"In 2023, Alabama settled a civil rights complaint alleging that the state was discriminating against Black residents by not providing adequate sewage treatment in a poor, rural county. A year later, slow progress is being made to close the gap."

"HOPE HULL, Ala.—Sherry Bradley beams with pride as a three-stage wastewater filtration system about two-thirds the length of a Volkswagen bus is lowered into the ground beside a mobile home in Lowndes County.

“It’s a Fuji Clean,” she said, pointing out the various components, including the large black settling tanks, and the gray, submarine-looking filter apparatus that comes next in the chain.

The system is the fifth of its kind being installed in Lowndes County, which has become the flashpoint in a new civil rights struggle: the battle for effective sanitation in minority communities.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation into whether the state of Alabama was discriminating against Black residents of Lowndes County by not providing them with adequate wastewater treatment options."

Dennis Pillion reports for Inside Climate News October 12, 2024. [2]