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Montgomery Academy remains unbeaten

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2023 | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

SPORTS, 1C

Meet the people behind `Zits' and `Blondie'

Inside: Read profiles of "Zits" artist Jim Borgman and "Blondie" author Dean Young.

EPA INVESTIGATES

Agency denies discrimination allegations

Hadley Hitson

Montgomery Advertiser | USA TODAY NETWORK

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opened an investigation into the Alabama Department of Environmental Management on Tuesday, specifically analyzing whether ADEM discriminated against communities of color in its distribution of funds for wastewater infrastructure.

An ADEM spokesperson said there has been no discrimination, and the agency asserts that disadvantaged Black Belt areas received funding at three times the rate of other areas in 2022.

This investigation comes after decades of publicity surrounding the severe lack of adequate wastewater management systems throughout Alabama's Black

Belt. There are hundreds of homes in the region that don't have working septic tanks, and many of them either continue to use the tanks in disrepair or resort to a method called straight piping. Both actions can result in puddles of raw sewage dangerously near the living quarters.

For years, politicians would tour the homes of Alabamians managing their wastewater without proper infrastructure, and some cities and townships would receive bits of support from government entities or nonprofits. But when environmental justice activist Catherine Coleman Flowers published her book "Waste" in 2020, even more of a spotlight shone on the issue, particularly in the area where Flowers is from in

See ALLEGATIONS, Page 3A

Activist Catherine Coleman Flowers, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Lowndes resident Aquilla Grant and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu stand behind a pool of raw sewage in Grant's backyard.

HADLEY HITSON/MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER

Breaking a trend

INSIDE SUBSCRIBER-EXCLUSIVE

SPECIAL SECTION

TRUE CRIME

Cases that Shocked America

Montgomery City Councilman Oronde Mitchell is shown inspecting blight in his district. There are about 800 blighted properties in Montgomery. MICKEY WELSH /ADVERTISER

Montgomery neighborhoods struggle to handle blighted properties

Alex Gladden Montgomery Advertiser | USA TODAY NETWORK

Deborah Neal became involved in the fight to reduce blight when Montgomery County Commissioner Isaiah Sankey took

her on a tour of his district, the most financially strained district in the county. h "I was appalled when I saw what looked

like third-world country neighborhoods, boarded-up homes, dilapidated

properties that people lived in, no proper sewer drainage for water runoff. I

thought I had turned the clock back probably 50, 60 years when I saw that," Neal said. h Sankey, who grew up in Newtown, is deeply familiar with the

issue of blight in Montgomery neighborhoods and would like to see the city

and county take measures to stop it.

See BLIGHT, Page 3A

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