Sewer and Foul Odor in the Historically Black Town in Amite, Louisiana.

Sewer Plant in Butler Town, Amite, Louisiana

Today William Schoderbek a freshman at Emory University and Alumi of Bellarmine College Preparatory School of San Jose, CA., and I drove around the Butler Town community talking with some of the people who live in the all black community. They've complained and cried out too their elected officials and council members about the foul odors that smells like sewer.  One man sitting on his steps said that it smells like human waste.

Bruce Winsey-Butler Town Resident

Most of them are untrusting that the elected officials are doing anything about it. They want someone to address their concerns. They feel that the  safety of their health and the health of families are at risk.  There has been several studies conducted on sewer in poor black neighborhoods. When I was a child growing up in Amite, "I can recall when there was a landfill right there in the community." I use to visit my friend's house and you can smell the foul odor coming from the landfill.  The Butler Town cemetery is right in front of the sewer plant. More than four decades later the land is still be used as a toxic waste site.  

People who live in the neighborhood like Bruce Winsey who is 61 years old can't open his windows due to the foul odor. He said he live outside of the city limits of Amite, but he is serviced by the Amite Police and garbage pick up. He invited us into his home to take photographs of the sewer plant right in his back yard. Another man said that it was a dump before it became the sewer plant where the city of Amite dump's it waste.

The Back View of Bruce Home

"How much public awareness has been brought to the attention of the citizens who lives in the Butler Town community?" There is a crucial need to increase public awareness and public hearing on this matter. "Where is the environmental activists?" Just what is being dumped back there? What does the Environmental Protection Agency say?

Most of the population in the historic Butler Town lives in poverty. Has there been any independent scientific examination on the soil and water? In 1987, the United Church of Christ, through its Commission for Racial Justice, prepared a report, "Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, which provide a very important study and evidence. The residents living in Butler Town may have to contact the EPA--United States Environmental Protection Agency-Region 6 at 214-665-6444. You can also visit their website at www.pa.gov/region6.

Fine out what laws has been written by Congress to  provide the authority for EPA to write regulations. Please contact the Environmental Justice Hotline at 800-962-6215-Toll Free or email them at EJHotline@epa.gov.