Analysis of documents obtained by the Northside Sun about the ongoing problems with the Jackson water system show that the city tried to circumvent drinking water safety standards during the ice storm that crippled the city’s water for weeks.
The emails also show a public works department inundated with infighting between personnel, poor morale and an administration concerned with increasing the pressure while not receiving complete information from the Public Works Department.
The problems with Jackson’s system also knocked the Mississippi Public Health Laboratory, which tests drinking water samples from around the state for contamination, off-line during that time.
The Northside Sun requested all emails and other written communications between the city of Jackson, the Mississippi Department of Health (MSDH) and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 4.
The city declined to provide the emails, citing attorney/client privilege. The MSDH and the EPA approved the request and have either issued the records or are in the progress of providing the required documents.
Jackson’s two water treatment plants and the city’s distribution system have been under regulatory scrutiny for years, first for problems with the PH level (which can corrode some of the older lead pipes in the system and allow lead to leak into the drinking water) and now for problems with dissolved solids and disinfection of the water.
Jackson is served by two water treatment plants: O.B.Curtis located on the Ross Barnett Reservoir and J.H. Fewell located on the Pearl River near Interstate 55.
In a February 20, 2021 email between several MSDH employees that work in the Bureau of Public Water Supply, several city of Jackson employees asked the MSDH if they could put two more filters into service to increase the system’s pressure. The filters were off-line since the ultraviolet lights that disinfect the water were inoperable.
The MSDH told the city they would have to get permission from the EPA, issue a do not drink water order and incur a violation. The public works department decided not to bring the disabled filters online. The email also says one of the city’s three certified treatment plant operators quit, leaving the other two to perform 12 hour shifts without an off-day.
In a February 23, the sender said they felt the agency wasn’t getting the whole story from the public works officials and were contemplating a surprise visit.
In an email sent on February 28 among MSDH employees, the sender says city officials overrode the concerns of the two certified operators to get more water into the system to increase the pressure.
The inspection report of O.B. Curtis from February 25 is even more damming, with critical treatment equipment non-operational and infighting between city employees.
“Earlier in the site visit, things were very tense between Dr. (Charles) Williams (Director of Public Works) and Mr. (Leander) Crowley (a senior water plant operator). Lots of shouting and anger between them was observed,” the report said.
The report also said the city had no reserve water, with storage tanks low or empty and numerous malfunctioning monitors, alarms and instruments that the report blamed on the lack of a full-time instrumentation technician. The report also said the operators reported issues with someone other than licensed or operators in training switching chlorine feed tanks from a full tank to an empty one. Also, the report said that the standard operating procedures that non-operators consult with operators before making any changes to the process weren’t being followed.
Management, according to the report, told the operators to get as much water into the system no matter what because there is a boil water notice in place. The implication in the report is that the boil water notice protected the city from compliance with clean water regulations both state and federal.
The city’s website is still advertising two instrument technician positions at O.B. Curtis that are open until filled. The position only pays $13.64 per hour and the employee must establish residence in the city limits. One position has been open since April 13, 2018 and the other since March 10.
The Mississippi Department of Health’s Bureau of Water Supply referred the city to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after an inspection on February 3, 2020 of the city’s two water treatment plants. After the inspection, the EPA followed with an order to the city on March 27, 2020, which says it is a final agency action and commands the city to make changes to its water system.
The order was revealed to the city council by Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba almost a year after it was issued to the city.
The EPA order said conditions in the Jackson system represented “an imminent and substantial endangerment to the persons served by the system.”
The February 3, 2020 inspection conducted by the Mississippi Department of Health and the EPA office found numerous discrepancies in both water treatment plants, including turbidity (the measure of the degree in which water loses transparency because of dissolved solids), disinfection concerns with ultraviolet lights and disinfectant chemical storage and the condition of the distribution system, which is plagued by numerous leaks and breaks.
On April 30, there was an electrical fire at the OB Curtis plant that shut down one of the plant's pumps and caused the issuance of a boil water notice citywide. The citywide boil water notice wasn’t lifted until May 3.
There also has been an ongoing problem with some of the city’s nine groundwater wells, six of which are in operation. Since March, the city has endured numerous problems with the wells that feed south Jackson and the city of Byram. The Siwell Road well is back online with a new pump and a precautionary boil water notice in place for the next two days.
