EPA launches investigation into Jackson, Miss., water crisis

It’s not water under the bridge for the feds.

The EPA is investigating the state of Mississippi over the water disaster in its capital Jackson.

Only a trickle of water came out of a faucet in Jackson, Miss., on Sept. 1. (Steve Helber/)

Residents of the city, which is 80% Black, had to boil water from July until September. They went completely without running water for several days in late August after floods overwhelmed Jackson’s water treatment system.

Mississippi’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, and Jackson’s Democratic mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, have blamed each other for the disaster. Jackson residents filed a class-action lawsuit against local leaders in September.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves speaks on Sept. 15. (Rogelio V. Solis/)

But the NAACP filed a federal civil rights complaint later that same month, arguing that Mississippi state agencies discriminated against Jackson because it’s a majority-Black city.

“Unfortunately, we live in a state that is still dealing in racial politics,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson, a Jackson resident. “And as a result of that, you have state leaders who seek to penalize African-American residents of the city of Jackson in a very discriminatory way.”

Jackson's O.B. Curtis Water Plant in Ridgeland, Miss., pictured on Sept. 1. (Steve Helber/)

Johnson and the NAACP said that instead of fixing Jackson’s long-dilapidated water system, Mississippi directed funding to whiter cities that needed less help.

Reeves, who said it was “a great day to not be in Jackson” after the boil-water advisory was lifted, continued to slam Jackson city leadership on Thursday.

“They have proven that they have no ability to manage the water system,” he said at a turkey-pardoning ceremony.

With News Water Services