May 6, 2024

Via email
Mr. Michael Regan
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Sent via email

Re: Title VI Recommendations

Below are the NAACP’s Title VI recommendations regarding the EPA’s water infrastructure and
funding of water systems complaints. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional
questions or concerns.

• The intentional decision to target Federal funds to small systems runs the risk of being
discriminatory to the large and predominantly African American urban areas of the State.
Awarding Federal funds through state programs without conducting a careful needs assessment
-- designed to determine the areas of greatest need for that funding -- is a violation of Title VI
and should be remedied by mandating that there is a comprehensive needs assessment that
ensures no citizen is left behind.

• The aggregate structure of loan funding (the combination of loan rates, loan forgiveness,
repayment period, administrative fees, and amounts of loans available) prevents access to
meaningful loans by communities of color, such as Jackson, who do not have the means to
support less favorable payment obligations. This is a violation of Title VI and should be
remedied by ensuring fair and equitable loan terms that provide meaningful access.

• Federal funding of recipient agencies does not occur in a vacuum. It is a violation of Title VI for
states not to assess the aggregate effects of their support for drinking and wastewater systems
in communities of color -- from federally supported and state programs. This should be
remedied by requiring transparent and streamlined data from states assessing in one place
their overall support from all sources for drinking and wastewater systems in communities.

• Overall State support for federal funding recipients can also be undermined by discriminatory
and retaliatory actions that undermine the governance of those systems. It is a violation of
 2

Title VI for States to withdraw governance authority -- including the ability to establish
sustainable usage rates -- from only those Federally-supported systems that are in
predominantly Black areas and in which there is predominantly Black governance. This should
be remedied by requiring non-discriminatory application of any such constraints and full public
reporting regarding governance restrictions.