If Jackson’s water system collapsed, residents might have had to wait two years to get clean drinking water.
The O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant in Ridgeland, Miss., shown in this Aug. 8, 2022, photo, almost failed this week, a situation that would have left its 180,000 residents as well as those in Byram without any water for up to two years, state officials said. Barbara Gaunt/Clarion Ledger
By Jerry Mitchell
Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
If the city of Jackson’s main water treatment plant had failed Monday — as it nearly did — residents would have had to wait 18 to 24 months to restore service, state Sen. John Horhn said public works officials told him.
News of what has happened in Mississippi’s capital city horrified Rengao Song, a water quality and treatment expert who works as an adviser to the Louisville, Kentucky, city water system. “This is just ridiculous — in the United States of America in 2022, we have people without water,” he said.
On Tuesday, the state Health Department, along with the city and state, declared states of emergency. So did President Biden, whose administration has promised $75 million in federal funding.
Horhn, a Jackson Democrat, said the hope is to restore water pressure within a week and to lift the boil-water notice within a few weeks, but state officials stopped short of any predictions at a news conference Wednesday.
“We were lucky to function yesterday without any interruption,” Gov. Tate Reeves told reporters, “but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done.”
He advised residents to not drink the water and, if possible, to go elsewhere to use water: “If you don’t have to use the water in Jackson, don’t use it.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Wednesday that he’s warned state leaders for years about the problems the water treatment system has been suffering. He compared it to a car that goes decades without proper maintenance.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, seen here at a Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022, news conference, said he spoke Wednesday with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and that they assured him the full force of the federal government will be working to help the city resolve its water system issues. Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
“We have been crying out,” he said. “We need an overhaul of our water treatment facility. In all actuality, a new water treatment facility would be in order.”
Stephen McCraney, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said they have hired water operators from across the Southeast and are installing a water pump that has been rented.
One pump in the water plant is so old that parts are having to be machined in order to replace them, he said. “We have asked the EPA to expedite it.”
After pumps have been replaced at Jackson’s main water treatment plant (O.B. Curtis), “then a decision can be reached on what to do long term,” Horhn said.
Reeves said he is focused on “working with local leaders to fix the problems. We are committed to that task.”
On Tuesday, he met with the state senators who live in Jackson.
“Right now, he’s focused on the immediate emergency — the water pressure,” said state Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson.
After that issue is resolved, the next need is dealing with water quality, he said. “When we get past that, we need a major fix to the system.”
Pat Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, said he expects the crisis to cost Mississippi restaurants and businesses millions of dollars.
Restaurants were already hurting after five weeks of boil-water notices that caused the restaurants to spend up to $700 a day for bottled water, ice and other items, he said. “A lot of that money they can’t recoup.”
Now a number of them are temporarily closing their doors, he said.
He has been sending letters to city and state officials about the crisis, he said. “MEMA taking over is a blessing, and it needs to be addressed by higher levels that have more resources. We need the immediate solution, and we need to explore a permanent solution. Hopefully, with momentum, they’ll seek the permanent solution.”
The solution, he said, will “take federal money to make it happen and state funds, too.”
In April, an electrical fire caused two service pumps to fail at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, resulting in a temporary loss of water pressure. In November, the city issued a boil-water notice after unsafe chemicals were used to treat the drinking water.
The plant has also seen the failure of multiple raw water pumps, according to the Health Department.
The Clarion Ledger reported that two-thirds of all water samples taken in Jackson since 2015 have contained at least a trace amount of lead.
The lower water pressure means E. coli or similar organisms can develop in the drinking water, making it unsafe, officials said.
In its declaration of emergency, Health Department officials detailed the lack of certified operators and maintenance staff at Jackson’s water treatment plants.
As for its two water plants, Jackson is supposed to have 24 Class A workers running them. That number has fallen to five or six, violating the city’s consent decree with the EPA.
City officials say that Class A operators make about $14 an hour, despite having college degrees.
Those without a degree can become Class A operators with a GED and six years’ experience and also pass the exam, according to Mississippi Department of Health standards. In both cases, applicants must have at least one year of working experience in a Class A plant.
The Jackson City Council recently boosted these salaries, as much as $10,000 a year for some, hoping to retain these operators, whose average salary across the U.S. tops $48,000 a year. The range for these salaries in Jackson is between $29,120 and $39,120.
Song said pay is needed beyond $14 an hour to attract qualified operators.
“You need dedicated people who really care and have the ability to do the job,” he said. “What you have now is a really sad situation. Everybody knew this was going to happen.”
Email Jerry.Mitchell@MississippiCIR.org. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
This story was produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes Mississippi Today, MCIR, the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University and Mississippi Public Broadcasting.