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.
After more than 10 months closed due to mold, asbestos and issues with the air conditioning system, Thalia Mara Hall has officially reopened.
Outgoing Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba announced the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall during his final press conference held Monday on the arts venue’s steps.
“Today marks what we view as a full circle moment, rejoicing in the iconic space where community has come together for decades in the city of Jackson,” Lumumba said. “Thalia Mara has always been more than a venue. It has been a gathering place for people in the city of Jackson. From its first class ballet performances to gospel concerts, Thalia Mara Hall has been the backdrop for our city’s rich cultural history.”
Thalia Mara Hall closed last August after mold was found in parts of the building. The issues compounded from there, with malfunctioning HVAC systems and asbestos remediation. On June 6, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office announced that Thalia Mara Hall had finally passed inspection.
“We’re not only excited to have overcome many of the challenges that led to it being shuttered for a period of time,” Lumumba said. “We are hopeful for the future of this auditorium, that it may be able to provide a more up-to-date experience for residents, inviting shows that people are able to see across the world, bringing them here to Jackson. So this is an investment in the future.”
In total, Emad Al-Turk, a city contracted engineer and owner of Al-Turk Planning, estimates that $5 million in city and state funds went into bringing Thalia Mara Hall up to code.
The venue still has work to be completed, including reinstalling the fire curtain. The beam in which the fire curtain will be anchored has asbestos in it, so it will have to be remediated. In addition, a second air-conditioning chiller needs to be installed to properly cool the building. Until it’s installed, which could take months, Thalia Mara Hall will be operating at a lower seating capacity of about 800.
“Primarily because of the heat,” Al-Turk said. “The air conditioning would not be sufficient to actually accommodate the 2,000 people at full capacity, but starting in the fall, that should not be a problem.”
Al-Turk said the calendar is open for the city to begin booking events, though none have been scheduled for July.
“We’re very proud,” he said. “This took a little bit longer than what we anticipated, but we had probably seven or eight different contractors we had to coordinate with and all of them did a superb job to get us where we are today.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open 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
The article presents a straightforward report on the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, focusing on facts and statements from city officials without promoting any ideological viewpoint. The tone is neutral and positive, emphasizing the community and cultural significance of the venue while detailing the challenges overcome during renovations. The coverage centers on public investment and future prospects, without partisan framing or editorializing. While quotes from Mayor Lumumba and a city engineer highlight optimism and civic pride, the article maintains balanced, factual reporting rather than advancing a political agenda.
Mississippi Today
‘Hurdles waiting in the shadows’: Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor
On his last day as mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba recounted accomplishments, praised his executive team and said he has no plans to seek office again.
He spoke during a press conference outside of the city’s Thalia Mara Hall, which was recently cleared for reopening after nearly a year of remediation. The briefing, meant to give media members a peek inside the downtown theater, marked one of Lumumba’s final forays as mayor.
Longtime state Sen. John Horhn — who defeated Lumumba in the Democratic primary runoff — will be inaugurated as mayor Tuesday, but Lumumba won’t be present. Not for any contentious reason, the 42-year-old mayor noted, but because he returns to his private law practice Tuesday.
“I’ve got to work now, y’all,” Lumumba said. “I’ve got a job.”
Thalia Mara Hall’s presumptive comeback was a fitting end for Lumumba, who pledged to make Jackson the most radical city in America but instead spent much of his eight years in office parrying one emergency after another. The auditorium was built in 1968 and closed nearly 11 months ago after workers found mold caused by a faulty HVAC system – on top of broken elevators, fire safety concerns and vandalism.
“This job is a fast-pitched sport,” Lumumba said. “There’s an abundance of challenges that have to be addressed, and it seems like the moment that you’ve gotten over one hurdle, there’s another one that is waiting in the shadows.”
Outside the theater Monday, Lumumba reflected on the high points of his leadership instead of the many crises — some seemingly self-inflicted — he faced as mayor.
He presided over the city during the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in crime it brought, but also the one-two punch of the 2021 and 2022 water crises, exacerbated by the city’s mismanagement of its water plants, and the 18-day pause in trash pickup spurred by Lumumba’s contentious negotiations with the city council in 2023.
Then in 2024, Lumumba was indicted alongside other city and county officials in a sweeping federal corruption probe targeting the proposed development of a hotel across from the city’s convention center, a project that has remained stalled in a 20-year saga of failed bids and political consternation.
Slated for trial next year, Lumumba has repeatedly maintained his innocence.
The city’s youngest mayor also brought some victories to Jackson, particularly in his first year in office. In 2017, he ended a furlough of city employees and worked with then-Gov. Phil Bryant to avoid a state takeover of Jackson Public Schools. In 2019, the city successfully sued German engineering firm Siemens and its local contractors for $89 million over botched work installing the city’s water-sewer billing infrastructure.
“I think that that was a pivotal moment to say that this city is going to hold people responsible for the work that they do,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba had more time than any other mayor to usher in the 1% sales tax, which residents approved in 2014 to fund infrastructure improvements.
“We paved 144 streets,” he said. “There are residents that still are waiting on their roads to be repaved. And you don’t really feel it until it’s your street that gets repaved, but that is a significant undertaking.”
And under his administration, crime has fallen dramatically recently, with homicides cut by a third and shootings cut in half in the last year.
Lumumba was first elected in 2017 after defeating Tony Yarber, a business-friendly mayor who faced his own scandals as mayor. A criminal justice attorney, Lumumba said he never planned to seek office until the stunning death of his father, Chokwe Lumumba Sr., eight months into his first term as mayor in 2014.
“I can say without reservation, and unequivocally, we remember where we started. We are in a much better position than we started,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba said he has sat down with Horhn in recent months, answered questions “as extensively as I could,” and promised to remain reachable to the new mayor.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post 'Hurdles waiting in the shadows': Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor 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 reports on outgoing Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s reflections without overt editorializing but subtly frames his tenure within progressive contexts, emphasizing his self-described goal to make Jackson “the most radical city in America.” The piece highlights his accomplishments alongside challenges, including public crises and a federal indictment, maintaining a factual tone yet noting contentious moments like labor disputes and governance issues. While it avoids partisan rhetoric, the focus on social justice efforts, infrastructure investment, and crime reduction, as well as positive framing of Lumumba’s achievements, aligns with a center-left perspective that values progressive governance and accountability.
The federal government is restoring $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools.
The U.S. Department of Education notified states last week that it would reinstate pandemic relief funds. The decision comes less than three months after the federal government revoked billions nationwide as part of Trump administration efforts to cut government spending.
State education agencies and school districts originally had until March 2026 to spend the money, but the federal government claimed that because the pandemic was over, they had no use for the money.
That March 2026 deadline has been reinstated following a series of injunctive orders.
A coalition of Democratic-led states sued the federal government in April over the decision to withhold the money. Then, a federal judge granted plaintiff states injunctive orders in the case, which meant those states could continue spending their COVID-relief dollars while other states remained restricted.
But the education department decided that wasn’t fair, wrote Secretary Linda McMahon in a letter dated June 26, so the agency was restoring the money to all states, not just the ones involved in the lawsuit.
“The original intent of the policy announced on March 28 was to treat all states consistently with regards to safeguarding and refocusing their remaining COVID-era grant funding on students,” she wrote. “The ongoing litigation has created basic fairness and uniformity problems.”
The Mississippi Department of Education notified school districts about the decision on Friday.
In the meantime, schools and states have been requesting exemptions for individual projects, though many from across the country have been denied.
Eleven Mississippi school districts had submitted requests to use the money to fund services such as tutoring and counseling, according to records requested by Mississippi Today, though those are now void because of the federal government’s decision.
Starting immediately, school districts can submit new requests to the state education department to draw down their federal allocation.
Mississippi Today previously reported that about 70 school districts were relying on the federal funds to pay for a range of initiatives, including construction projects, mental health services and literacy programs.
In 2023, almost half of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, pandemic relief money allocated to schools across the country, went to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. A third went to operational and staff costs, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education.
Though Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann previously said that legislative leaders might consider helping agencies that were impacted by federal funding cuts, House Speaker Jason White said Monday that he did not have an appetite for directing state funds to pandemic-era programs.
Small school districts were already feeling the impact of the federal government’s decision to rescind the money. In May, Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board voted to terminate a contract on a school construction project funded with federal dollars.
The litigation is ongoing, so the funding could again be rescinded.
Clarification: A previous version of this article misstated the status of school districts’ pandemic relief money.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money 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 primarily reports on the federal government’s decision to restore $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools after a temporary freeze. It presents factual information about the timeline, legal actions, and responses from various state officials without adopting a partisan tone. The piece mentions the involvement of Democratic-led states suing the federal government and notes Republican-aligned efforts to cut spending, but does so in a balanced way focused on reporting events and statements rather than promoting a political viewpoint. The language remains neutral and factual, avoiding loaded or biased framing, making it a straightforward news report with centrist bias.
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