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EPA Accepts IKE's Civil Rights Complaint Against the City of Indianapolis for the Operation of its Sewer System
Environmental justice in Indiana received a major boost this week. Thanks to Administrator Todd-Whitman's new commitment to environmental justice and to Congresswoman Julia Carson for her ongoing efforts to promote justice and children's environmental health!
On October 19, 1999, IKE and five other organizations filed a civil rights
complaint against the City of Indianapolis for the operation of its combined sewer system. For a copy of the complaint pdf. (3 MB). The other organizations included the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, Mapleton-Fall Creek Neighborhood Association, Sierra Club, and Hoosier Environmental Council. On October 12, 2001 - just short of the complaint's second birthday - EPA accepted three of our allegations for investigation. The three specific allegations that were accepted are listed at the end of this email. This is the first Title VI complaint accepted that addresses the operation of sewer systems. I also understand that it may be the only civil rights administrative complaint ever accepted in Indiana.Acceptance is only one step - a critical first step - in a long process. Now EPA must investigate the case and determine whether there were disparate impacts on minorities. If EPA makes an initial finding of a disparate
impact, the City of Indy will have an opportunity to rebut EPA's findings, propose a plan for mitigating the disparate impact or to "justify" the disparate impact. If EPA makes a preliminary finding of non-compliance, then it will make recommendations for voluntary compliance. If there is no resolution, then EPA will make a Formal Determination of Noncompliance. If there is still no resolution, EPA can choose to stop federal funding for Indy's Depts of Public Works and Capital Asset Management. A drastic solution that the process is designed to avoid. For more information about EPA's civil rights process and refer to external complaints.EPA must now begin the investigation. An option is for the City and the
complainants to pursue an Alternative Dispute Resolution process.The three specific allegations accepted by the EPA are:
1. The City's 6-9-99 application for a variance from the water quality
standard-based effluent limitations for e. coli. makes it clear that the City does not intend to remedy the disproportionate impacts that result from operation of its sewer system.2. In July and August 1999, the City diverted capital improvement funds away from addressing the disproportionate impacts on the Fall Creek neighborhood when it invested a substantial sum in a project to reduce floods and combined sewer overflows on Pogues Run. The Pogues Run neighborhood has a substantially smaller minority population than the Fall Creek neighborhood.
3. On August 18, 1999, the City issued sewer capacity certification #99-123 for the Belmont Treatment Plant, which we claim will result in increases of sewage flowing into the Fall Creek sewer system, thereby exacerbating the disproportionate impact on the African-American residents of the Fall Creek neighborhood. Also we claim that the City's issuance of a certification without requiring storage of sewage or offsets for new flow constitutes a discriminatory act that makes the disproportionate impacts of the sewer overflows worse.
Contact Tom Neltner at mccabe@ikecoalition.org for more information
For more information on the civil rights complaint.