Poor Majority Black AL County Had Funds To Deal With Raw Sewage Problem, Then Trump Killed Grant - "DEI!!"

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Here in Alabama’s Lowndes county, a majority-Black county with high levels of poverty and a deep civil rights history, an estimated 60% to 80% of households in rural parts do not have a functioning sanitation system. Authorities have known about the raw sewage crisis for decades, which to some extent affects all 67 counties in Alabama. In 2025, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, many people are still forced to depend on PVC pipes to funnel parasite-infested wastewater from the bathroom and kitchen into hand-dug trenches, fields or wooded areas metres from where they sleep, play and grow vegetables.

It’s unclear when or whether the Perryman family will ever get to experience life without the stench of raw sewage after a landmark 2023 civil rights settlement mandating the state to resolve the crisis was terminated by the Trump administration, dismissing it as an “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agreement. As a result, the state is no longer required to resolve this sanitation crisis – or conduct public health campaigns. It could also restart enforcing sanitation laws that threaten residents without a functioning sewage system with fines and jail time – which the justice department settlement strictly forbade.

The decision is part of Donald Trump’s broader assault on all programs, policies and research that seek to tackle systemic and structural inequalities in American life by claiming that they are discriminatory, “woke” and wasteful.

Ripping up the Lowndes county legal settlement puts the onus back on Alabama lawmakers to remedy the sewage crisis, but it’s unclear whether this longstanding public health crisis will be a priority without a federal mandate or funds. “The money’s been taken away so that means we’ve got to wait another one year, two years … We keep hoping for some help, but we’re not getting any younger,” said Thelma Perryman, 74, a retired farmhand who has never lived in a house with a functioning sanitation system.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/13/alabama-raw-sewage-crisis-trump-dei