The capital of Mississippi is coping with water crisis. The governor
has declared a state of emergency, and the governor has also asked
the National Guard to help distribute water for the 180,000 residents
and businesses of Jackson. John Yang has the story. I'm not officials
can't say how long it's going to take to get safe running water coming
out of taps in Jackson.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said there isn't enough water to
flush toilets or even fight fires today, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar
Lumumba said that this situation has been building for a long time.
I have said on multiple occasions.
That it's not a matter.
If our system would fail.
But a matter of when our system would fail.
I have stood before you.
Not only in terms of our local media
But national media
And share.
That the city of Jackson even when we're not under a boil water notice.
Even when we're not contending at that present moment with low pressure.
That we are in a constant state.
Of emergency. For years, Jackson residents have contended, with cloudy
water coming out of taps, disruptions in service and frequent boil
water notices. Nick Junior's state reporter for Mississippi Free
Press, a nonprofit online news organization, Nick, Thanks so much
for being with us, What's it like now for you as a Jackson resident
and for your neighbors?
Well, you know, Thanks for having me first off. It's been over a
month without clean drinking water. Um, we've had kind of intermittent
boil water notices. Uh, on and off over the last few months. You
know, I kind of describe it right now. We're in the acute phase of
the Jackson water crisis. Um, many of us can't flush our toilets.
Ah.
The schools are shutting down. Restaurants are struggling. Obviously,
the fire department is concerned about water pressure.
You know, Prior to this period, we were in kind of this chronic period
where you have regular boil water notices. You're not sure if you
can trust the water. There's constantly problems at our our what
our treatment plants.
So this has been going on. It predates the 2021 freeze that lost
US water for a month, and it will continue on after the water has
been reestablished to the city. Did the flooding of the Pearl River
did that bring that bring us to this acute phase, So that is something
that the city and water plant leadership have said contributed to
the problem. It's unclear right now. How much that flooding is is
the cause of the
Mm.
Kind of total breakdown we're experiencing. Um, There are also some
pump failures that this this goes back to about a month ago at Obi
Curtis and the staffing issues which really are key here, a lack
of class a water operators and just regular maintenance staff of
that has been going on for months and months. Well, well being before.
Uh, this current phase of the crisis, so the flood is not helping.
But I don't know that it's the only cause Curtis being one of the
water treatment plants in Jackson, you talk about staffing. I mean,
today you have a story about the EPA saying that they don't have
any records about the about Jackson trying to trying to meet this
staffing, staffing problem, Right? So I spoke with the PM on Friday.
Now this was before we had
Had any idea or before. I certainly had any idea that we would be
entering this kind of acute phase of the crisis coming this week.
What they told me was that they had not. They had reached out to
the city of Jackson to see the progress that they've made in finding
staffing again both classes, water operators and regular maintenance
technicians, and they had not been given any results that showed
efforts to acquire the staff. Uh, job fairs, interviews, things like
that now. I asked the mayor today at the press conference.
Why would the EPA not have a record of any of these actions? The
mayor's response was that they were ongoing and essentially, they'll
be shared with the EPA once. Um, the process is complete Mickey Jackson
at the sort of being in the chronic phase before before this, Where
do these problems come from? And why has it been so hard to address
them?
Well, I mean, the first time that you know, Jackson had a serious
water outage was in 1989. Obviously, those kind of what our outages
have not been, as, uh, significant is what we saw last year and what
we're seeing now, but it has been a system that has been in great
decline for decades now.
Um, the problems are compound over time. A lack of investment, a
lack of maintenance. A lack of, uh, staffing obviously is huge and
all of these things build on top of each other and compound until
you have a moment like this does race in sort of white flight within
Jackson is that the Jackson area does that has that played a role?
So if you look at the history, the the historical context of the
city of Jackson
The integration of the school system. Uh, and the suburbanization
of America absolutely led to white flight, and it led to capital
flight from the city of Jackson. Now you can see over several decades
until about the eighties, the footprint of the city expanding as
the city annexes more and more territory around it. Um, And and after
that point, even though the flight began before then you just see
population declining since then. Now when
The tax base leaves when when the city grows, uh, these cause, uh,
And an enormous amount of effort that the city is then responsible
for while dealing with less investment and less support. Juden of