The Department of Justice announced Tuesday it is launching a first-of-its-kind environmental justice investigation to probe whether Alabama’s wastewater disposal and disease programs restricted Black residents from services.
“This investigation is historic,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said on a call with reporters. “This marks the Department of Justice’s first Title VI Environmental Justice investigation for one of the department’s federally funded recipients.”
The division will examine whether the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by operating “their on-site wastewater ...