Plan won’t end bias in water infrastructure

The images of families wading in standing water are forever indelible on the mind of any Houstonian. With flood water comes property damage, exposure to diseases and viruses, and many more problems. What remains unacknowledged is that these practices have disproportionately burdened neighborhoods with failing wastewater infrastructure and open ditches, primarily those that are majority black and Hispanic.

The city of Houston has long engaged in the inequitable provision of infrastructure between neighborhoods. When it comes to basic needs such as sidewalks, stormwater drainage, or flood protection a strong predictor for the “haves” and “have-nots” is the color of your skin. In fact, the Houston Chronicle highlighted a 2017 Texas Housers study which found that 88 percent of the city’s open stormwater drainage ditches are located in neighborhoods that are majority non-white.

Continuing this decades-long pattern of racially driven, inequitable provision of resources to neighborhoods of color, the city of Houston recently approved a 15-year plan for its wastewater infrastructure that ignores the needs of low-income neighborhoods and segregated neighborhoods of color across town.

The 15-year plan is part of a consent decree between the Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the city of Houston meant to address Houston’s significant Clean Water Act violations in its wastewater program, which were the subject of a federal enforcement action and related lawsuit filed by local environmental organization Bayou City Waterkeeper last year. However, the consent decree, which doesn’t even mention the need to prioritize lower-income neighborhoods or neighborhoods of color, is an insult to the thousands of Houstonians of color who have dealt with a disproportionate share of failing and aging infrastructure.

Because of the significant federal dollars allocated to the city’s infrastructure programs, Houston is required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This prohibits operating federally funded programs or activities in a manner that causes discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of a person’s race, color, or national origin. Under Title VI, the city is prohibited from distinguishing — intentionally or unintentionally — in the quality or quantity of services provided through their programs to any neighborhoods or individuals on the basis of one of these protected characteristics.

Yet, as reported by the Houston Chronicle and Bayou City Waterkeeper, there are numerous examples of lowincome black and Hispanic Houston residents having to bear a disproportionate burden of the thousands of illegal sewage discharges caused by our aging and failing wastewater infrastructure. A 2016 Houston Chronicle article reported that of the “46 city ZIP codes with aboveaverage rates of sewer overflows, twothirds of these areas also have higher poverty rates and larger concentrations of Hispanic or black residents than the city as a whole.”

This consent decree will lock in the city’s wastewater infrastructure spending for a generation. Yet it will do nothing to address the decades of discriminatory practices in the city’s infrastructure resource allocation that have disparately impacted segregated neighborhoods of color. For example, the consent decree does not include low-income residents in its project prioritization matrix, despite this being a common component of consent decrees in other places.

The consent decree needs to ensure that any water rate increases are protective of the low-income neighborhoods of color that have already been forced to spend disproportionate amounts of money, time and energy dealing with failing wastewater infrastructure. It should prioritize repairs and improvements in low-income and racially segregated neighborhoods, and proactively engage with communities through public hearings, neighborhood meetings, or surveys to better understand what residents need to be safe from the financial, emotional, and health concerns associated with sewer overflows.

The public can comment on the consent decree through Nov. 8, and we must call on the city of Houston to take affirmative steps through this consent decree and other policies to ensure that improvements to our wastewater infrastructure overcome the consequences of the generations of neglect with which neighborhoods of color have dealt. (Comments may be submitted by email at pubcomment-ees.enrd@usdoj.gov, or mailed to Assistant Attorney General, U.S. DOJ—ENRD, P.O. Box 7611, Washington, D.C. 20044–7611.)

For decades, black and Hispanic Houstonians have been living with a disproportionate number of sewer overflows because our city has largely failed to ensure that the wastewater infrastructure in their neighborhoods is properly maintained. This consent decree is one opportunity for the city of Houston and Mayor Sylvester Turner to begin repairing the years of discriminatory practices that have led to the inequity we see today.