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Mississippi Today reports:
One month before the city of Jackson water system began failing, an EPA assessment team flagged numerous system problems in a July 2022 report.
The report, obtained by Mississippi Today, documents a litany of problems contributing to the capital city’s long-running and ongoing water crisis, which threatens the health and livelihoods of its residents.
The report was written following the latest independent assessment of Jackson’s water system and was compiled jointly with the EPA and Mississippi State Department of Health. The state Department of Health is tasked with enforcing EPA safe water regulations.
Jackson’s NBC affiliate reports:
President Joe Biden approved Mississippi’s emergency declaration on Tuesday. The president ordered Federal assistance to supplement the state’s response efforts due to the city of Jackson’s water crisis.
FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide, at its discretion, equipment, and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. The press release says that emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75% Federal funding for 90 days.
ABC News reports:
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba attributed the city’s water crisis to a lack of maintenance over the last few decades, adding that it will cost billions of dollars to fix the issue. “This is a set of accumulated problems based on deferred maintenance that’s not taken place over decades,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba estimated it would cost at least $1 billion to fix the water distribution system and billions more to resolve the issue altogether.
“The residents of Jackson are worthy of a dependable system, and we look forward to a coalition of the willing who will join us in the fight to improve this system that’s been failing for decades,” Lumumba said.
CNN reports:
At a water distribution event Tuesday at Hawkins Field Airport, residents waited in a line more than a mile long — and some were turned away when the site ran out of its 700 cases of water in just two hours.
Advocates have previously pointed to systemic and environmental racism as among the causes of Jackson’s ongoing water issues and lack of resources to address them. About 82.5% of Jackson’s population identifies as Black or African American, according to census data, while the state’s legislature is majority White.
Beginning Thursday, seven mega distribution sites with 36 truckloads of water will be available each a day for the public, Lt. Col. Stephen McCraney, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday.