During the past 14 years, when it rained in Lorendes County, Alabama, it polluted the water near Annye Burke's home. She said when the septic tank collapsed, raw sewage was poured into the toilet.

Despite being "frustrated" by unhealthy and inconvenient conditions, Burke said she would not let her down. In these rural areas of central Alabama, human wastewater contaminating houses and yards "has become a way of life." This problem has been around for a long time and is so common that 2017 research confirms One in every 3 adults in the county has a gut parasite hookworm.

The Biden administration investigated and allocated nearly $26 million to rebuild the water infrastructure in Lorendes County, and the Justice Department declared that most black areas were suffering from "environmental racism."

But earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to kill the deal, calling it an "illegal DEI."

Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department, Trump-led Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights, said the agency “will no longer look at 'environmental justice' through a distorted lens,” referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

A 2023 investigation by environmentalist Catherine Coleman Flowers, conducted by the Department of Justice, found that low-income residents in the county, mostly black, lack basic health services for generations. Given the area's particularly hard, impermeable soil and the high cost of installing private wastewater systems, many residents resort to direct pipelines to deal with human wastewater. According to the Justice Department report, this approach involves directing human wastewater from home to a series of ditches and rough piping systems. Water is collected in nearby yards, open areas and woods.

In recent years, heavier rainfall associated with climate change has meant that polluted water has flooded, spreading across open areas and polluting local vegetation and water, exposing residents to disease. As a result, Burke and more than 300 other families in Lowndes County (around 40 miles southwest of Montgomery) were forced to live in failed water infrastructure, causing serious health problems, including Hookworm, which was once believed to have been eradicated from the United States and was once believed to have been eradicated from the United States.

Hookworms are mainly condensed by walking barefoot on soil contaminated with infected feces. It can cause abdominal pain, rash, diarrhea, fever and other diseases.

"We have to be hygienic because people are sick can be a problem," Burke, 58, said. "The health issue is real. In 2025, we don't have to deal with this issue, but that's the truth." She said she uses various disinfectants multiple times a day to clean up her home and protect her family, including those her children and grandchildren came to visit.

According to the latest census, this environmental problem has been going on in rural areas of the state for more than 20 years, where 72.4% of the population is black and the median household income is $35,160. One-third of residents live below the poverty line. Flowers said most of the problems began in 1866, when blacks were first allowed to buy land there and provide most environmentally unsafe places, Flowers said.

In recent decades, it has not been uncommon for untreated sewage to flow from some residents' toilets into the yard or back home through sinks or bathtubs. Drinking water in the faucet is impossible. Some residents' ditches try to remove rainwater from their homes.

Flowers, who grew up in Lowndes, have fought for 23 years to restore the county's water infrastructure. Her efforts led to a $26 million commitment from the Biden administration. She said Trump's cancellation agreement did not surprise her.

"Some people won't be priorities for completing this job," Fros said. "That's always been."

Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat who represents the region, said in a statement that the Justice Department had a weak reason to abandon the deal.

"The agreement has nothing to do with DEI," Seville said. "As the Justice Department itself documented, it's about resolving a public health crisis that forces generations of children and families to endure the health hazards of getting close to the original sewage. By termination, the Trump administration has made it blatantly ignore the health of my constitutional person."

In announcing the results of the 2023 investigation, former assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke said the Justice Department found evidence suggesting that Alabama’s Department of Public Health showed “a consistent pattern of doing nothing and/or ignoring health risks associated with exposure to raw sewage.”

Sewell added that the burden of “remediating this injustice” fell into the Alabama Department of Public Health. But ADH said in a statement to NBC News: "The installation of health systems and related infrastructure is not outside the authorities or the responsibility."

ADH's second statement said the department had secured $1.5 million in funding from the Biden agreement and was partly used to pay for three septic tank units. With the remaining money, ADH will pay the contractors to complete more work by May 2026, the statement said. Trump killed the deal before any other funds could be allocated to determine the water infrastructure. Annye Burke said her daughter lives next door and is in trouble because she hopes to receive a new septic tank when it collapses recently. Over the past four years, she has lived with water problems.

"I know how to grow up in the country and have to use outdoor facilities, I know how to do it," Burke said. "I only spend one day at a time praying and keep going. I don't let it down. But my daughter grew up, so I'm worried about how she handles these things."

Activityist Flowers said that while she hopes the agreement will be rebuilt, she has seen the community come together to make a change. She noted that last week she was in Mount Vernon, New York, where sewage treatment issues were resolved with the merger of city, county and state governments.

"They were fixed because they should have," Flos said. The problem was discovered in 2021 "a fix in five years. I've been working in Lorend County since 2002."

Some families already have the ability to move out, but many cannot afford it. Then the connection to the land is also a factor, Flos said.

"My family has been in Lorend County since slavery," Fros said. "This is the home for people. Why do we move? That's where our people are buried."

Changing a house is not only about occupying another house.

“We are talking about giving up a culture,” she said. “So we will continue this battle.”