“Our water is safe,” then-City of Jackson Public Works Director Kishia Powell said in 2016. “There is no lead in the drinking water as it leaves the plant.” But now, a federal judge has allowed over 1,000 children diagnosed with lead poisoning to proceed in a case against the City of Jackson and the Mississippi State Department of Health in a March 23 order. Hundreds more could soon join the case.
In the order, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves described the allegations against the state health department for its handling of Jackson’s lead-contaminated water as “straight-up negligence.” Reeves cited the lawsuit’s allegation that the department used a pre-flushing method that artificially lowered lead test results, failed to warn residents about contamination and issued boil water notices—a practice that does not remove lead from water, but instead concentrates it.
Both the City and MSDH declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing litigation.
The court dismissed suits against Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, MSDH Senior Deputy Jim Craig, former Mayor Tony Yarber and former City Public Works directors Kishia Powell, Robert Miller and Jerriot Smash. Reeves said Trilogy Engineering Services LLC did not seek dismissal from the case in his 59-page order. The company’s lawyers did not reply to emails and voice messages the Mississippi Free Press left Tuesday.
Carlton Reeves described the allegation against the state health department for its handling of Jackson’s lead-contaminated water as “straight-up negligence.”
New York-based attorney Corey Stern filed the 2021 and 2022 cases, which the judge consolidated on behalf of hundreds of plaintiffs. The plaintiffs were born between 2003 and 2021 and were all diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels, the judge said.
“The Mississippians who brought this suit are children who have relied upon Jackson’s water all their lives,” Reeves said in his order. “Far from sustaining life, they say, Jackson’s water shortens it: the lead-contaminated water that flows through Jackson’s pipes has poisoned their bodies and impeded their development.”
“Worse, they continue, City and State officials have been deliberately indifferent to their plight. The
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