Jackson, Mississippi, Fresh Out Of Water
Jackson, Mississippi, Fresh Out Of Water
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Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Monday. No, this isn’t the inevitable impact from President Joe Biden’s student loan debt cancellation, despite Reeves whining about that all week. The state’s capital, Jackson, has no usable water after its main water treatment facility failed. Officials blame this disaster on longstanding water system issues and recent flooding.
Explanations for the failing system are complicated: Damage this summer to pumps at the main water treatment facility made failure almost inevitable, the governor says; and flooding of the Pearl River after heavy rains last week affected treatment processes and therefore the amount of running water the system can provide, Jackson’s mayor said.
During a press conference yesterday, Reeves described the situation in stark terms: “It means we do not have reliable running water at scale. It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets and to meet other critical needs."
The city was already under a "boil water notice” since late July, but now that’s not even sufficient for producing water safe enough to brush your teeth. Reeves warned Jackson residents, "Do not drink the water. In too many cases, it is raw water from the reservoir being pushed through the pipes.” Yikes.
Jackson is home to 180,000 people — 82 percent of whom are Black — and residents who can’t relocate temporarily can expect to endure these conditions “for an unknown period of time.” This is bad. In 2021, residents went two full weeks without safe water.
“LATEST: 180,000 people in Jackson will be without safe water for drinking or even brushing their teeth "for an unknown period of time," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in an emergency press briefing tonight. He warns: "DO NOT DRINK THE WATER." https://t.co/RyWu22NOKL”
— Ashton Pittman (@Ashton Pittman) 1661824459
The water system failure was not unexpected. Reeves admitted that he was told Friday that “it was a near certainty that Jackson would fail to produce running water sometime in the next several weeks or months if something did not materially improve.” Jackson’s water system was shut down in 2021 after a winter storm froze the pipes, and there have been several burn water notices in the city since then.
Back in February, residents were reporting low to no water pressure and raw sewage running through city streets. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba claims there’s been a lack of “political will” to confront the years of neglect that led to this crisis.
Reeves vows that “we will do everything in our power to restore water pressure and get water flowing back to the people of Jackson.” That apparently doesn’t include putting aside petty partisan politics. Lumumba is a Democrat, whom the people of Jackson elected to office, but Reeves didn’t invite him to his news conference. Reeves also implied that Lumbumba was to blame for the city not keeping the state updated on when the plant would be fully operational.
The O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant is a known disaster, though. During a tour last year, US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan called out the plant as an example of “longstanding environmental justice concerns in historically marginalized communities.” To his credit, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law that’ll deliver more than $50 billion to the EPA to improve our nation's drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. Mississippi’s other senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, was a predictable “no,” but she doesn’t have a great track record of caring that much about "historically marginalized communities."
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Unlike previous boil-water notices, even tainted water will eventually run out. Tuesday, Reeves announced that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will distribute drinking water, as well as non-potable water for flushing toilets. He’s also requesting help from the National Guard.
Amazingly, things could’ve been worse . The Pearl River had flooded streets, including a residence, Monday, but water levels didn’t rise as feared. According to earlier projections, at least 100 to 150 buildings were at risk of flooding this week. Residents had started moving furniture and appliances out of their homes in anticipation of the flood. They even stocked up on sandbags. Two years ago, during the start of the pandemic, torrential storms flooded homes in some neighborhoods with filthy, snake-infested water.
Suzannah Thames owns a three-bedroom rental home in northeast Jackson that flooded with three feet of water in 2020. This year, her home flooded with just three inches of water.
"I thought it was going to be a lot worse," Thames said. "I feel very fortunate. I feel very blessed.”
She doesn’t have fresh drinking water but at least the snakes aren’t back at her house. No one should have to live like this.
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