{"id":972,"date":"2024-01-15T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=972"},"modified":"2024-01-15T06:31:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T06:31:05","slug":"riminal-justice_detail_9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=972","title":{"rendered":"CRIMINAL JUSTICE_DETAIL_9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">CRIMINAL JUSTICE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\"><strong><strong>SEPTEMBER 21<\/strong><\/strong>,<strong> 2023<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Are These $2,000 Water Bills Racist?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Decades of disinvestment and failing infrastructure shortchange Black communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:15% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CarnellHenry-900px.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-980 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<ul>\n<li>HENRY CARNELL<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Fellow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"http:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0921_water-bill_2000.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-975\" style=\"width:760px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0921_water-bill_2000.webp 768w, https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0921_water-bill_2000-300x169.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Mother Jones illustration; Getty<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>When Tyrone Pettway<\/strong>&nbsp;saw his water bill in October 2021, he thought it was a typo. The bill was for $2,384.51, some $2,300 more than what he usually owed the Prichard, Alabama, water board every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The document claimed Pettway, his wife, and their five kids had used 167,000 gallons of water over the course of the 34-day billing period, amounting to nearly 5,000 gallons a day. But Pettway was sure they had used no more water that month than they normally did: 3,700 gallons total, or about 18 gallons per person per day\u2014much less than the national average of 82 gallons a day per person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They hired a plumber who said there was no leak on their property. Pettway was not surprised. \u201cIf I had a leak, pushing that kind of water, I would see it somewhere,\u201d\u00a0he told NBC 15 News\u00a0following the incident. \u201cEven if it was underground. It\u2019s going to float up somewhere.\u201d So they disputed the amount. They did not have much choice. Pettway is a self-employed construction worker. He makes enough to provide for his family and\u00a0his community\u2014he builds ramps for free for disabled people\u2014but that\u2019s about it. Instead of acknowledging Pettway\u2019s concerns, however, the Prichard Water Works and Sewage Board sent him a new bill for November, which took his charges and added extra expenses, bringing the cost to almost $3100, according to court records. Pettway again disputed the bill. In response, his water was shut off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was two days before Thanksgiving. The family had to move their holiday plans. They showered at the neighbor\u2019s house and brought in water from outside sources to drink. \u201cIt was an emotional strain,\u201d said Roger Varner, a lawyer who Pettway hired. \u201cYou have to say to your son or daughter, \u2018We have to bathe elsewhere because I can\u2019t afford to provide as a parent.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the technician left, Pettway found Varner, a young Black man and rising star attorney in Mobile, a city seven minutes south of Prichard. Varner had never heard anything about Prichard Water before meeting Pettway. But once he did, 10 other Prichard residents came to him with similar stories. In May, he filed a complaint against Prichard Water for negligence, breach of contract, and deceptive trade practices, among other things. \u201cPrichard is one of the poorest cities in Alabama,\u201d Varner told me, referring to\u00a0the fact\u00a0that 30 percent of the\u00a0nearly 19,000\u00a0residents live in poverty and the median household income is $32,900. \u201cThese are just completely unpayable bills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prichard is not alone in facing astronomical water bills. They are a\u00a0problem\u00a0in communities of color across the country, where repairs of\u00a0decaying infrastructure\u00a0have not kept apace with\u00a0inflation.\u00a0\u201cThese issues are pervasive,\u201d Marccus Hendricks, a professor of urban studies and environmental planning at the University of Maryland,\u00a0told\u00a0the Bloomberg School of Public Health\u2019s podcast last year. \u201cThere are cities, both big and small across the nation that are suffering from infrastructure in disrepair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some argue<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>that<\/strong>\u00a0the trouble with Prichard Water Works &amp; Sewage Board began in early 2018, when members of the board allegedly began embezzling public funds. An early 2022 joint FBI-Mobile sheriff raid found items ranging from Gucci bags to plasma TVs hidden away at the home of Water Board manager Nia Bradley. Further investigation led to Bradley\u2019s arrest and subsequent charges of theft for embezzling as much as $3 million between 2018 and 2021,\u00a0according\u00a0to a local news station. Since then, several other Prichard Water employees have been arrested on similar charges. Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said during a press conference that residents\u2019 high-water bills were also part of the\u00a0investigation,\u00a0<em>AL.com<\/em>\u00a0reported. Ross, the water board\u2019s own attorney,\u00a0called it\u00a0\u201cthe worst case of public corruption I have ever seen.\u201d (Bradley\u2019s lawyers have said some of the purchases were authorized as part of her compensation package and denied the existence of other purchases.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the pipes were falling into disrepair. In the weeks before the raid, Prichard Water asked the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which supervises utilities and enforces environmental policy in the state, to award it over $300 million for infrastructure projects, including repairing leaks. ADEM commented that it was\u00a0the highest ask\u00a0of any Alabama utility. In a statement at that time, ADEM External Affairs Chief Lynn Battle wrote, \u201cADEM will prioritize funding based on financial and engineering needs.\u201d ADEM\u00a0awarded Prichard\u00a0$400,000, about 13 percent of their original request.\u201cThe state of disrepair of Prichard\u2019s water lines cannot be overstated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A later request for funds by Prichard Water to the Alabama\u2019s Department of Environmental Management\u2019s Clean Water State Revolving Fund\u2014made in September 2022, after Bradley and her co-conspirators were off the board\u2014was also denied. In an email to Prichard Water, ADEM stated the utility \u201cfailed to demonstrate the technical, financial and managerial ability to operate and maintain the facilities over the useful life and to repay the loan.\u201d Six months later, the federal government\u00a0filed a complaint\u00a0under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for \u201cwithholding resources from communities of color lacking proper sanitation access.\u201d Despite its fair share of\u00a0sewage problems, Prichard was not included in the complaint, which focused on the\u00a0unique disparities\u00a0in the Black Belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While ADEM was denying Prichard resources, they were also monitoring the dangers of the city\u2019s water system. \u201cThe state of disrepair of Prichard\u2019s water lines cannot be overstated,\u201d the department concluded in a report released this year. They explained that \u201cwith such infrastructure conditions, providing reliable water service remains challenging\u2026a matter that warrants expedited attention for the protection of public health.\u201d But their most notable finding, perhaps, was that between between 2019 and 2022, as much as 60 percent of the water Prichard Water bought to serve residents was lost. ADEM\u2019s recommended system water loss is 15 percent. While some of this is due to expected causes\u2014liked documented water main breaks or water used for fire suppression\u2014the board can\u2019t account for what happened to most of its water, the report concluded. Those losses have cost Prichard Water some $2.7 million per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July, Varner filed a\u00a0class action lawsuit\u00a0on behalf of residents and organizations in Alabama Village, connecting the dots between the water loss and the high bills<strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cPrichard Water Board\u2019s water system has at all material times experienced high levels of water loss due to poor and aging infrastructure,\u201d his case alleges. \u201cThis led to a reduction of water quality for customers and lead to a financial drain on customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ross maintains that the two are not related. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of leakage,\u201d he admitted. But, he insisted, it\u2019s been contained to the Alabama Village area of Prichard, known for having the worst infrastructure in the area. Yet that doesn\u2019t account for the inexplicably high bill at the Pettway home, just 2 miles from Alabama Village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The utility\u2019s solution to the leakages is eliminating Alabama Village as a problem. Prichard Water has threatened to end service to the area entirely and has started the process of eminent domain. \u201cInstead of trying to start to help the people of Alabama Village,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0resident Archie Rankin, \u201cthey want to abandon Alabama Village.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All this trouble has gotten Prichard Water into an even deeper hole. Not only are they being sued by their customers, they are\u00a0being sued by their bank, who are calling on a judge to appoint a receiver to manage the utility. In their suit, Synovus Bank\u00a0alleges\u00a0that Prichard Water is \u201csuffering from gross mismanagement, a lack of fiscal integrity, and endangering public safety by failing to maintain vital system infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For Prichard residents,\u00a0<\/strong>the rising bills are just one problem. The ADEM report notes that \u201cexcessive water loss can adversely affect system pressure, potentially leading to public health concerns that would warrant boil water notices.\u201d It also found several instances where chlorine\u2014which is used to protect against bacteria like E. coli\u2014was at significantly lower levels than the required amount. \u201cPotential for inadequate disinfection is an added concern,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0mayor has claimed the water is safe to drink;\u00a0residents\u00a0are not so sure. Many have begun\u00a0to boil water or buy it bottled. \u201cWe\u2019ve had millions of tons of sewage spilled out in our community,\u201d says local environmental justice activist Carletta Davis, in reference to Prichard\u2019s\u00a0frequent sewage overflows. \u201cIt is our belief that if the infrastructure is so poor, and they\u2019re losing water, then what is stopping the other contaminants from coming into the pipes as well?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis and many others argue that\u00a0Prichard Water\u2019s problems started long before Bradley was using public money to buy Gucci bags. In fact, for Davis, the story is more complicated than \u201cPrichard Water is bad.\u201d While she was one of many who called for Bradley\u2019s ouster, she feels the gutpunch of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Just years before, Davis\u00a0was fighting\u00a0against a leak of Mercaptan, the bad-smelling chemical that is added to natural gas as an alert for leak protection and is\u00a0itself dangerous\u2014it can\u00a0cause\u00a0skin irritation, breathing problems,\u00a0and even comas. The\u00a0leakage went ignored for over 8 years, despite Davis and others\u2019 activism.\u201cThese majority white cities and majority white communities. They\u2019re flooding them with grants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have suffered for years from disinvestment,\u201d Davis said.\u00a0Case in point is the historic redlining in the area, which was once a\u00a0hub\u00a0of industry with its own railroad station. No formal study has been done of lending practices in Prichard, but\u00a0Mapping Inequality, a project of University of Richmond that looks at New Deal era redlining, has documented how, in nearby Mobile, areas with Black residents and business were marked by banks as \u201chazardous\u201d and labeled with notes such as \u201cshould be demolished.\u201d Even today, Mobile is ranked the worst in Alabama for modern-day redlining, a now-illegal lending practice. Black residents are more than 5 times less likely to be approved for a loan than other residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a strong correlation between the value of housing and the potential for community infrastructure. \u201cThe vast majority of spending on local water services in the US is by local governments,\u201d says Erika Smull an advisor at Breckenridge Capitol. \u201cWe live in a country with extreme decentralization of fiscal responsibility for water infrastructure. It is truly the fiscal responsibility of local municipalities.\u201d But local municipalities are funded by local taxpayers, and not all taxpayers have been given the same opportunities to accrue capital. \u201cIf you really want to understand the quality and condition of broader neighborhood infrastructure, you can usually look to the quality and condition of the housing stock,\u201d\u00a0said Hendricks, the public health professor. \u201cThat is directly connected to a broader community tax base, which is the fundamental financing mechanism for community infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All this is compounded by the fact that it is harder for Black communities to get outside funding for repairs. A recent study by Smull found that there was a penalty against communities of color in the municipal bond market, which is the main source of funding for projects in low-income communities. \u201cRating agencies aren\u2019t supposed to look at race,\u201d Smull explained to me. It is not so simple, however. \u201cRace is so intertwined with all the variables that would impact overall credit.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are not unlike many other black communities around the country,\u201d says Davis. \u201cOur community just really has been totally neglected.\u201d She worries that focusing too much on the board\u2019s embezzlement will contribute to the stereotype that \u201cBlack people can\u2019t manage or run anything,\u201d and she wants people to look at the larger picture: Even the most talented water board does not have the ability to fix a broken water system without adequate resources. \u201cThese majority white cities and majority white communities. They\u2019re flooding them with grants, Community Development Block Grant funding, and all this other kind of stuff. And they thrive,\u201d says Davis. \u201cAnd it\u2019s like, well, try withholding some of that money from over there and see what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Davis is not waiting around for ADEM to rethink its approach. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently partnered with We Matter Eight Mile Community Association, the local environmental justice group Davis leads, to investigate the finances and distribution of funds in both Prichard Water and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are requesting records, we\u2019re investigating.\u201d Crystal McElrath, a SPLC senior supervising attorney said at a local meeting in July. \u201cWe know that when you take our access to water, when you take our access to healthcare, when you take our land, you are stripping us over and over and over again and preventing our ability to build generational wealth. And the Black people in America, Black people in the South, have been dealing with this on so many fronts over and over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And while the Pettway family remains on the hook for a multiple-thousand-dollar charge, the small army of residents battling unfair bills that he has helped build is not going anywhere.&nbsp;\u201cYou can\u2019t terminate their water because you haven\u2019t done your job as a government,\u201d says Varner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are These $2,000 Water Bills Racist? When Tyrone Pettway&nbsp;saw his water bill in October 2021, he thought it was a typo. The bill was for $2,384.51, some $2,300 more than what he usually owed the Prichard, Alabama, water board every month. The document claimed Pettway, his wife, and their five kids had used 167,000 gallons&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=972\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">CRIMINAL JUSTICE_DETAIL_9<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":477,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"on","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/972\/revisions\/985"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}