Two years ago, the Jackson water system collapsed. The city’s main water plant was falling apart, burdened with a distribution system that leaked far more water than it delivered and a dwindling staff incapable of managing the sprawling complex of purification systems.
In the months that followed, intervention on the part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice led to the creation of a federal team later named JXN Water. Ted Henifin, formerly the chief executive of a large wastewater treatment agency in Virginia, leads that team. His job has been to take over and manage the water system—and later the sewage system as well—to return it to solvency and functionality under the monitoring of a federal court.
For a time, Henifin and Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba appeared in public as close partners, sharing joint press conferences where they updated an anxious city on plans to mend the Jackson water crisis once and for all. With the late December 2022 announcement of $650 million in federal funds purely for Jackson’s water system, a positive path forward seemed well within reach.
But within the year, fractures in the relationship gave way to open hostility. At status conferences, Lumumba and Henifin battled over competing strategies for winning back the trust of the public in Jackson’s water. Public advocacy groups, including some associated with the mayor, accused Henifin of insufficient public engagement—a charge Lumumba has since repeated.
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On March 27 of this year, Lumumba attempted to address his concerns with the EPA directly, writing a letter to EPA Administrator Michael S.