DOJ, City of Houston, Settle Environmental Justice Case over Illegal Dumping
The Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement agreement with the city of Houston, Texas, over the city’s response to illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
The agreement in the environmental justice investigation adds new protections to fight illegal dumping and improves waste management services for resident across Houston.
“Houston’s illegal dumpsites have contaminated water and soil, attracted vermin and created blight in historically under-resourced neighborhoods across the city,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division. “This agreement will ensure that Houston fully addresses chronic illegal dumpsites, provides access to adequate waste management services and improves quality of life in communities of color.”
The investigation started in July 2022, after DOJ received a complaint alleging that the city was discriminating against Black and Latino residents of the Trinity/Houston Gardens neighborhood in northeast Houston.
Investigators reviewed the city’s efforts to address illegal dumping, which DOJ called “a persistent and pervasive problem that occurs more frequently in the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods.”
In particular, investigators looked at whether the way the city responded to requests for municipal services violated civil rights law, particularly Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin in their federally funded programs and activities.”
Houston’s Response
Since the probe began, the city of Houston initiated its own action plan. In March 2023, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the One Clean Houston initiative which focuses on rapid cleanup, better enforcement, prevention, and education.
In addition to confirming the city’s commitment to One Clean Houston, the agreement establishes the following:
· A three-year period of federal monitoring.
· Data reporting obligations.
· Enhanced community outreach with impacted neighborhoods.
· Consideration of illegal actions to fight commercial sources of illegal dumping.
· Federal civil rights training for certain city employees.
DOJ’s Focus on Environmental Justice
DOJ says the Houston settlement is the second environmental justice settlement under federal civil rights statutes. In May, DOJ announced a resolution of its environment justice investigation into the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department over wastewater disposal and management in Lowndes County.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has made focusing on environmental justice one of the department’s priorities. In May 2022, DOJ established the Office of Environmental Justice and launched a new environmental justice enforcement strategy.
“Although violations of our environmental laws can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities, and low-income communities often bear the brunt of the harm caused by environmental crime, pollution, and climate change,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in announcing the initiative.