Mississippi has found itself in a dire position, after a flood left the state’s capital city, Jackson, without water to drink or fight fires.
Residents, who had actually been under a boil-water advisory since mid-July, were reminded to keep their mouths closed during showers—if they were lucky enough to even have water pressure.
After days without running water, water pressure was back earlier this week, but a boil water advisory remained in effect.
The crisis has played out under the glare of international media while shining a lightweight on Mississippi’s racial divide. Mississippi is dominated politically by white Republicans, while Jackson, population 150,000, is largely Black and run by Democrats. Many white people had fled Jackson in recent decades, taking their wealth with them.
We’re hiring!
Please take a look at the up-to-date openings in our newsroom.
See jobs
Historic, double-digit rainfall fell in the last week of August across Central Mississippi, causing the Pearl River to overwhelm Jackson’s long-troubled water system, which was already teetering on the brink. By Aug. 29, the city’s overwhelmed O.B. Curtis water treatment plant had failed, and, according to the Clarion Ledger newspaper, at that point, there wasn’t even enough water pressure to consistently flush the toilets.
This was no up-to-date problem.
Jackson’s water system has been failing for decades. The city has been under pressure from the EPA for several years to pristine up its act. Wednesday, EPA administrator Michael Regan visited Jackson, extending a national focus on the community’s water situation.
In February 2021, Jackson experienced another system-wide failure due to extreme weather conditions that caused pipes to freeze and lose pressure. This resulted in many areas of the system being without water for several weeks, according to EPA.
EPA joined the Mississippi State Department of Health in a July report that identified a catalog of technical and management problems, including a profound lack of staff dating to at least 2015, including “insufficient operators to consistently staff three shifts, seven days per week,” malfunctioning water meters that contributed to a 32 percent decrease in revenue since 2016, and a billing system without a complete list of customers.
At a press conference last week, during which the governor, Republican Tate Reeves, and the mayor, Democrat Chokwe Antar Lumumba, made an appearance together, a reporter asked, “How can this happen in America, in 2022?”
“You and the press want to play the blame game, pitting one against another and that is fine,” Tate said. “We are focused on the immediate health and welfare of Jackson citizens.”
But he added, “We find ourselves in this position because of a lot of different reasons … of what occurred over a long period of time.” And, he said, because of “the 14 inches of rain that fell.”
To get some additional perspective on the Jackson situation, Inside Climate News reached out to Heather McTeer Toney, who in 2004 became the first woman, first African American and youngest person to serve as mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. She served as EPA regional administrator for the EPA’s Southeast region from 2014 to 2017, during the Obama administration. She’s now vice president of community engagement for the Environmental Defense Fund, a national environmental group.
The following is a transcript of the interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity, and for length.
Heather McTeer Toney is a former senior advisor for Moms Clean Air Force, as well as a vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund. Previously, she served in the Obama administration as Region 4 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, as she is a former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. Credit: Ralph Alswang
But there has been such an exodus of population from the urban center of Jackson to suburban areas, what can be identified as white flight, where you have the white population that moves to the surrounding area. And as a result, the internal city center does not receive the same benefits as it would have had that population remained there, because there is an exodus of wealth. And I think that’s a whole other conversation because that is something that happens across the state, as well as other states in the union. But also, the support from the state to maintain the water system in which the state body sits has not been supported in Mississippi in the way that it should be, as well as in the way that it has been in other states.
Cases of bottled water are handed out at a Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition distribution site on Aug. 31, 2022 in Jackson, Mississippi. Credit: Brad Vest/Getty Images
It is very unfortunate that it has taken this type of event to raise attention to the country as well as the world that this is what will happen if we do not invest seriously and heavily into communities that need climate resilient infrastructure right now, today. But also that the same things that we see happen in other countries that we tend to think of as, quote, third world countries, can happen in the United States. And other places are also looking to the United States to see how we’re addressing these issues. It’s my hope that we continue to raise awareness and understand what needs to be done after this storm cycle and the water pressure gets restored, after people can get water back into their homes, that we don’t completely forget about this and say, ‘Oh, well, they’ll figure it out.’ Or, ‘Oh, those poor residents in Mississippi,’ or, ‘Oh, you know, why don’t they just do X, Y and Z.’
This story is funded by readers like you.
Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.
Donate Now
That being said, it is not going to be effortless. And I think there’s an obligation for both the city, the state and the federal government to understand how they can leverage what is available in each of those spaces. And let’s not leave out the business community, let’s not leave out philanthropy, let’s not leave out the opportunities that exist to really support and maintain forceful systems through innovation. And I think that these are the ways that maybe can provide some bridges between the differences of political ideology. And I think there are some definite opportunities in existing legislation. There are so many different aspects here to look at. Certainly, the federal state and local government, and business philanthropy community can come together to figure this out.
James Bruggers
Reporter, Southeast
James Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, part of Inside Climate News’ National Environment Reporting Network. He previously covered energy and the environment for Louisville’s Courier Journal, where he worked as a correspondent for USA Today and was a member of the USA Today Network environment team. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999, Bruggers worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington and California. Bruggers’ work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He served on the board of directors of the SEJ for 13 years, including two years as president. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Christine Bruggers.
