Citizen and environmental groups are asking the federal government for help after years of mismanagement, scandal and neglect has left one of Alabama’s poorest communities with a public water system that can’t provide safe water to all customers.

The Southern Environmental Law Center — on behalf of the We Matter Eight Mile Community Association and 20 other groups — petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in to ensure safe drinking water for customers of the Prichard Water Works and Sewer Board, as the utility faces a mix of crippling debt and crumbling infrastructure.

“The Board in charge of the system has negligently failed to maintain the system, fraudulently used Board funds, and shut the public out of the decision-making processes,” SELC said in a 23-page petition to the EPA.

“Further, the Board is now threatening to shut down the water for approximately 200 residents where the greatest loss occurs. These residents would be forced out of their homes.”

According to the SELC petition, the water system in Prichard — a city of about 20,000 people just north of Mobile — is so full of holes that nearly 60% of the water entering the system leaks out, creating the risk of contamination of the city’s drinking water, sky-high water costs and other safety concerns.

The city’s own testing results, as submitted to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, shows chronic bacterial contamination in the city’s water. Many fire hydrants in the city don’t have enough water pressure to operate properly during a fire.

“Life begins in water and is sustained by water,” Carletta Davis, President of the We Matter Eight Mile Community Association, said in a news release.

“Access to clean water is a God given right that should never be taken away,” she said. “Those responsible for protecting our right to clean, affordable water have epically failed us.”

The groups Monday asked the agency to intervene using emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act because “Prichard’s water system failures create an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health.”

That means emergency funding to repair the system, as well as helping the city negotiate long-term settlements to their legal and financial issues.

The groups say that in addition to rampant water leaks, Prichard also has an “extreme sanitary sewer overflow problem,” that could result in untreated sewage finding its way into the drinking water system.

“Health effects of consuming water with disease-causing microbes include rare diseases like cholera and typhoid fever, and common illnesses caused by viruses, bacteria, and parasites, which can result in stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, and kidney failure,” the groups write. “There is also a risk that infectious diseases, like hepatitis, can occur.”

Read the full petition

A troubled history

If the EPA steps in, it wouldn’t be the first federal intervention in Prichard.

The FBI raided the offices of the Prichard Water Works and Sewer Board and the home of at least one employee last year, with the investigation resulting in four water works officials being charged with theft or fraud.

That scandal became known as ‘Gucci-gate,’ after charges that former water works manager Nia Bradley used water works credit card for perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses, including trips to New York, Chicago and Sandestin, Fla., as well as luxury items like Gucci handbags, designer clothes and firearms.

The water board’s longtime attorney Jay Ross described the spending to one TV station as “the worst case of public corruption I have ever seen.”

The city is also in danger of default on a $55 million loan for infrastructure after struggling to make payments on the debt. The financial crunch resulted in a 22% rate hikes for water board customers last month, which is especially burdensome for low-income residents of Prichard and neighboring Eight Mile.

The petition cited one Prichard resident — Tyrone Pettway — who reported receiving a water bill for $2,384.51.

More than 91 percent of Prichard’s 18,870 residents are Black and 30% are living below the poverty line, according to the latest U.S. Census estimates. Prichard’s population is estimated to have dropped about 2.4% since the 2020 census (losing 462 residents), and about 6% from the 2010 census (a decrease of 3,789 people).

The groups say the water crisis leaves an impoverished community on the brink of disaster.

“The Prichard Water Works & Sewer Board’s track record of incompetence proves they cannot guarantee safe or affordable drinking water for their customers,” Ryan Anderson, Associate Attorney for SELC’s Alabama office, said in a news release. “We’re asking EPA, a governmental entity that has a responsibility to uphold safety, to step in and use their authority because this water crisis is endangering the people of Prichard.”

A crumbling system

Prichard does not treat its own water, but distributes water purchased from the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS) to its customers.

Many of the water pipes in Prichard are more than 80 years old, well past their expected life span.

An ADEM engineering report cited in the petition to EPA found that the system is facing “excessive nominal water loss” of nearly 64%.

“The state of disrepair of Prichard’s water lines cannot be overstated,” ADEM said in the report.

ADEM reports that such high volume water loss means that chlorine from the Mobile water treatment facility were too low, leading to the possibility of bacterial contamination.

The petitioners note that Prichard water board has self-reported positive bacteriological sampling events at least eight times since 2021.

The 200 people cited in the petition at being in danger of losing their water service live in a part of the city called Alabama Village, with some of the worst infrastructure problems. ADEM estimates that the city loses $222,000 per month, or $2.7 million per year in revenue due to rampant water leaks in the pipes going to that community.

The water works has stopped allowing new water accounts to be opened in this area, and has considered using eminent domain to condemn existing properties, according to NBC-15 TV in Mobile.

In February 2022, just before its offices were raided by the FBI, the Prichard water board applied for $330 million in state and federal infrastructure funds being distributed by ADEM, by far the largest requests in the state.

That total included $100 million for “repairing leaks in the water lines,” $135 million for city-wide sewer extension, and $76 million for system-wide project improvements.

“ADEM will prioritize funding based on financial and engineering needs,” ADEM External Affairs Chief Lynn Battle said at the time of Prichard’s requests. “All factors affecting the needs will be considered.”

Current ADEM records no longer show Prichard’s sewer extension and system-wide project improvement requests, and show that the city’s $100 million project application for repairing leaky water lines was withdrawn.

Prichard was awarded $400,000 to conduct financial audits from those infrastructure funds, which totaled more than $1 billion across the state.

The petitioners say that ADEM is unable or unwilling to provide the necessary assistance to fix the Prichard water system.

“Despite this very serious conclusion and threat to public health, ADEM is stuck between not wanting to give aid to the corrupt Board, but also not able or willing to administer aid and technical assistance itself,” the petition states. “ADEM’s inaction has caused the Prichard community to lose access to one of the most basic human rights—access to safe drinking water.”