EPA Launches Civil Rights Investigation into Alabama Department of Environmental Management Over Sanitation Inequity in Black Communities 

WASHINGTON, DC – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday opened a federal civil rights investigation to examine whether the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has discriminated in its distribution of funding for wastewater infrastructure and withheld resources from communities of color that lack adequate sanitation access. This announcement comes in response to a Title VI civil rights complaint filed against ADEM by the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ) and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), represented by Southern Poverty Law Center.   

“Sanitation is a basic human right that every person in this country, and in the state of Alabama, should have equal access to. Those without proper sanitation access are exposed to illness and serious harm,” said Catherine Coleman Flowers, founder of The Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. “We are hopeful that the EPA’s investigation will result in positive change for any Alabama resident currently relying on a failing onsite sanitation system and for all U.S. communities for whom justice is long overdue.”  

Many Alabama residents—especially in Black communities—lack access to a centralized sewage utility and must rely on expensive individual household onsite sanitation systems, which often fail. Those who cannot afford a functioning onsite system are forced to resort to makeshift straight pipes that discharge raw sewage outdoors. This threatens people’s health, degrades the local environment, and undermines human dignity.  

The Title VI complaint highlights that Alabama’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund could be used to help address sanitation inequity in the state; the purpose of the state revolving fund is to provide communities and individuals with low-cost financing or grants for wastewater projects. But ADEM has adopted policies that make it nearly impossible for people who need help with onsite sanitation to access this money. These policies disproportionately harm Alabama’s Black residents and perpetuate an unconscionable situation.   

“We filed this complaint in the hopes that it would help not only Alabama’s Black Belt counties, but all 67 counties across the state,” said Aaron Colangelo, Chief Litigation Counsel at NRDC. “Alabama disburses tens of millions of dollars every year through the state revolving fund, but they have never awarded a single dollar of that money to people with onsite sanitation needs. We know they can do better.”  

EPA’s investigation will delve deeper into these infrastructure funding practices. Specifically, the agency plans to examine: (1) whether ADEM’s administration of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, including its public engagement and outreach practices, discriminates against residents in the Black Belt region of Alabama on the basis of race; and (2) whether ADEM has and is implementing grievance procedures that provide prompt and fair resolution of discrimination complaints.  

With EPA’s acceptance of the complaint, the agency is also giving ADEM 30 days to respond in writing. 

Background on Alabama’s Use of Federal Funding for Sanitation Needs:  

Alabama has distributed more than one and a half billion dollars in Clean Water State Revolving Fund money since the program’s inception in 1987, but it has never awarded any money through the state revolving fund to support onsite sanitation needs. Onsite systems often fail because of impermeable soil. Broken or failed onsite sanitation systems cause raw sewage to back up into homes or pool outside. This problem will worsen as climate change intensifies, leading to rising water tables and more intense rains, which will increase failure rates for onsite sanitation systems.  

Advocacy groups aren’t asking the state of Alabama to do the impossible. Many other states have successfully set aside state revolving fund money for those with onsite sanitation needs.