Please sign this petition as your way of reminding the EPA that its regulatory authority prohibits the federal agency from engaging in intentional discrimination and failing to address unintended discriminatory effects. This is the law, and equal protection is a right that must be upheld for all.
____________________________________
TO:
Michael Regan, EPA Administrator
Regan.Michael@epa.gov
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
AND
Daniel Blackman, EPA, Region 4 Administrator
Blackman.Daniel@epa.gov
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
We the undersigned demand that the EPA enforce the Clean Water Act in all of DeKalb County, GA.
In the County's 2010 consent decree, EPA designated one-third of the county as “priority areas”, cutting the remaining two-thirds of the county out of the legal agreement to stop pollution from sanitary sewage spills. These “non-priority areas” as labeled by EPA make up more than two-thirds of the sewer system with over 1,800 miles of sewer pipes, including the entire navigable length of the South River in DeKalb County and the largest concentration of Black residents in the state. Not surprisingly, most of the sewage spilled from the sewer system is in non-priority areas.
The non-priority language in the consent decree creates a loophole which allows the Clean Water Act to be violated, waterways to be jeopardized, and environmental injustice perpetuated.
Simply put, “non-priority areas” create a loophole that essentially legalizes pollution.
The entire county deserves equal protection under the Clean Water Act. We demand that EPA eliminate sewage spills in all of DeKalb County by eliminating “priority areas” and this offensive language. In our communities, there are no “non-priority” people or waterways. EVERY RIVER and EVERYONE are a priority and deserve equal protection under the law.
It is the responsibility of the EPA to effectively negotiate and enforce consent actions that achieve the goals of the Clean Water Act for all, regardless of race, socio-economic status or geography.
Neither the consent decree nor the modified consent decree, approved in 2021, includes a deadline to repair the sewer system in “non-priority areas,” thus there is no requirement for compliance with the Clean Water Act for these impacted communities.
Administrators Regan and Blackman, you must enforce the Clean Water Act in ALL of DeKalb County, GA.