UPDATE: President Biden approves Mississippi Emergency declaration. Read the press release here.
JACKSON, Miss. – Governor Tate Reeves has requested an Emergency Measures Declaration from President Biden for the City of Jackson water crisis. If declared, any eligible expenses paid for by the state could be eligible for federal reimbursement.
Under the requested Emergency Declaration, FEMA would be authorized to provide emergency measures, including direct federal assistance, under the Public Assistance program at 75 percent federal funding.
This request is a result of the City of Jackson’s O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant failure to produce water for almost 180,000 dependent citizens. Both primary pumps are broken and are currently being serviced. The plant is not producing adequate water pressure, and some residents are experiencing outages. The water treatment plant provides water to the City of Jackson, City of Byram, two major hospitals, multiple dialysis clinics, long-term care facilities, Jackson Public School District, numerous restaurants, daycares, and more.
The request for an Emergency Measures Declaration can be read here.
Many college students are using portable showers and toilets as Jackson’s water emergency causes little to no water pressure on campuses throughout the city, forcing schools to move classes online and go without air conditioning.
Administrations at three colleges and universities based in Jackson – Belhaven University, Millsaps College, and Jackson State University – are not sure how long these contingency measures, like limiting dining hall hours and distributing bottled water, will last.
“The situation is fluid, no pun intended,” Michael Bolden, the director of campus operations at Jackson State University, said at a town hall on Tuesday. “Things are moving up and down depending on how the system is responding to what’s happening at the primary locations.”
Tougaloo College is not affected by the city’s water emergency, a spokesperson confirmed to Mississippi Today, because it has its own well system.
At Belhaven University, located a few blocks from the Fewell Water Plant, classes did not meet Tuesday. The administration has been closely monitoring the situation in meetings all day and hopes to have a better idea of how to proceed by the end of the week, David Sprayberry, Belhaven’s director of public relations, told Mississippi Today.
Currently, some buildings lack water or have low pressure on upper floors. The university has limited food service to residential students and is distributing bottled water for drinking and nonpotable water to flush the toilets.
“Because of the uncertainty, we are taking the following actions for TOMORROW ONLY,” Belhaven University President Roger Parrott wrote in a letter to campus.
Parrott wrote that he hopes to have more information for students by Tuesday night but that because Belhaven University is located “downhill,” he expects the campus to be among the first areas of the city to have water pressure restored.
“Thankfully, our campus location is ‘downhill,’ and we keep water running longer than other parts of town,” Parrott wrote. “We will likely be one of the first portions of town to have water pressure restored when the plant is fixed.”
Colleges and universities are effectively small municipalities, providing students with round-the-clock housing, food, security, health care and utilities. The disruption in water service doesn’t just affect students’ learning, but all aspects of living on campus, from showering in the dormitories to buying hot meals on campus.
“We are nearing the 24-hour mark of this happening,” Fran’Cee Brown-McClure, JSU’s vice president for student affairs, said at the town hall. “I know it definitely feels like it’s been happening forever, but we are still in the early stages.”
UMMC placed its campus on fire watch, but it’s unclear if the other Jackson colleges are doing the same as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” said Annie Mitchell, the vice president for marketing and communications at Millsaps College. “We rely on the city for that.”
At Millsaps, a small liberal arts college on a hill in central Jackson, the emergency management team is meeting twice a day as the second week of classes begin, Mitchell said.
On Tuesday morning, the water pressure returned to above 30 PSI, enabling students to flush toilets.
“Millsaps is one of the highest points in the city, and our residence halls on the second and third floors, just with gravity, it’s harder for those students to flush the toilets,” Mitchell said.
Portable showers and toilets had been brought in on Monday night, but Mitchell said she didn’t know yet how much that cost the college. The university’s air conditioning has not been affected, and Mitchell said that while there was a wifi outage on campus, it was not due to the city’s water emergency.
“Our provider, they had a global outage, it was just really unfortunate timing,” she said.
Millsaps also requested portable hygiene stations from Aramark, its food provider, so dining services could continue, albeit with prepackaged food and on limited hours.
As for classes, Millsaps went virtual on Monday around 11:30 a.m. after the decline in water pressure was noticed, Mitchell said. Students and faculty have the day off today in case they need to travel home, and classes (with the exception of labs) are going to be virtual for the rest of the week.
“We just wanted to make sure that we were giving our students as much choice as possible in terms of where they were going to be, because we weren’t quite sure how the water was going to, at that time, impact services on campus such as laundry, flushing toilets, taking showers that kind of thing,” she said.
Jackson State University held an hour-long town hall on Zoom on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the impact of the water emergency on the campus. Four top administrators at the university just west of downtown answered questions for students, including Brown-McClure, Bolden, President Thomas Hudson, and Alisa Mosley, the provost and vice president for academic affairs.
IHL’s risk management office has reached out to JSU and “stands ready to assist with any needs identified by the university,” Blanton wrote in an email.
Many dorms don’t have water on the upper floors; the JSU delivered water bottles to students last night and this morning. There is no laundry service in order to ensure water is going to students’ basic needs, and the library is closed. The university is working to bring in water for food prep in the dining hall, and to set up portable showers for students by tomorrow.
Some parts of campus had issues with air conditioning, but Bolden said that students should start noticing cooler temperatures inside this afternoon.
Students had multiple questions about whether it is safe to live in the dorms. A parent asked if they should prepare to bring their children home.
“You can come but as we’ve mentioned, you do have to be aware of the ever changing situation that’s happening and the impact to jackson state – we are not gonna turn away a student who arrives but it really is up to you at this point and your comfort level of whether you arrive on saturday,” Brown-McClure said.
During the town hall, McClure-Brown repeatedly told students that the campus is not in an “evacuation situation.”
“Again, the campus is open; we are not closed,” Brown-McClure said. “You can still hang out, you can still walk the plaza. I just looked outside. It’s a very beautiful day. Please engage with your peers … we just have to be mindful.”
“Campus safety is still here, the dining hall is still here, we are open,” she added.
The university can’t make any adjustments to tuition or housing because those rates are set by the state, McClure told students.
The administrators also fielded multiple questions from students about efforts to get JSU its own water system, a goal that became particularly urgent after last year’s ice storm froze flowing water to the university. Jackson’s water issues have caused periods of low and no water pressure on JSU’s campus as far back as 2010.
Hudson told students that JSU is actively working to study the feasibility of building its own water system on campus. He said there is state and federal funding available to help the university construct its own water system, but he did not go into specifics.
Four Mississippi universities have their own water systems, according to the Institutions of Higher Learning, including Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Mississippi State University, and the University of Mississippi.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center uses its own water source for about 90% of campus with the remaining coming from the city.
In an email to the faculty senate last week, Bolden wrote that the university has “initiated requests for funding to determine the best option to meet” its needs, including preparing a plan for an alternate water supply to serve JSU. It is “a primary and recurring conversation with the Department of Finance and Administration, members of the MS State Legislature, and officials in the City of Jackson.”
Millsaps is also looking to construct its own well system due to the impacts of the 2021 ice storm on students and the campus. The university is currently in the fundraising phase of the project.
Mitchell said that while Millsaps did not find a “direct correlation” between the ice storm and a decline in enrollment, Jackson’s water woes are difficult on students, faculty and staff.
“Part of the beauty of going to Millsaps is we have a great residential experience,” she said, “and certainly water is a key piece of that.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Tuesday the city’s water pressure is seeing improvements thanks to efforts to restore pressure in the system overnight, and that more residents are with water now than yesterday.
The mayor addressed Gov. Tate Reeves’ announcement Monday night that Jackson’s main treatment plant had begun to fail to produce drinking water for the city, which preceded a state of emergency that the governor declared on Tuesday.
“We’ve been going it alone for the better part of two years when it comes to the Jackson water crisis,” Lumumba said at the briefing. “Now we are excited to finally welcome the state to the table.”
While the mayor expressed his gratitude for the state’s assistance, he also disputed some of what Reeves described Monday night. For one, Lumumba said Reeves’ claim that untreated water was entering the distribution system is false.
He also said the current failure to produce adequate water pressure at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant is a result of the recent Pearl River flooding, rather than the pump malfunctions that Reeves described. Lumumba clarified that a pump issue at J.H. Fewell, the city’s secondary treatment plant, prevented the city from producing more water from there as O.B. Curtis undergoes maintenance.
The Jackson mayor first announced the pressure issues on Monday, hours before Reeves made a more drastic forecast for the water crisis alongside officials from the state health department, which is in charge of enforcing that the city complies with federal drinking water laws.
Reeves said state health officials told him on Friday of the possibility that Jackson’s water system could fail completely. Lumumba said he hadn’t heard the health department’s assessment until yesterday, just a couple hours prior to the governor’s announcement.
The mayor also addressed the governor’s statement that the city doesn’t have enough water to fight fires, saying that the Jackson Fire Department had yet to indicate it needed more water. Between JFD’s reserves and help from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Lumumba said the city does have adequate water to fight fires.
Lumumba described Tuesday’s news from O.B. Curtis as encouraging, saying that the number of people with water has gone up since yesterday, though he didn’t specify how many people in the city were impacted. Much of the progress in restoring pressure comes overnight, when the demand for water is low, he said.
“We have seen steady improvements in the system,” the mayor said. “There are individuals who did not have water pressure at all yesterday in which water pressure has returned, and the reports of the tanks is that there are steady gains being achieved each and every moment.”
The state health department clarified Tuesday that Jackson’s water is safe to drink when boiled for one minute. MSDH tweeted the clarification after multiple statements from state officials, including Reeves, the state health officer and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, saying plainly, “Do not drink the water.”
In light of a citywide water crisis, officials say the Jackson Fire Department has enough water to respond to fires.
“By the grace of God we haven’t had any incidents in the area where we didn’t have access to water,” Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Armon said Tuesday.
Pearl River flooding has caused a system-wide outage of the water system that serves more than 160,000 residents. Water pressure was reduced for the entire city Monday.
On Monday night, Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency and said an incident center would be set up to distribute water to residents.
The fire department found some areas didn’t have water or pressure in its hydrants yesterday. Armon said as of Tuesday, the department has seen water pressure return.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he has been in constant discussion with fire department leadership, including about its water reserves and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s ability to supplement the department’s water supply.
“We feel comfortable with our fire department’s reserves along with the support of MEMA,” Lumumba said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “If we meet the unfortunate circumstance of a fire, they would be able to continue.”
Generally, Armon said most water sources can be used to put out a fire. A pond or river could act as a water source as long as the department’s engine and hoses can reach it and debris is strained out before being pumped.
Armon said a portion of the fire department’s work is preparedness, including during recent heavy rains and flooding. Firefighters helped residents place sandbags to prevent flooding. The other day, he said a crew used a boat to help a resident retrieve necessities from their home in a flooded area, he said.
For the past few weeks since Jackson has been under a water boil notice, the fire department has distributed water to residents at its central station, Armon said. That distribution occurs daily at 2 p.m. at 555 South West St.
Armon said any situation that affects water access can impact firefighters’ ability to do their jobs. But he said the department is trained and prepared to work in less than ideal situations, including during a water crisis.
Jackson’s water crisis is affecting state government, with some offices based in Jackson reporting closures, delayed or shortened schedules and reduced staffing.
The Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees and maintains state office buildings and grounds, directed inquiries about state office operations to Gov. Tate Reeves’ office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
But several state agencies have reported their status. They include:
Mississippi Department of Human Services
The MDHS office in Hinds County is closed due to lack of water. Hinds County DHS staff is working from other MDHS offices in the metro and continuing their eligibility appointments by phone and video conference. Clients with appointments in Hinds County may expect contact from the case manager around their scheduled appointment time.
Child Support Enforcement offices in Jackson are closed. Please contact Child Support Customer Service at 877.882.4916 or visit one of the following locations:
Ridgeland
Yazoo City
Magee
Vicksburg
Forest
MDHS programmatic staff are processing applications and receiving calls as they are received.
Supreme Court, state courts
The Mississippi Supreme Court received communications on Monday afternoon, Aug. 29, from the state Department of Finance and Administration and the State Personnel Board and reviewed announcements from the City of Jackson regarding water issues affecting the capital city.
After conferring with the Supreme Court Executive Committee and department heads, Chief Justice Mike Randolph announced that the Gartin Justice Building will temporarily operate with reduced staff on Tuesday. Most staff of the appellate courts and the Administrative Office of Courts will work remotely. No decision has been made as to how long the reduced staffing and remote operations will be necessary.
Chief Justice Randolph, in his capacity as chief administrative officer of all courts in the state, finds that consistent with the Constitution of the State of Mississippi, all courts shall remain open. The Supreme Court, the Mississippi Court of Appeals and the Administrative Office of Courts will operate with essential staffing to keep the courts open. The office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals will remain open.
Presiding Justice Jim Kitchens said, “Because of COVID, we know how to operate remotely.”
Department of Archives and History/museums
The Two Mississippi Museums, Eudora Welty House & Garden, and the archives library will be closed Tuesday, August 30, 2022, due to the low water pressure in Jackson.
Visit www.mdah.ms.gov/explore-mississippi for more information about our one-of-a-kind museums, historical sites and cultural attractions throughout the state. Learn more about researching at archives here.
Driver’s License Services
Due to the water emergency in the city limits of Jackson, Mississippi, the Driver’s Service Bureau located at 1900 E. Woodrow Wilson Ave. in Jackson, Mississippi will be closed until further notice.
Driver’s Service staff will relocate to the Pearl Office/Troop C located at 3851 Highway 468 West, Pearl, Mississippi, 39208. This location will be appointment only. We encourage you to visit our website for any additional information.
“We appreciate your patience during this crisis in Jackson,” said Deputy Commissioner Keith Davis. “I assure you that our staff is committed to working and providing the customer service you come to expect from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Attorney General’s office
AG spokeswoman Michelle Williams said: “Some are teleworking. Many are in the office. We are asking everyone to go to the ground floor to use the restroom.”
Secretary of State
Office buildings located in the Jackson area are temporarily closed to the public due to the ongoing Jackson water crisis. All staff and resources are still available and will continue to provide first class service to all Mississippians by responding to emails, answering calls, and aiding with online resources.
For assistance, call 601-359-1350 during business hours or visit our website, sos.ms.gov, for more information. We will continue to provide updates, as necessary.
Department of Insurance
As of midday, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said his staff was working in the Woolfolk state office building downtown, though he said the water pressure was low.
An American city of 150,000 people is without running water. Pumps at the main water treatment plant in Jackson, Mississippi failed this week. Low water pressure means that many homes and businesses can’t even run the taps. Those that are getting a trickle are advised not to clean their teeth with it, let alone drink it, since it is likely contaminated.
How did this happen?
Jackson city leadership would like you to think it has something to do with all the recent rains we have had here in Mississippi. Speaking somewhat cryptically at a recent press briefing, Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Lumumba, said the water-treatment facility had been “challenged, as it relates to these flood levels”. Putting the blame on the rain, he went on to say that the city’s water administration was trying to “figure out how they contend with that additional water that is coming in”.
Officials in neighboring towns and cities, such as Madison, Flowood and Clinton, managed to figure out how to supply residents with clean water despite having just as much rain.
Unless the laws of physics are different in Jackson, the only logical conclusion one can draw from this fiasco is that Jackson’s water problems are a consequence of systemic mismanagement.
Two thousand years ago, the Romans figured out how to supply a city with running water by putting it in pipes. Jackson today seems to be struggling to master this technology.
Key water treatment plants in the city did not employ qualified personnel to run them. Now they have stopped running. What did city authorities think would happen?
For years, city authorities have underinvested in Jackson’s water infrastructure, to the point where it is now falling apart. This, some will be quick to tell you, is because of a lack of money. But why is there not enough money?
In 2017, Jackson’s water billing system collected $61 million in revenue, and the operating costs of the city’s water system were about $54 million. That left a healthy surplus that competent management might have allocated to meet maintenance costs.
This year, the amount of revenue collected is likely to be closer to $40 million, far below running costs. Not only is there no surplus to go towards maintenance, there does not seem to have been much maintenance even when there was a surplus.
How on earth does a city water authority manage to lose almost a third of its revenue in the space of five years? In large part because the city authorities have not collected revenue since they have lacked an effective water billing system.
Several years ago, Siemens was contracted to create a new billing system, while at the same time upgrading much of the city’s dilapidated water infrastructure. That arrangement ended with Siemens being sued by the city for $89 million.
Was that large dollop of Siemens’ money given to the city used to improve Jackson’s water system? Twice as much was spent on attorneys ($30 million) as went to improve Jackson’s water and sewage system ($14 million).
Given what happened with Siemens, I worry that Jackson might not be able to find a contractor willing to undertake the herculean task of fixing the city’s water supply, even if the money could be found. I also suspect that any large outside contractor prepared to undertake the task may want to ensure that they were free to subcontract with their preferred partners on the basis of value, and not to be subjected to various ‘contract rules’ on the basis of politics.
Without some sort of outside support, Jackson’s water crisis will not be resolved. Our’s may become the first state capital in America where it becomes impossible for residents to take a daily shower.
At the state level, Mississippi’s Governor Tate Reeves, who lives in Jackson, has stepped in. He has taken on the task of providing emergency water distribution to local residents – and offering state money to pay for half of it.
The federal government also seems keen to help out. President Biden specifically mentioned investing in Jackson’s water system, during the passage of the Infrastructure Bill. But as Representative Bennie Thompson has sensibly suggested, for the federal authorities to step in “the city to come up with a plan”. Representative Thompson is right.
The federal and state authorities seem willing to act. The key question is whether Jackson’s city leadership is willing to let them come in alongside.
Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. He lives and works in Jackson.
The City of Jackson and the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition is distributing drinking water and non-potable water daily amid the ongoing water crisis. The state has yet to announce any of its distributions site. This post will be updated.
For drinking water:
5 p.m. Monday – Friday
South Jackson
Sykes Community Center, 520 Sykes Rd.
Oak Forest Community Center, 2827 Oak Forest Dr.
West Jackson
Westland Plaza Parking Lot
IAJE Community Center, 406 W. Fortification St.
North Jackson
Grove Park Community Center, 4126 Parkway Ave.
11 a.m. Saturdays
Grove Park
Sykes Community Center
1 p.m. Sundays
Grove Park
Sykes Community Center
MS Move Across from Tougaloo College (3 – 7 p.m.)
Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition is a coalition of community organizations with a mission to provide rapid relief to communities in crisis in Mississippi.
The Jackson Municipal Airport Authority (JMAA) has also partnered with the City of Jackson to provide water to the Jackson community at Hawkins Field Airport on Tuesday, Aug. 30 and Sept. 13 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 558 W. Ramp St.
Non-potable water, for cleaning, flushing:
The City of Jackson has brought in tankers to distribute non-potable water to residents in need. Residents are asked to bring a container – such as a garbage can or cooler – to store the water. The tankers are located at Forest Hill High School at 2607 Raymond Road and at the MetroCenter at 3645 Highway 80.
Non-potable water is not of drinking quality, but may still be used for other purposes, such as flushing toilets, washing clothes and cleaning.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s ability to respond to a fire is compromised and the air conditioning system at the Jackson Medical Mall is not functioning properly as a result of the water emergency in Jackson.
A water tanker is on the way to the Jackson Medical Mall and should arrive “later this morning,” a memo sent out to UMMC employees and students on Tuesday from Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the chief executive of the hospital, said.
Woodward noted the main UMMC campus and the Lakeland Medical Building are on a well-water system and are not being impacted by the city’s water issues.
The memo also references a forthcoming announcement that encourages patients who have an appointment at a Jackson location outside the main campus to call the clinic to check on the status of their appointment.
According to an announcement released Monday, the main campus is under a fire watch until further notice as a result of “a continuous drop in city water pressure.” The announcement, which apparently did not reach some employees and students until Tuesday, stated that all faculty, staff and students shall be notified of the watch and “remain on a heighten (sic) state of awareness to any potential fire related issues during this time.”
The state health department declared a public drinking water supply emergency for Jackson on Tuesday, the morning after Gov. Tate Reeves announced that the city’s treatment system had begun to fail.
As we work to get you the information you need, we want to know what questions you have and how the water crisis is affecting you. Please complete the survey below to share your questions, concerns and pictures.
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The state health department declared a public drinking water supply emergency for Jackson on Tuesday, the morning after Gov. Tate Reeves announced that the city’s treatment system had begun to fail.
The release listed the following reasons for the declaration:
• Insufficient number of certified operators at J.H. Fewell and O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plants • Insufficient number of maintenance staff at all water treatment plants and to support the distribution system • Failure of multiple raw water pumps at O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant • Low levels of water in storage tank • Low water pressure impacting proper sanitation and education opportunities
The statement also said that disinfection levels are not reliable enough to prevent the potential of disease-causing organisms in the drinking water, including E. Coli, cryptosporidium, and giardia.
As part of the declaration, the Mississippi State Health Department is ordering that City of Jackson employees “cooperate with state response teams and contractors deployed to augment current staffing and to take remediation actions deemed necessary by the State Incident Commander.”
In his announcement on Monday, Reeves said that the state was deploying health department staff to O.B. Curtis on Tuesday to evaluate the plant’s ability to produce water.
In a tweet Tuesday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency instructed Jackson residents on what to do and not do during the current boil water notice. MEMA wrote not to drink the water, although neither MEMA nor MSDH have clarified since yesterday whether or not the water is safe to drink after boiling it.
Yesterday, State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney instructed residents to boil water for three minutes before using water to drink, brush teeth or cook.
