DOJ announces environmental justice probe in Alabama county

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an environmental justice investigation in Lowndes County, Alabama, where longstanding wastewater problems have been sending raw sewage into yards and houses. The deparment’s civil rights division is leading the probe, which will look for evidence of racial bias in the management of federally funded state and local health departments. The question is whether Black residents of Lowndes County have unjustifiably borne the risk of hookworm infections and other adverse health effects associated with inadequate wastewater treatment. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said sanitation is a basic human need.