Trump Administration Axes 22 Environmental Projects, Leaving Black Southern Communities Exposed to Toxic Threats

The Trump administration’s decision to cancel nearly two dozen environmental and health projects targeting Black communities in the South has been met with anger and despair from residents. According to The Washington Post, “at least 22 efforts across federal agencies… to fix problems like raw sewage leaks, toxic pollution, and chronic flooding affecting southern Black communities have been reversed.” These cuts hit areas already long neglected by the government, stripping critical support from communities that have endured generations of environmental racism.

In rural Lowndes County, Alabama, a $14 million sanitation upgrade was canceled, leaving residents to continue living with raw sewage pooling on their properties a problem that has caused hookworm infections. “We feel left behind again, like so many other times,” said Carmelita Arnold of the Lowndes County Unincorporated Wastewater Program. “I just felt we had more support when we had the DOJ keeping track.”

In Aberdeen Gardens, Virginia a historic Black neighborhood residents lost a $20 million EPA grant to address chronic flooding. Shelton Tucker, a lifelong resident, expressed his frustration: “I’m disappointed. It’s putting politics over the safety of human beings.”

Louisiana’s Cancer Alley saw the reversal of federal support for air quality monitoring, a lawsuit against a chemical company, and a landmark designation that would have protected 22,000 acres of land in Wallace. Joy Banner, an advocate in Wallace, condemned the reversal: “Now some greedy developer is going to come in and still be able to develop that land. DEI is just an easy excuse to target vulnerable communities.”

The administration defended the cancellations as fiscal responsibility. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, “President Trump was given an overwhelming mandate to stop spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars on the left’s radical climate agenda.” But Jen Duggan of the Environmental Integrity Project blasted the move: “It is incredibly cruel, and it is lazy for the Trump administration to destroy and tear down these programs.”

Link: Chicago Defender