More water pressure could break pipes in Jackson

JACKSON, Miss. — Water pressure slowly improved in Mississippi’s capital city Friday but officials outlined numerous challenges and occasional setbacks as they worked to restore running water from the city’s aging, neglected water system to all in the city of 150,000.

A minor leak in an ammonia tank forced officials to cordon off a part of a water treatment plant late Thursday, Jim Craig, a state health official said Friday. Staffers at the plant are having to constantly account for changes in sediment and chemical levels in water taken into the system after recent torrential rains and flooding, Mr. Craig added.

“It’s like fixing the airplane while you’re still flying,” he said at a Friday evening news conference with Gov. Tate Reeves.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba noted at one news conference that, once pressure is restored, there are worries about the strain on aging, brittle pipes.

And even when water is running again, it’s unclear when it will be drinkable.

Last week’s rains, followed by flooding of the Pearl River, exacerbated long-standing problems at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant, leading to a drop in pressure throughout Jackson, where residents were already under a monthold boil-water order due to poor water quality.

The problems led to a Monday emergency declaration by the Republican governor and a disaster declaration from President Joe Biden. Mr. Biden’s infrastructure coordinator, Mitch Landrieu, and Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell were in Jackson for a firsthand look at the problem Friday.

The entire city had been without water or with low pressure at one point.