{"id":364188,"date":"2017-03-21T02:30:47","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=364188"},"modified":"2017-03-21T02:30:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:47","slug":"sewage-is-a-problem-that-few-will-touch-catherine-flowers-brings-civil-rights-to-the-fight-for-environmental-justice","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/sewage-is-a-problem-that-few-will-touch-catherine-flowers-brings-civil-rights-to-the-fight-for-environmental-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewage is a problem that few will touch. Catherine Flowers brings civil rights to the fight for environmental justice."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"g50-profile__stats-block profile__stats-block--profile-364188 \">Founder, ACRE <br \/>\nMontgomery, Alabama<br \/>\nAge: 58<\/aside>\n<p>Catherine Flowers has been an environmental justice fighter for as long as she can remember. \u201cI grew up an Alabama country girl,\u201d she says, \u201cso I was part of the environmental movement before I even knew what it was. The natural world was my world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2001, raw sewage leaked into the yards of poor residents in Lowndes County, Alabama, because they had no access to municipal sewer systems. Local government added insult to injury by threatening 37 families with eviction or arrest because they couldn\u2019t afford septic systems. Flowers, who is from Lowndes County, fought back: She negotiated with state government, including then-Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, to end unfair enforcement policies, and she enlisted the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s help to fund septic systems. The effort earned her the nickname \u201cThe Erin Brockovich of Sewage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote share=&#8221;true&#8221; tweet=&#8221;\u201cCatherine is a shining example of the power individuals have to make a difference.\u201d -@algore&#8221; hashtag=&#8221;Grist50&#8243; image=&#8221;364259&#8243; cite=&#8221;Al Gore, used to be our next President&#8221; link=&#8221;https:\/\/grist.org\/feature\/an-inconvenient-truth-oral-history\/&#8221;]\u201cCatherine is a shining example of the power individuals have to make a measurable difference by educating, advocating, and acting on environmental issues.\u201d[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>Flowers was continuing the long tradition of residents fighting for justice in Lowndes County, an epicenter for the civil rights movement. \u201cMy own parents had a rich legacy of fighting for civil rights, which to this day informs my work,\u201d she says. \u201cEven today, people share stories about my parents\u2019 acts of kindness or help, and I feel it\u2019s my duty to carry on their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Years later, untreated and leaking sewage remains a persistent problem in much of Alabama. Flowers advocates for sanitation and environmental rights through the organization she founded, the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corporation (ACRE, for short). She\u2019s working with the EPA and other federal agencies to design affordable septic systems that will one day eliminate the developing-world conditions that Flowers calls Alabama\u2019s \u201cdirty secret.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Vice President Al Gore counts himself as a big fan of Flowers\u2019 work, calling her \u201ca firm advocate for the poor, who recognizes that the climate crisis disproportionately affects the least wealthy and powerful among us.\u201d Flowers says a soon-to-be-published study, based on evidence she helped collect, suggests that tropical parasites are emerging in Alabama due to poverty, poor sanitation, and climate change. \u201cOur residents can have a bigger voice,\u201d she said, \u201cif the media began reporting how climate change is affecting people living in poor rural communities in 2017.\u201d Assignment editors, pay attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This civil rights activist takes on the South&#8217;s sewage problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57007830,"featured_media":490274,"menu_order":39,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-364188","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-13","grist-50-justice","grist-50-nominated"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sewage is a problem that few will touch. 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