'We see the threat:' EPA gives Jackson timeline to begin addressing city's water issues

City of Jackson officials have eight days to submit a plan to the Environmental Protection Agency for how it will repair its water systems, six years after the city's water was deemed largely unsafe to drink.

The city and the EPA entered into a binding agreement July 1 requiring Jackson to devise a plan on how it will bring its water treatment facilities and water delivery systems into compliance after years of neglect and numerous violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. There are no stated punitive measures should the city fail to live up to the requirements stated in the consent order. 

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba met Thursday with Carol Kemker, director of the EPA's Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division in the south, to update Kemker on the city's progress toward finalizing those plans.

In June 2015, the city’s drinking water was found to have dangerously high levels of lead — almost 50% higher than the acceptable limit, according to annual water reports.

Jackson was supposed to begin that year replacing 7% of all of its lead water pipes annually, as required by state and federal regulations.

The city hasn’t done that, according to the EPA, and a plan to do so hasn’t been approved by the agency. Jackson has until Aug. 1 to submit a plan to the EPA on how it will begin fixing the lead pipes in the city.

Kemker said the water is safe to drink, and she’s been drinking it while she’s in Jackson.

“As long as there’s not a boil water advisory or notice or other type of advisory, I would drink the water,” she said.

But pregnant women and children are at higher risk of lead poisoning and lead-related illnesses, and no amount of lead in the water is safe for them, Kemker said.

Thursday, Public Works Director Charles Williams said the city’s last survey showed there were no lead water lines in service. The city is completing another survey, with the EPA’s guidance, to make sure, he said.

Lead in drinking water is just part of the problem. Residents have been subject to seemingly countless boil water advisories and numerous water outages. A winter storm crippled Jackson’s infrastructure in February, leaving most of the city without drinkable water for weeks and exposing water system frailties. 

For years, the city's water has not met the state quality requirements for drinking water, according to the EPA. 

Since 2016, the city’s drinking water has been out of compliance for 1,476 of 1,944 possible days, according to the EPA's own consent agreement. 

Put another way, over the last five-and-a-half years, the city’s drinking water hasn’t met the minimum quality requirements for four of those years.

Kemker said that figure is not an accurate accounting of how many days the drinking water was potentially unsafe for residents.

“They take those measurements in the plant," she said. "They are then corrected in the plant before it’s seen in the drinking water.”

No price tag available

Neither Lumumba or Williams could not provide a price tag for the multitude of fixes the city has to make to ensure residents have clean drinking water. But whatever the cost, the city will be hard pressed to pay it.

The city is under a separate consent decree with the EPA to fix its maligned sewer system that pumps billions of gallons of minimally treated sewage into the Pearl River.

Large swaths of the Pearl River in and around Jackson are so polluted with sewage the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has warned residents not to swim in it for three years running.

In order to make the court-ordered repairs to the sewer system and wastewater treatment facilities, the city may have to spend more than $800 million, according to financial disclosures reviewed by the Clarion Ledger.

The expenses come as the city’s water and sewer revenues have dropped sharply in recent years, and are no longer outpacing operating expenses, according to financial reports filed by the city.

Lumumba said the city is not just looking internally for the funding, and will rely on the state and federal governments to help make the repairs.

“You know it’s always a challenge for cities to give the resources necessary ... but we‘re committed,” Lumumba said. “This is a priority for us.”

When the EPA came to Jackson

The EPA first came to Jackson in February 2020 to inspect the water treatment facilities — where it found significant deficiencies — and Lumumba and Kemker met for the first time via phone on March 27 of the same year.

Since then, the EPA and city officials have met every other week to discuss the city’s progress towards repairing the water systems.

Lumumba added on to Kemker’s comments, saying the risk the system poses to residents is reason enough to get the repairs finished.

“We see the threat of there being risks within our drinking water distribution system as the number one motivational factor to get this right,” Lumumba said.

Lee O. Sanderlin is an investigative and political reporter covering the state of Mississippi. Got a story tip? You can call him at 601-559-3857, send it to LSanderlin@gannett.com or message him on Twitter @LeeOSanderlin.