Department settled with ADPH, agreeing to suspend an investigation into possible civil rights violations in exchange for significant changes: ADPH would stop fining residents for improper sanitation issues and help evaluate proper sanitation systems for Lowndes County residents’ homes.
Following President Donald Trump’s return to office in January, the Justice Department terminated the settlement, in line with Trump’s move to end all initiatives supposedly related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or DEI.
“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in
a news release. “President Trump made it clear: Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.”
Ryan Easterling, a spokesperson for the state health department, previously told AL.com that ADPH would continue to carry out the agreement and install septic systems until funding that has already been appropriated expires.
“After that time, ADPH will support and be available to provide technical assistance to other organizations that may choose to engage in this work,” Easterling said in an email.
As part of the settlement, the department has asked Lowndes County residents with sewage problems to complete a survey to determine the risk to their health.
Residents will not be cited or fined for filling out the assessment, Easterling said.
But the end of the settlement still takes residents dealing with improper sanitation “back to square one,” Wallace said.
Since the settlement was implemented in 2023, the department has worked with the
Lowndes County Unincorporated Wastewater Program, a nonprofit tasked with tackling the county’s wastewater crisis.
The department and the nonprofit have worked to survey county residents and determine the urgency of their wastewater problem, then worked to design a system that matches the geology of their area, Wallace said.
But once the funding runs out, Wallace said, residents that have waited so long for a new septic system, and perhaps completed the necessary steps to receive one, could be left in limbo.
“I’m just waiting to see what the effects will be on local residents. How will ADPH move forward?” Wallace said. “Once the funds run out, are you going to revert back to the old ways?”
Wallace said she hasn’t heard from Lowndes County residents about the end of the settlement. She believes many people in the largely rural county haven’t heard about it yet