Court-appointed manager of Mississippi capital water system gets task of fixing sewage problems

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Updated 6:43 PM GMT-2:30, July 26, 2023

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The independent manager working to fix the long-troubled water system in Mississippi’s capital city will also be assigned to oversee repairs to the city’s deteriorating sewer system, under an order filed Wednesday by a federal judge.

Officials from the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Jackson all agreed to give the extra duties to Ted Henifin.

Jackson has struggled with water problems for decades. The federal government intervened in the water system after many of the city’s 150,000 residents and many businesses were left without running water last August and September after heavy rains exacerbated problems at a water treatment plant. People waited in lines for water to drink, bathe, cook and flush toilets in Jackson as some businesses were temporarily forced to close for lack of safe drinking water.

Jackson also has longstanding problems with its sewer system. The city agreed to enter a consent decree in 2012 with the EPA to prevent the overflow of raw sewage and bring the city into compliance with the Clean Water Act. Reports required by the consent decree showed more than 4 billion gallons of untreated or partially treated wastewater were dumped into the Pearl River between March 2020 and February 2022.

https://apnews.com/article/jackson-mississippi-water-sewer-5a0ea5a1d2b12005c69d7a5a77ab0424