Mississippi Today
Struggling water, sewer systems impose ‘astronomic’ rate hikes
This is the second half of a two-part story on small water and sewer systems. Read part one here.
A December hearing at the Woolfolk Building in downtown Jacskon started to sound like an auction: Fifty percent. One hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred. State officials watched studiously from their dais as customers recited how much their water and sewer bills ballooned in the last few years.
Judy Johnson’s sewer bill in Raymond went from $16 in 2022, to $40 in 2023, to $52 in 2024, to $67 two months after that. David Huber in Natchez said his combined water and sewer bill grew from $50 to $108 in that same time.
“This is just for sewer?” Kathy Hardy, also of Raymond, recalled thinking when she saw the rate changes.
The three of them are among 28,000 Mississippi customers of Central States Water Resources, or Great River as its subsidiary in the state is known. In 2021, Central States – which operates in 11 states, mostly in the South – arrived in Mississippi, where it now owns 123 small water and sewer systems.
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In Mississippi, which has the lowest median income in the country, many Great River customers are seeing costs skyrocket for basic necessities that were or are still below regulatory standards. But for years, many of them previously paid low rates to providers who were, in turn, neglecting or underinvesting in their infrastructure.
“It just cascades and everyone keeps kicking the can until a crisis happens,” said Central States founder Josiah Cox. “The butcher’s bill is coming due. These places are falling apart.”
The result is a chasm between the perceived and actual costs of delivering water and sewer services.
In 2014, Cox started the St. Louis-based company hoping to fill a niche: buying and restoring struggling small systems that other large utility firms wouldn’t touch.
“Our thesis was pretty simple,” he said. “There’s small, failing water and wastewater systems all over the country. The giant publicly traded utilities don’t want to mess with them.”
Smaller companies often can’t afford administrative costs, like presenting rate cases in front of the state’s Public Service Commission. Larger companies aren’t interested because it would take years to see a return on their investment.
While Mississippi officials at the time were happy to welcome a company with Central State’s resources, the state’s ratepayers gave Cox’s team a tepid reception, to put it mildly.
In 2022, as the company started transitioning ratepayers to new rates to fund improvements, the PSC received letters from 800 Mississippians. They described Great River as “greedy,” accusing it of “gouging” them with “unconscionable” rate hikes.
“We are on a fixed income and finding it difficult just (to) pay our debts and put food on the table and pay for gas and meds,” one letter from a Senatobia customer read. “I pray your office will deny this increase request.”
As it turns out, Central States’ customers had similar complaints in Louisiana, Kentucky and Missouri, and ratepayers in North Carolina and Texas have called out the company over poor water quality and pressure.
Nina McGee, a Great River customer in Panola County, said her water bill used to be just $12 a month, which she admitted was “ridiculous.”
“I understand an increase,” said McGee, who lives in the town of Pope with less than 300 other people. “I just don’t understand why it’s got to increase that much. It’s tripled in three years.”
In the Wellsgate community, just outside of Oxford, residents sent 132 complaints to the PSC from 2020 to 2021. Most bemoaned poor water quality or water leaks. Great River bought the utility later in 2021 and found that, among other problems, the previous owner hooked up an unpermitted groundwater well – a violation of both state and federal law – that bypassed treatment and created a “blending of treated water and raw groundwater.”
Over the next two years, according to data from the PSC, Great River made about $1.5 million worth of improvements, such as adding new pumps and capacity to the water system. In 2022, PSC filings show, the company proposed raising the average water bill in Wellsgate from $12 to $47, a nearly 300% increase. Dozens of Wellsgate residents wrote the PSC in opposition.
“In no universe does this seem like an acceptable course of action,” one email said.
The company also took control of some of the state’s worst performing small sewer systems, including the ones Mississippi Today recently reported on. Many of those utilities hadn’t raised rates in years. Nearly 30 of the small sewer systems the company purchased, Cox said, never charged a rate at all. Some of those systems depreciated so much that Great River bought them for one dollar each.
At the December meeting in Jackson, Central States engineer Jacob Freeman testified to the PSC about the condition of some of the state’s sewage lagoons, a common form of treatment for small service areas like a subdivision. Freeman described lagoons he saw in the state where so much sludge had accumulated that it “breached the (water’s) surface.”
“At that point, you’ve taken up all the volume in the lagoon, so whatever small amount of treatment that Mother Nature could’ve provided originally is no longer happening, and raw wastewater is short-circuiting the lagoon, going out the back end,” he said, adding that, in similar cases, he’ll find bloodworms or pathogens pouring into the receiving watershed. “That’s dumping into a creek where maybe kids play, or flows down into another body of water that could be recreational. It’s a very, very bad situation.”
Freeman also testified that even with the high number of sewer facilities in the state violating their effluent limits for different pollutants – about one in three have done so in the last year, a Mississippi Today analysis found – others that seem to be in compliance could be circumventing Mississippi’s relatively lax testing requirements.
Many states, he explained, mandate quarterly or even monthly testing, versus the “once or twice annually” the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality requires. So a utility that doesn’t meet permit limits, Freeman said, can choose to only be tested during suitable weather conditions when it’s less likely to have a violation.
MDEQ Executive Director Chris Wells emphasized that an operator could face criminal charges for lying about their test results or misrepresenting compliance. But practically speaking, Wells explained, the agency can’t regulate every system the same way.
“If you’ve got a system like Jackson’s that’s discharging (millions) of gallons a day into the Pearl River, that’s got much more of a propensity to cause environmental damage than a small lagoon somewhere in rural Mississippi that’s discharging 5,000 gallons a day into a tributary somewhere,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t care about that, we do, it’s just that it’s lower priority from an enforcement or from an inspection standpoint.”
In the roughly four years it’s been in Mississippi, Great River says it’s invested $27 million in system improvements, and has brought 35 sewer systems back into compliance.
Some customers, like James Windsor in Pass Christian, say while the new rates feel steep, their service has gotten better. Windsor said his water bill went from $18 a month to $51, which he felt would be a fair price if it also included sewer.
“Are we getting our money’s worth? I don’t think so, but it is better,” he said about improvements to water pressure and customer service.
Others say they haven’t seen any difference in what they’re paying for, and also criticize Great River’s pricing model. The company spreads out its repair costs, meaning someone on the Coast’s bill may increase, in part, to pay for repairs in north Mississippi. Doing so, the company said, keeps bills affordable for small customer bases whose systems need millions of dollars in investments.
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“I don’t think that’s quite fair,” said Andy Horyza, who lives in the Turkey Creek subdivision in Olive Branch. “If you’re living in a brand new subdivision and your costs are higher than mine, well guess what? Your costs are higher than mine, you should be covering that.”
Horyza, who relies on Social Security income, paid around $17 per month for sewer for about 20 years until Great River bought the system in 2021. Over the next three years, Horyza said, his bill jumped nearly 350%.
The company’s rates vary. For a sewer system using a lagoon, for instance, rates are about $42 per month, versus $59 a month for systems with actual treatment plants. For water, average bills are around $44.
In a February vote, state regulators at the PSC sided with their angered constituents, voting 2 to 1 to deny Great River’s latest rate hike. The PSC changed hands completely in the 2023 statewide elections. Southern District Commissioner Wayne Carr won his seat with a campaign criticizing Great River. Carr and Northern District Commissioner Chris Brown argue the company hasn’t justified the rates they’re charging.
“The service hasn’t changed, but the rates went up extensively,” Brown said, estimating that other rural customers on average pay less than $30 a month for water. “So the question is why? You’re supposed to have economies of scale. As public service commissioners, we want to make sure that rate payers are getting what they’re paying for.”
Central District Commissioner De’Keither Stamps disagreed. Stamps, the lone opposing vote, said some people would be “outraged” if they knew about the condition of their water and sewer systems, and that it’s unlikely the necessary funds to fix them will come from somewhere else.
“I choose to operate in reality,” he said. “The campaigning is over. It’s time to govern.”
Stamps also argued that if Great River appealed the PSC’s decision – which it since did in Harrison County Circuit Court – the company could then add its legal expenses to future rate increases. That case is ongoing.
Leo Manuel, a Mississippi attorney representing the company, explained the previous trio of commissioners set Great River’s rate schedule, so most customers’ bills were set to increase regardless of the February vote.
The reality, some experts believe, is that some customers of small utilities around the country are facing a seismic shift in the cost of their basic services, whether it happens now or later. Not only have many of these systems not accounted for the true financial needs of their infrastructure, but they also lack economies of scale. And for many small private systems, which don’t have the same access to government grants as public utilities, raising rates is the only way to make the difference. A 2023 federal report estimated that small water systems in Mississippi alone will need $3.4 billion in investments over the next two decades.
Greg Pierce, who directs the Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, said without significant public funding – even after historic federal influxes in recent years – water and sewer providers are faced with few other options.
“I hate to be bleak, but what are the other alternatives?” Pierce asked. “The public entities are not stepping up to assist systems at scale. We haven’t really gotten serious about reforming the system or putting a scale of money into it that would really move the needle on helping small communities.
“That was true even with the Biden administration, and that’s certainly true now. So I don’t know, it’s a little bit bleak.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center has acquired Canton-based Merit Health Madison and is preparing to move a pediatric clinic to Madison, continuing a trend of moving services to Jackson’s suburbs.
The 67-bed hospital, now called UMMC Madison, will provide a wide range of community hospital services, including emergency services, medical-surgical care, intensive care, cardiology, neurology, general surgery and radiology services. It also will serve as a training site for medical students, and it plans to offer OB-GYN care in the future.
“As Mississippi’s only academic medical center, we must continue to be focused on our three-part mission to educate the next generation of health care providers, conduct impactful research and deliver accessible high-quality health care,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC’s vice chancellor of health affairs, said in a statement. “Every decision we make is rooted in our mission.”
The new facility will help address space constraints at the medical center’s main campus in Jackson by freeing up hospital beds, imaging services and operating areas, said Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for health affairs.
UMMC physicians have performed surgeries and other procedures at the hospital in Madison since 2019. UMMC became the full owner of the hospital May 1 after purchasing it from Franklin, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems.
The Batson Kids Clinic, which offers pediatric primary care, will move to the former Mississippi Center for Advanced Medicine location in Madison. This space will allow the medical center to offer pediatric primary care and specialty services and resolve space issues that prevent the clinic from adding new providers, according to Institutions of Higher Learning board minutes.
A UMMC spokesperson did not respond to questions about the services that will be offered at the clinic or when it will begin accepting patients.
The Mississippi Center for Advanced Medicine, a pediatric subspecialty clinic, closed last year as a result of a settlement in a seven-year legal battle between the clinic and UMMC in a federal trade secrets lawsuit.
The changes come after the opening of UMMC’s Colony Park South clinic in Ridgeland in February. The clinic offers a range of specialty outpatient services, including surgical services. Another Ridgeland UMMC clinic, Colony Park North, will open in 2026.
The expansion of UMMC clinical services to Madison County has been criticized by state lawmakers and Jackson city leaders. The medical center does not need state approval to open new educational facilities. Critics say UMMC has used this exemption to locate facilities in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods outside Jackson while reducing services in the city.
UMMC did not respond to a request for comment about its movement of services to Madison County.
UMMC began removing clinical services this year from Jackson Medical Mall, which is in a majority-Black neighborhood with a high poverty rate. The medical center plans to reduce its square footage at the mall by about 75% in the next year.
The movement of health care services from Jackson to the suburbs is a “very troubling trend” that will make it more difficult for Jackson residents to access care, Democratic state Sen. John Horhn, who will become Jackson’s mayor July 1, previously told Mississippi Today.
Lawmakers sought to rein in UMMC’s expansion outside Jackson this year by passing a bill that would require the medical center to receive state approval before opening new educational medical facilities in areas other than the vicinity of its main campus and Jackson Medical Mall. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed the legislation, saying he opposed an unrelated provision in the bill.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post UMMC hospital madison county appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The article presents a primarily factual report on UMMC’s expansion into Madison County, outlining the medical center’s services and strategic decisions while including critiques from Democratic leaders and local officials about the suburban shift. The inclusion of concerns over equity and access—highlighting that the expansion is occurring in wealthier, whiter suburbs at the expense of services in majority-Black, poorer neighborhoods—leans the piece toward a center-left perspective, emphasizing social justice and community impact. However, the article maintains a measured tone by presenting statements from UMMC representatives and government officials without overt editorializing, thus keeping the overall coverage grounded in balanced reporting with a slight progressive framing.
Nationally known comedian Rita Brent will host the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute’s “Medgar at 100” Concert on June 28.
Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 14, and can be ordered on the institute’s website.
The concert will take place at the Jackson Convention Complex and is the capstone event of the “Medgar at 100” Celebration. Organizers are calling the event “a cultural tribute and concert honoring the enduring legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers.”
“My father believed in the power of people coming together — not just in protest, but in joy and purpose, and my mother and father loved music,” said Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the institute. “This evening is about honoring his legacy with soul, celebration, and a shared commitment to carry his work forward. Through music and unity, we are creating space for remembrance, resilience, and the rising voices of a new generation.”
In addition to Brent, other featured performers include: actress, comedian and singer Tisha Campbell; soul R&B powerhouse Leela James; and Grammy award-winning artist, actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Q Parker and Friends.
Organizers said the concert is also “a call to action — a gathering rooted in remembrance, resistance, and renewal.”
Proceeds from the event will go to support the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute’s mission to “advance civic engagement, develop youth leadership, and continue the fight for justice in Mississippi and beyond.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Rita Brent, Q Parker headline 'Medgar at 100' Concert appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents a straightforward, factual report on the upcoming “Medgar at 100” concert honoring civil rights leader Medgar Wiley Evers. The tone is respectful and celebratory, focusing on the event’s cultural and community significance without expressing a political stance or ideological bias. It quotes organizers and highlights performers while emphasizing themes of remembrance, unity, and justice. The coverage remains neutral by reporting the event details and mission of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute without editorializing or promoting a specific political viewpoint. Overall, it maintains balanced and informative reporting.
Residents at Chapel Ridge Apartments in Jackson are left wondering what to do next after months dealing with trash pileups, property theft and the possibility of water shutoffs due to the property owner skipping out on the bill.
On Sunday, Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley, city attorney Drew Martin and code enforcement officers discussed next steps for the complex, which, since April 30, has been without a property manager.
“How are you all cracking down on other possible fraudulent property managers around Jackson?” one woman asked Martin.
“ We don’t know they’re there until we know they’re there, and I know that’s a terrible answer, but I don’t personally have another one I’m aware of right now,” Martin said. “These individuals don’t seem to have owned another apartment complex in the Metro Jackson area, despite owning a whole bunch nationwide.”
Back in April, a letter was left on the door of the leasing office advising residents to not make rental payments until a new property manager arrives. The previous property managers are Lynd Management Group, a company based in San Antonio, Texas.
The complex has been under increased scrutiny after Chapel Ridge Apartments lost its solid waste contract mid-March due to months of nonpayment. The removal of dumpsters led to a portion of the parking lot turning into a dumping site, an influx of rodents and gnats, and an investigation by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Local leaders pitched in to help remedy the situation, and in May, Waste Management provided two dumpsters for the complex.
However, the problems persisted. In May, JXN Water released the names of 15 apartment complexes that owe more than $100,000 in unpaid water fees. Chapel Ridge was on the list. JXN Water spokesperson Aisha Carson said via email that they are “pursuing legal options to address these large-scale delinquencies across several properties.”
“While no shutoffs are imminent at this time, we are evaluating each case based on legal feasibility and the need to balance enforcement with tenant protections. Our focus is on transparency and accountability, not disruption—but we will act when needed to ensure the integrity of the system,” Carson said.
And earlier this week, Chapel Ridge Apartments was declared a public nuisance. Martin said this gives the city of Jackson “the authority to come in, mow the grass and board up any of the units where people aren’t living.”
Martin said the situation is complicated, because the complex is owned by Chapel Ridge Apartments LLC. The limited liability corporation is owned by CRBM Realty Inc. and Crown Capital Holdings LLC, which are ultimately owned by Moshe “Mark” Silber. In April, Silber was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Earlier this month, both companies filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey.
Now, Martin said the main goal is to find someone who can manage the property.
“Somebody’s got to be able to collect rent from you,” Martin said. “They got to be able to pay the water. They got to be able to pay the garbage. They got to be able to pay for the lights to be on. They got to maintain the property, so that’s our goal is to put that in place.”
Chapel Ridge offers a rent scale based on household income. Those earning under 50% of the area median income — between $21,800 and $36,150 depending on household size — for example, pay $480 for a two-bedroom and $539 for a three-bedroom unit. Rent increases between $20 and $40 for those earning under 60% of the area median income.
Valarie Banks said that when she moved into Chapel Ridge nearly 13 years ago, it was a great community. The disabled mother and grandmother moved from West Jackson to the complex because it was neatly kept and quiet.
“It was beautiful. I saw a lot of kids out playing. There were people that were engaging you when you came out. They were eager to help,” Banks said. “ I hope that they could bring this place back to the way it once was.”
But after months of uncertainty, Banks is preparing to move. She said she’s not the only one.
“I have somewhere to go, but I’m just trying to get my money together so I can be able to handle the deposits and the bills that come after you move,” she said. “All of my doctors are around here close to me. In 12 years, I made this place home for me. … I’ve been stacking my rent, but it’s still not enough if I want to move this month.”
While she said she’s holding onto her rent payments for the time being, she realizes that many of her fellow residents may not be as lucky. Without someone to maintain the apartments, some residents are finding themselves without basic amenities.
“Some people are in dire straits, because they don’t have a stove or a fridge or the air conditioner,” she said. “Their stove went out, or the fridge went out, or they stole the air conditioner while you’re in the apartment.”
Banks isn’t the only one who is formulating a plan to leave. One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she’s been trying to save money to move, but she already has $354 wrapped up in a money order that she’s unable to pass off for her rent, due to the property manager’s recent departure.
“It really feels like an abandonment and just stressful to live where I’m living at right now. This just doesn’t happen. It just feels stressful. It doesn’t feel good at all,” she said.
She’s trying to remain optimistic, but as each day passes without someone to maintain the property, she’s losing hope.
“ I just hope that things get better some day, somehow, hopefully, because if not, more than likely I’m going to have to leave because I can only take so much,” she said. “I can’t continue to deal with this situation of hoping and wishing somebody comes, and they don’t.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Future uncertain for residents of abandoned south Jackson apartment complex appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This article from *Mississippi Today* primarily focuses on the struggles of low-income residents at Chapel Ridge Apartments, emphasizing the human impact of property mismanagement, regulatory gaps, and systemic neglect. The piece maintains a factual tone, but it centers the voices of vulnerable tenants and local officials seeking accountability—hallmarks of a center-left perspective. While it does not overtly advocate for policy change, the narrative framing highlights social injustice and institutional failures, subtly aligning with progressive concerns about housing equity and corporate responsibility.
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