Good morning. I am Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Today is a good day. I am here with U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas, who you’ll hear from shortly as well.
We are here this morning to announce that the Justice Department has secured a settlement agreement in our environmental justice investigation involving the City of Houston. The City of Houston, as you have heard, has agreed to take a number of critical actions to address illegal dumping here in the city, an issue that has long plagued the predominately Black and Latino residents of Houston’s Trinity/Houston Gardens Super Neighborhood 48 and other similar communities in the city. The agreement memorializes the City of Houston’s – and Mayor Turner’s – efforts to ensure racially equitable responses to the environmental hazard and improve the quality of life of members of the Houston community.
Illegal dumping is a long-standing environmental justice issue, which, in many cities across the country, disproportionately burdens Black and Latino communities. Illegal dumping can contaminate surface water, groundwater and soil. It decreases property values and discourages economic development, often in communities that cannot afford to withstand these impacts. Illegal dumping contributes to increased flooding, when contaminated waste blocks the flow of water to appropriate outlets. And illegal dumping contributes to increases in rodents and mosquitoes, which can carry diseases.