Ted Henifin has now led the Jackson water system for almost two years, coming on as an advisor during the systemwide collapse of late 2022. Since then, his administration has faced the challenges of a broken metering and billing system, a lack of qualified operators, maintenance technicians and field crews, degraded water treatment plants and distribution pipes, the threat of severe weather, and the attempted intervention of the State of Mississippi.
But over the course of Henifin’s time as interim third-party manager, a new challenge has emerged: a sharp and public break with the City of Jackson and especially Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba. For a time, the two spoke at joint press events, campaigning for public trust in the water system and for the successful federal intercession that brought over half a billion dollars to Jackson.
Now, the relationship between city leadership and JXN Water has collapsed. At status conferences, Lumumba and other city representatives have questioned the leadership of JXN Water and argued that the federal team is failing in its responsibilities to repair Jackson’s water system and to properly communicate with its residents. For JXN Water’s part, the organization has repeatedly challenged city officials’ statements, asserting that they have misrepresented the safety of the water quality and undermined the ultimate goal of restoring public trust in Jackson’s drinking water.
The relationship reached a nadir this year when Lumumba sent a letter directly to the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees drinking water and has shared in a direct oversight role in Jackson since 2020, with a list of what it said were JXN Water’s missteps and failures as a water utility: an uncompetitive procurement process for key operations and maintenance projects, lack of progress on priority projects, poor communication with the city and the
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