African-American Citizens Sue City of Rochelle, Georgia 
Over Decades of Sewage Dumping

weww.atlantadailyworld.com - August 15, 2013 - Foluke Nunn

'A group of African American citizens filed suit today against their city government in Rochelle, Ga. for discharging the city’s raw sewage onto their properties.

White residents of Rochelle live predominately on the south side of the city’s railroad track. African Americans live largely on the north.  The residents say the city has repaired and updated its sewage pipes on the south side of the tracks but has let repairs lag on the African American side.  As a result, untreated sewage backs up and overflows into the streets and the yards of residents on the north side of the tracks. 

The residents are being represented by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization whose Florida office is handling the litigation. The Clean Water Act suit, filed in the United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia, seeks to stop the unpermitted discharges of raw sewage from manholes, broken pipes and a ditch.' ...

'The residents say they have to shovel and bury fecal matter, toilet paper and other noxious debris left in their yards after sewage overflows, which have taken place three or four times a year for decades. Sewage also overflows from manholes and broken pipes into a ditch along the north side of Rochelle and out into Mill Creek, which eventually flows to the Suwannee River, they say.'

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