Millsaps College is taking steps so it will no longer have to rely on the city of Jackson as its primary source of water.
The college is moving ahead with a plan estimated to cost $3.5 million to $4 million to dig two water wells and add a water tower on the west side of the campus.
“We hope within a few months we’ll begin the work,” said Rob Pearigen, president of the college that sits on 100 acres in the center of Jackson. “The current plan is to be finished by early spring or summer 2023.”
The water tower and one of the wells will be located north of the Kappa Alpha fraternity house and another well will be located near the West Street entrance to the facilities management department.
Much of the infrastructure is already in place, although some water lines will need to be upgraded. The plan is to drill for ground water about 800 feet into the Sparta Aquifer. “We’re assured the Sparta Aquifer has water,” Pearigen said.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the college a letter stating the 200-foot-tall water tower would not be a hazard to air navigation, he said.
The capacity of the water tower is still being determined but it should be able to hold either 100,000 gallons of water or 150,000 gallons of water, he said.
“We don’t have a design yet for the tower,” Pearigen said. “We think it might be a great opportunity to show the Millsaps logo far and wide.”
The severe winter storm in February 2021 that affected not only the campus but the entire city of Jackson and shut down the city’s water system led the college to consider plans for its own water system.
“The tipping point for us was last February when the city lost water and the campus lost water for two weeks,” he said. “We were right in the middle of the semester and it was challenging to take care of our students. I shudder to think of students walking into restrooms with signs reminding them to wash their hands for 20 seconds, but they couldn’t. It was a nightmare for everybody.
“We had to bring in shower trailers, porta-potties, provide buckets of water at the residence halls for toilet flushing and bottled water. Our students and faculty deserve better.”
Water pressure is a challenge on the Millsaps campus when the city’s system loses pressure because the campus sits on the highest elevation in the city and the state, Pearigen said.
That’s not a problem at Belhaven University, just a few blocks away from Millsaps, where there are no plans to become independent of the city’s water system.
“Our problems have not been as severe as theirs because our elevation is lower,” said Dr. Roger Parrott, president at Belhaven University. “I know they have really had it tough with water.”
The cost of providing necessary services in February 2021 was more than $20,000, the cost alone for the mobile showers, but beyond that it was challenging to personnel, he said.
“Coleman Bond, our director of facilities, and his team slept on cots in our physical plant facilities so they could be on campus during that time,” he said. “Aramark Food Service and Amy Abbot, our director of food service, provided three meals a day for students, using boiled water and bottled water.”
There’s no data about it but it’s possible the lack of water on campus or just the news about the city’s water woes could have had an impact on student recruitment, Pearigen said.
“Recruitment matters 365 days a year,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine there weren’t some families who got wind that we didn’t have water and that would cause them second thoughts. You have to be able to guarantee clean water and I can’t help but think it caused some doubts.”
The Windgate Foundation, which funded half of the new $6 million Windgate Visual Arts Center on campus, has committed $1.5 million to the project, provided the college can raise $1 million, Pearigen said.
“We have currently raised a little over $200,000,” he said. “We will soon be kicking off a clean water campaign to raise the million-dollar match.”
Pearigen said he spoke with Jackson Mayor Antar Chokwe Lumumba about the plan. “I assured him that while we are planning to go water sufficient, we would support any efforts that our city leadership is making to improve the water system,” he said.
Millsaps will join the ranks of some of its neighbors that include the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Mississippi Baptist Medical Center that do not rely on the city water system.
After experiencing two extended periods of interrupted water service from the city supply within a two-year period, Baptist elected to construct an independent potable water supply on campus while maintaining a connection to the city system for redundancy.
A $1 million water well system was recently built at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds to make the fairgrounds independent of the Jackson water system. Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson decided the fairgrounds needed its own well when the February 2021 water crisis meant many of the Dixie National Rodeo events had to be canceled due to no access to water.
