Miss. capital city facing a new worry over water
Increase in pressure could add strain to system’s aging pipes
JACKSON, Miss. — Water pressure continued to improve in Mississippi’s capital city on Friday as repairs continued at a long-troubled water plant, but some in the city of 150,000 still had little or no water flowing from taps, officials said.
And there was a new concern: Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said success in increasing the water pressure could strain the city’s aging water pipes.
“That could lead to rupturing of pipes across the city,” Lumumba said during a news conference with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu.
Torrential rains last week followed by flooding of the Pearl River exacerbated problems at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant, leading to a drop in pressure throughout Jackson, where residents were already under a boil-water order due to poor water quality.
“More areas throughout Jackson now have some pressure,” the city said in a news release Friday. “Many are now experiencing normal pressure. Areas further from the plant and at higher elevations may still be experiencing low to no pressure.”
The scenes of people waiting in long lines for water testify to the near-collapse of a utility system residents could not trust even in the best of times. The failure to provide such an essential service reflects decades of government dysfunction, population change and decaying infrastructure.
Even before the pressure dropped, Jackson’s system was fragile, and officials had warned for years that widespread loss of service was possible. A cold snap in 2021 froze pipes and left tens of thousands of people without running water. Similar problems happened on a smaller scale earlier this year.
Lumumba has said fixing the problems could cost billions of dollars — far beyond Jackson’s ability to pay. That ability has been limited by a shrinking tax base that resulted from white flight, which began about a decade after public schools were integrated in 1970.
The population peaked in 1980 at nearly 203,000. It currently stands at about 150,000, with about 25% of residents living in poverty.
In the past half-century, the racial composition of Jackson has also changed. Once majority white, it is now more than 80% Black. The suburbs encircling Jackson are generally whiter and more prosperous and have newer infrastructure.
The mostly white, Republican-dominated Mississippi Legislature has been reluctant to offer assistance, even though the problems have disrupted daily life in the Capitol where lawmakers work for at least a few months every year.
Both Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic President Joe Biden declared emergencies this week to enable faster government action.
Reeves has stressed cooperation among state, local and federal officials but tensions among politicians have been evident.
Biden sounded critical of
Reeves in remarks to reporters at the White House late Thursday.
“We’ve offered every single thing available to Mississippi. The governor has to act,” Biden said. “There’s money to deal with this problem. We’ve given them EPA. We’ve given them everything there is to offer.”
Reeves’ office didn’t respond to a Friday morning request for comment and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to elaborate on Biden’s remarks Friday. She
confirmed that Biden and Reeves haven’t spoken to each other about the crisis, but downplayed the lack of a call, saying it was “not necessary to further any progress in this situation.”
Statewide, there is about $75 million specifically for water resources available through a bipartisan infrastructure law signed by Biden last year, Jean-Pierre said.
When Reeves held a news conference Monday to announce a state of emergency, Lumumba was not there. Reeves didn’t invite
him. They held separate news conferences Tuesday and Wednesday, although they finally appeared together Thursday and Lumumba insisted they’re working as a team.
The National Guard has been called to help with water distribution. The state emergency agency said 1.1 million bottles of water were handed out Thursday.
Nonpotable water, for toilet flushing and other uses, was also being offered to people who brought their own containers to some sites.