Mississippi Today

Jackson declares emergency over Christmas water woes

Published

1 year ago

December 27, 2022

Jackson declares emergency over Christmas water woes

by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today
December 27, 2022

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Tuesday, a day after issuing a local state of emergency, that the city's crews were working with contractors in searching for leaks in Jackson's water system as residents still deal with little to no pressure coming out of their taps.

The city issued a citywide boil water notice, the third one this year, around 10 a.m. Christmas morning. The mayor said Tuesday that pressure had improved the last two days, but is still low because of unidentified leaks throughout the city's water lines.

Lumumba said there are five crews of workers roaming the city to find those leaks, but also called upon the help of residents, asking Jacksonians not to assume the city already knows the locations of all the leaks.

The boil water notice impacts the over 170,000 people who drink from Jackson's surface water system. Lumumba clarified that the city's well system customers should also boil their water.

“We've heard from residents who have not had water for days, I've spoken to residents who were scrambling to fix Christmas dinner with little to no water,” Lumumba said Tuesday. “I've spoken to residents who are tired of apologies.”

The recent calamity comes just days after Congress announced a historic $600 million investment towards the city's water system, and just a few weeks after the federal government and Jackson reached an agreement over a temporary third-party takeover.

When asked about solutions, the mayor said part of the answer will be adding new gauges throughout the city to help more quickly identify leaks. But he also emphasized the need to weatherize the pipes, as well as the treatment plants.

The O.B. Curtis treatment plant was at the root of the last cold weather shutdown of the city's water system in 2021, when exposed equipment at the plant broke down in the face of frigid temperatures. The city has since started to cover parts of O.B. Curtis, but the weatherization of the plant is incomplete.

City officials first told residents about the lack of pressure on Saturday, Christmas Eve, and said the city's crews were working to determine the cause as both plants were functioning. A news release later that night said many parts of south and northwest Jackson had low water pressure, and that some residents reported losing running water altogether.

Officials said Monday that it was getting “more and more” reports of little to no water pressure in west and south Jackson, as well as in Byram.

The cold weather, a constant foe to Jackson's aging distribution system, dropped as low as 16 degrees on Saturday.

The recent federal aid to Jackson largely came as a result of the last citywide boil water notice, which ended in September after state and federal intervention. While the short-term support helped stabilize the system, Jackson has issued over 50 boil water notices to different parts of the city since then, showing the persisting fragility of its distribution system.

Declaring the local emergency helps the city distribute resources such as potable water as quickly as possible, said Lumumba, who added that he's requested additional help from the state emergency agency.

To help identify water leaks from ruptured pipes around the city, officials ask that residents report information to 311 or 601-960-1111 during business hours, or 601-960-1875 after business hours.

Residents can refer to the state Health Department's list of what to do during a boil water notice, which includes using boiled water to brush teeth, make ice, and wash food with.

Lumumba added that residents should stop letting their faucets drip as the weather warms up to help reduce water demand.

Jackson officials are working with the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition to distribute water. Elderly or disabled residents can call 311 to have water delivered. The city listed the following sites for water distribution on Tuesday:

South Jackson:

2 p.m.

Candlestick Plaza off Cooper Road, Jackson, MS

Northwest Jackson:

2 p.m.

Corner of Northside Drive and Manhattan Road near Smillow Prep

West Jackson

2 p.m.

Metro Center Mall near old Dillards Loading Dock

Byram

2 p.m.

Davis Road Park

2515 Davis Road

For updates on future water distribution, residents can call 311 or 601-960-1875 for information.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1892

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19 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Staff Editor

April 22, 1892

Fiery civil rights pioneer Vernon Johns was born in Darlington Heights, Virginia, in Prince Edward County. He taught himself German and other languages so well that when the dean of Oberlin College handed him a book of German scripture, Johns easily passed, won admission and became the top student at Oberlin College.

In 1948, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, hired Johns, who mesmerized the crowd with his photographic memory of scripture. But he butted heads with the middle-class congregation when he chastised members for disliking muddy manual labor, selling cabbages, hams and watermelons on the streets near the state capitol.

He pressed civil rights issues, helping Black rape victims bring their cases to authorities, ordering a meal from a white restaurant and refusing to sit in the back of a bus. No one in the congregation followed his lead, and turmoil continued to rise between the pastor and his parishioners.

In May 1953, he resigned, returning to his family farm. His successor? A young preacher named Martin Luther King Jr.

James Earl Jones portrayed the eccentric pastor in the 1994 TV film, “Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story,” and historian Taylor Branch profiled Johns in his Pulitzer-winning “Parting the Waters; America in the King Years 1954-63.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Rep. Sam Creekmore says Legislature is making progress on public health, mental health reforms

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House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, tells Mississippi Today's Geoff Pender and Taylor Vance he's hopeful he and other negotiators can strike a deal on Medicaid expansion to address dire issues in the unhealthiest state.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1966

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-04-21 07:00:00

April 21, 1966

Portrait of Private First Class Milton Lee Olive III (1946 – 1965) of the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Phu Cuong, South Vietnam, October 22, 1965. He became the first African-American Medal of Honor winner of the Vietnam War for ‘conspicuous gallantry' in sacrificing his life to save others by smothering an enemy grenade with his own body. (Photo by US Army/PhotoQuest/Getty Images) Credit: U.S. Army

Milton Olive III became the first Black soldier awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

Olive had known tragedy in his life, his mother dying when he was only four hours old. He spent his early youth on Chicago's South Side and then moved to Lexington, Mississippi, where he stayed with his grandparents.

In 1964, he attended one of the Mississippi Freedom Schools, and he joined the work in Freedom Summer, registering Black voters. Concerned that he might be killed, his grandmother sent him back to Chicago, where he joined the military on his 18^th birthday.

“You said I was crazy for joining up,” he wrote. “Well, I've gone you one better. I'm now an official U.S. Army Paratrooper.”

He joined the U.S. Army's 173^rd Airborne Brigade and became known as “Preacher” for his quiet demeanor and his tendency to avoid cursing. On Oct. 22, 1965, helicopters dropped Olive and the 3^rd Platoon of Company B into a dense jungle near Saigon. They returned fire on the Viet Cong, who retreated. As the soldiers pursued the enemy, a grenade was thrown into the middle of them. Olive grabbed the grenade and fell on it, absorbing the blast with his body.

“It was the most incredible display of selfless bravery I ever witnessed,” the platoon commander said.

Olive saved his fellow soldier's lives. Then-President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the medal to his father and stepmother, and he has since been honored with a park and a junior college named for him.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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