Jackson is finally beginning the process of renegotiating terms of its sewer consent decree.
The capital city entered the decree in 2012 and agreed to make some $400 million in upgrades to its aging sewer system to bring it into compliance with federal water quality laws.
Since then, the costs associated with those upgrades have soared to between $600 million and $800 million, placing at minimum an extra $3,600 burden on each of the city’s 167,000 residents.
After working for more than a year to stave off a federal takeover of the city’s sewer system, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s team has completed several tasks to restore the city’s “good faith” with federal officials – a requirement before new consent decree talks could begin.
“We had to restore good faith with the EPA, to show them we were actually going to be able to execute around our goals. We worked out a short plan with the EPA, they were pleased with our progress and wanted to continue a conversation on what a major modification of the decree would look like,” said Jackson Chief Administrative Officer Robert Blaine.
The EPA is the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The decree is overseen by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice. The agreement was filed in U.S. District Court.
Mississippi is in EPA Region Four, an eight-state region that also includes Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky.
“We will report back to the EPA in two months with a financial model of what revenues would look like and a framework for the renegotiation,” Blaine said.
The financial model would outline the city’s projected water and sewer revenues, as well as how future improvements would be funded. The framework would include what work would be done and when, Blaine said.
“That will actually be the initiation of the process. Of course, we will have to go back to federal court to get the changes approved,” he said.
The decree is essentially a lawsuit brought against the city for being in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. Any major modifications to the document would have to be approved by a federal magistrate.
For months, the Lumumba administration has been working to prevent a federal takeover of the sewer system.
The feds were eyeing a conservatorship after the city failed to meet numerous decree requirements under former Mayor Tony Yarber.
With a takeover, Jackson would have lost complete control of its water and sewer program, meaning the city and its residents would be at the dictates of the federal government.
To stave off conservatorship, Jackson began work to address its water and sewer billing problems, found funding to address sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), and issued bonds to make upgrades to the Savanna Street Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The plant, which is located in South Jackson, was cited for numerous violations of state and federal environmental rules.
SSOs occur where breaks or backups in the sewer system cause untreated wastewater to back up into the environment.
As for water billing problems, in the spring, Public Works Director Robert Miller told the city council that around 20,000 customers were not receiving regular statements.
The city brought on Siemens to help correct the problem, and as of last week about 70 percent of those stranded accounts had been corrected.
And last week, Jackson borrowed $7 million from the city’s one-percent oversight commission to address the worst of the worst SSOs.
That work aside, Jackson is able to modify its decree thanks to several executive orders handed down by former President Barack Obama. Under the rules, EPA is required to gauge how potential water and sewer increases affect an area’s poorest residents.
Municipalities typically fund decree work through utility rate increases. In 2013, Jackson increased its water and sewer rates by 29 and 100 percent respectively.
Deputy City Attorney Terry Williamson discussed the changes in federal policy with the city council last year.
“Instead of focusing on median income (the EPA now focuses) on the lower 20 to 25-percent income levels and looks at what rates (would be necessary to do the work), and what impact (higher rates) would have on those folks,” he said.
Jackson’s per capita income is $19,768 a year, about $10,000 less than the national average, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures.
The median household income in the city is around $33,000, about $22,000 less than the national median, Census data shows.
About 31 percent of the city’s residents live in poverty, compared to 12.7 percent of national residents.
“For a city that has a median income below the national average, it would be a challenge for us to meet the schedule and deliverables that are set out in the decree,” Blaine said previously.
Under the decree, Jackson was given 17.5 years to make some $400 million in sewer upgrades.
Last year, city officials revised initial estimates, saying the improvements would cost between $600 million to $800 million.
In January, the council brought on attorney Susan Richardson, with the Atlanta-based law firm Kilpatrick, Townsend and Stockton to represent the city in the talks.
Blaine was unsure how long the renegotiations would take place. “It will be a lengthy process. We will be entering a new agreement with the federal government,” he said. “We don’t expect that to happen immediately, but we’re beginning the process.”
