Even as some Jackson leaders and residents continue raising concerns about the water system, JXN Water Interim Third Party Manager Ted Henifin says the organization has made “amazing strides” in his first year overseeing the Mississippi capital’s long-troubled water system.
He made the remarks at a press conference where he commemorated the one-year anniversary of his appointment to oversee the system as he talked about ongoing projects he’s focused on through 2027 for the city’s water and sewer systems.
“I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to be out in Jackson, at restaurants, on the streets, in farmer’s markets and have people come up to me thanking me for the work JXN Water’s doing,” he said at the event on Nov. 29. Henifin highlighted JXN Water employees and contractors who’ve helped to correct the infrastructure issues.
“Due to great people, we’re making great progress,” he said.
That progress has included stabilizing the water plant’s distribution center, restoring water pressure for residents, adopting a leak find-and-fix program, setting up a 24-hour call center to respond to customer questions and initiating their Minority Business Enterprise which prioritizes contracting local, minority-owned businesses for projects. A figure from JXN Water’s third quarterly report shows the company spent nearly $7.5 million with minority-owned businesses.
“In many ways the water system is light years ahead of where it was a year ago when the (stipulated) order was signed, but we do have a long way to go,” Henifin said.
Appointment Followed Catastrophic Failures
Jackson’s water issues came to a head last year following decades of disrepair, staffing shortages and disagreements between local and state officials about who should be financially responsible for fixing the city’s failing infrastructure. Winter storms caused severe flooding on the Pearl River which led the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant to shut down and left over 150,000 residents without clean, drinkable water for over a month.
The acute crisis shone a national spotlight onto Jackson’s longstanding water problems, which some compared Jackson’s water issues to the water-supply crisis in Flint, Mich., as leaders like Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba scrambled to remedy