FORT DEPOSIT, Ala. — The constituents at Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell’s town hall in Lowndes County on Wednesday all seemed to want to know the same thing: How did the congresswoman plan to combat their problems with wastewater treatment?
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice terminated a settlement agreement with the Alabama Department of Public Health to resolve sewage issues in Lowndes County, a predominantly Black county near Montgomery. The agreement was reached in 2023 under the Biden administration and addressed wastewater issues that go back decades and had long drawn national attention because of the health risks associated with them.
But the Trump administration announced it was ending the agreement in order to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive actions targeting “environmental justice.”
Sewell said that in doing so, the Trump administration made it clear that “they have a disregard for the constituents that I represent,” calling it “unacceptable.”
“It’s absolutely outrageous and cruel without support from the Trump administration, it is vital that Alabama’s Department of Public Health continue to do its part to remedy this injustice,” Sewell said to mass applause in the auditorium of a government building of this rural town that makes up part of the state’s Black Belt.
Due to the dense clay soil in the region, many residents in the county have septic tanks that don’t work, or have no sewage treatment option at all. One of the common areas the issue persists in the state is in rural homes, too far away to access the county and city sewer lines. Many of those residents have turned to straight piping, a practice that involves the pumping of untreated raw sewage into the environment that can result in pools of it building up in residents’ lawns.
Perman Hardy, 66, who attended Sewell’s town hall and said she’s lived in Lowndes County her whole life, believes these conditions have contributed to family members growing up with health complications like bronchitis and asthma.
“So my grandkid had to grow up when it rained, you cannot go to the bathroom,” Hardy said. “You cannot if it rained three days, you got to go to a straight-pipe house or go somewhere and use the bathroom. You can’t use it because [sewage is] gonna come back in the house.”
The agreement entered into by the Biden administration was the first to follow an environmental justice investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It in part required the Alabama Department of Public Health “to stop imposing fines, fees, penalties and threatening liens on residents of Lowndes County who cannot afford functioning septic systems,” according to remarks made by then-Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke announcing the agreement.
Now that the agreement has ended, Alabama’s health department has said it won’t return to penalizing residents. But that may not be enough to alleviate residents’ concerns. Lowndes County resident Bettie Rudolph, who attended the town hall, told NOTUS she worried the fear of repercussions from asking for state’s assistance with sewage could return.
“[Trust issues] are probably gonna come back immediately,” Rudolph said. “Some of them don’t know and don’t understand where to go, who to talk to, and again, who to trust.”
Lowndes County resident Thomas Ellis, who’s part of the Lowndes County Economic Development Commission, told NOTUS he hasn’t had any problems with his own septic tank. However, he said he’s concerned about the effect that terminating the agreement could have on the county’s economy.
“Businesses won’t locate in our area without wastewater already being here,” Ellis said. “And of course, education is important, health care is important, but wastewater really is the first thing that impacts us being able to get businesses here so we can get jobs for people.”
Lowndes County resident Debra Washington told NOTUS that she has friends and relatives who have had issues with their septic tanks and that people left to live with raw sewage in their yards is “unacceptable.”
At other town halls, lawmakers have been peppered with questions about the Republican agenda, including the future of the Department of Education and the threat of cuts to Medicaid. That was true at Sewell’s town hall Wednesday as well, but as Sewell’s staff fielded questions, her district director acknowledged that many of them were about wastewater treatment.
During the town hall, one constituent asked why the Justice Department’s agreement with the Alabama Department of Health was “considered illegal or a DEI program by the federal government, and if there are other programs at risk of being terminated under DEI?”
Sewell responded by explaining to her constituents how Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have targeted diversity, and that it’s important they “push back.”
As a result of Democrats being out of power in Washington, Sewell is limited in what she can do to address the issue. Any legislation that Sewell wants to get passed in Congress would require bipartisan support.
She also told her audience that she wants to prevent the $1.5 million the county received from the 2018 Rural Septic Tank Access Act from being cut by the Trump administration.
“Know that your congresswoman is going to fight like hell to hold on to the money that we’ve appropriated for the wastewater treatment right here in Lowndes County,” Sewell said, “throughout the Black Belt, and make sure that they have hands off our money for a water system.”
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Torrence Banks is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.