Mississippi Today
‘Forever chemicals’ in drinking water are worrying Mississippi residents
If Alabama’s experience foreshadows Mississippi’s future, expect the EPA to find plenty of toxic “forever chemicals” in the drinking water.
A 2022 map shows Alabama with plenty of drinking water exceeding the recommended limit for these chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, kidney disease, liver problems, decreased immunity, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid issues.
Mississippians remain in the dark about these forever chemicals, however, because the state doesn’t test.
Anna Reade, senior scientist at the National Resource Defense Council, said testing is critical to keeping drinking water safe. “We can’t assume we don’t have exposure to PFAS unless we test,” she said. “Maine found high levels of PFAS in wells that had gone untested for two decades.”
Once hailed for producing items that could resist heat, stains or water, these chemicals are now considered a menace around the globe. Five nations have already agreed to a European ban on PFAS.
Such a ban would cover the thousands of different types of PFAS, which can be found in everything from non-stick cookware to dental floss. The most closely studied PFAS are perfluorooctanoic acid — PFOA — and perfluorooctanesulfonate — PFOS.
Rather than ban all PFAS, the EPA initially put health advisories on those two chemicals at 70 parts per trillion in drinking water, which have since been updated to well under 1 ppt for PFOA and for PFOS. EPA’s newly proposed regulation would limit them to 4 ppt each.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan is pushing to reduce current limits because of health problems associated with these chemicals. He said such a change would “prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-related illnesses.”
A 2020 study suggests up to 200 million Americans are drinking forever chemicals beyond 1 part per trillion — a level that some experts have proposed as a safe limit for drinking water.
Les Herrington, director of Environmental Health for the state Department of Health, discounted the health risks to Mississippians. He pointed to EPA testing in 2013 and 2014, which “all produced results below detection limits and did not indicate potential concerns at that time.”
Recent testing by Consumer Reports, in collaboration with Mississippi Spotlight, however, raises questions about what might have happened since.
Consumer Reports tested 149 drinking municipal and well water samples in Mississippi’s 82 counties. Of those, 146 contained measurable levels of PFAS. Nearly a third of them exceeded EPA’s health advisory for PFOA in drinking water, and almost half exceeded the health advisory for PFOS.
Crystal Dotson, 39, of Corinth and her family saw their drinking water tested at 92.5 ppt in total PFAS, which is far beyond the level of 10 that Consumer Reports recommends. (The EPA has no recommendation on total PFAS, just PFOA and for PFOS.)
She wonders if the forever chemicals have played a role in the declining health of her family since they moved to the city of Corinth a decade ago.
Her 56-year-old husband, Tim, who was in good health, has now developed high blood pressure and polycystic kidney disease. Both hypertension and kidney disease have been linked to these forever chemicals.
Before moving to Corinth, he took blood pressure medicine. Now he’s allergic to that medicine and similar medication.
Their 17-year-old daughter, Stella, is now suffering from two auto-immune diseases, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. A series of studies have found exposure to PFAS interfere with immune function.
Their 13-year-old daughter, Veda, had to visit a cardiologist because her heart rate and blood pressure were spiking. “They’re running all kinds of tests,” Dotson said.
She said she believes forever chemicals are playing a role in the decline of her family’s health. “You really feel helpless. Our kids are starting out life sick.”
In 2013, the city of Corinth began to get its drinking water from the Tennessee River via the Tenn-Tom Waterway.
Experts say PFAS can be found at oil refineries, water treatment plants, airports, military sites and a number of industrial sites. From there, the PFAS migrate into streams, landfills or other places before winding up in the soil and drinking water.
Tim believes his family, which also gets their drinking water from the Tennessee River, has been affected. “My brother-in-law has two types of cancer,” he said. “My sister has brain cancer. Everybody in my family has had cancer.”
Many states aren’t waiting for the EPA to act. Bills attacking the PFAS problem have been introduced in 35 states, including Georgia, Florida and Texas, according to Safer States. At least half have taken steps to regulate PFAS in drinking water or expand their monitoring. Mississippi isn’t one of them.
As for Dotson, she isn’t waiting. She plans to talk with the city of Corinth about these PFAS.
Since learning what was in their tap water, the Dotsons have started drinking from store-bought bottles, costing them about $15 a week.
Consumer Reports has identified four water filters, including two pitchers and two under-sink models, that can help consumers filter out forever chemicals.
Some systems, such as reverse osmosis, can cost thousands, which is more than many Mississippians can afford. Even if they can, they might not be able to install such a system, because a third of Mississippians, like the Dotsons, rent their homes.
Crystal hopes the family can convince their landlord to install a reverse osmosis system, she said. “We worry about our children. We want to help them.”
Kelly Hunter Foster, senior attorney for the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental advocacy organization, said a more ideal solution would be for states to prohibit the release of PFAS, “rather than try to filter them out on the back end. The public should not have to pay for the pollution that these companies create.”
Mississippi is one of at least 18 states that have sued PFAS manufacturers and distributors, saying they knew “these compounds were toxic” and sold them anyway. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, demands that they pay “to investigate, assess, remediate, monitor, and restore the sites in Mississippi” where PFAS were used. Minnesota settled with one manufacturer, 3M, for $850 million.
Mississippi’s lawsuit identifies these known sites as contaminated: Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center, Gulfport Naval Construction Battalion Center, Keesler Air Force Base, Columbus Air Force Base, Key Field Air National Guard Base, Jackson Air National Guard Base and Naval Air Station Meridian.
Military bases typically use firefighting foam, which has historically contained PFAs. These forever chemicals can be found in many other places, including fast-food packaging. In a 2022 study, Consumer Reports found PFAS in packaging from every retailer tested.
“Additional investigation and testing will undoubtedly uncover further contamination across the State,” the lawsuit says.
In January 2022, Emmy Morrison and her husband bought their downtown Hattiesburg home.
They found water filters on the faucets because of the lead. She was stunned to find out the bigger problem was PFAS.
Thousands of these forever chemicals exist, but regulators test for only a handful of them.
“Unless you are controlling and testing for all those different types of PFAS, you’re missing major amounts of risk,” said Foster of the Waterkeeper Alliance. “When we look at samples we see some of the highest levels in the rare lesser types of PFAS.”
A decade ago, EPA officials tested for six forever chemicals in 80 of Mississippi’s drinking water systems. This year, they are testing for 29 chemicals in 239 water systems and will release the results here.
Consumer Reports tested for 43 chemicals. That is far short of the thousands of PFAS that exist.
Rather than attack PFAS as a class, the regulatory system in America “is stuck on a toxic treadmill,” said Reade of the National Resource Defense Council. “The EPA has taken a small step in the right direction to get off that treadmill.”
In contrast, the European Union is moving toward phasing out all PFAS, she said. “They’re attacking PFAS at their source. Here, we’re still approving new PFAS.”
The National Resource Defense Council is pushing to reduce “people’s exposure to PFAS,” she said. “We can’t make it zero, but we can definitely reduce their exposure and, therefore, their risk. We need to stop adding to the problem in the first place.”
In Morrison’s home, Consumer Reports found a total of 43.6 PFAS, which is four times more than Consumer Reports’ recommendation of 10.
That concerns the 62-year-old Morrison. “I’m glad I’m not young,” she said.
At least 2,000 people have filed litigation against DuPont, alleging that pollution from the plant has harmed their health, and juries have awarded millions in damages.
In 2005, the EPA uncovered evidence that DuPont had concealed the toxic effects of PFOA, and the company paid a $10.25 million fine, which the agency at the time called the largest environmental administrative penalty in its history.
In 1981, DuPont spotted PFOA in blood samples from pregnant workers in its plant in Washington, West Virginia, and at least one woman had transferred the chemical to her baby, according to the settlement. A decade later, the company learned that the forever chemical was in the public water supply.
DuPont said nothing, and in 2001, the EPA learned of the problem from an attorney working on class-action litigation on behalf of citizens in Ohio and West Virginia who had been affected by the chemical, according to the settlement.
As for House, testing showed total PFAS in her drinking water to be 20.7.
“We’ve got junk in the water,” she said. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Before the 74-year-old moved back to her hometown eight years ago, she had a reverse osmosis system for her drinking water in Tampa. Now back on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, she has no such system.
These days, she uses a refrigerator filter on the tap water she drinks. Now she wonders what she needs to do to be safe. “Do I need to bring Perrier from France?” she asked.
She is researching the matter, she said. “I didn’t come this far in life to want to come down with liver cancer.”
This investigation was conducted by Consumer Reports in partnership with Mississippi Spotlight, a collaboration between Mississippi Today, the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate said he’s putting his decision on hold over whether to approve JXN Water’s proposed rate increase until after he finds out what happened with roughly $90 million from a settlement with Siemens.
In 2020, the city of Jackson settled its lawsuit with the German company over years of faulty metering for water services. While about a third of the $90 million went to legal fees, city officials couldn’t immediately say where the rest of those funds went during a status conference Monday.
City Attorney Drew Martin said he was working to comply with a subpoena Wingate issued last week looking for an accounting of the settlement dollars, adding that he would have those details within a day or two. While he couldn’t say for sure where the money went, Martin said the city spent about $50 million within a few months after the settlement, and that there was $8 million remaining as of 2022.
Ted Henifin, who runs JXN Water and first proposed the rate increase in February, said the increase would still be necessary even if the utility received all the money from the Siemens settlement. He said the utility’s day-to-day management is operating at a deficit, and that the $60 million from the settlement — what Jackson received after paying its lawyers — would only cover losses for the next two years.
Henifin added that he’s asking the federal government to move around its funding to the city so he can spend more of it on operations and management. Without a boost to JXN Water’s finances, he said the utility would have to stop paying its contractors.
Wingate inquired about the settlement money during a two-day status conference last month. Henifin told the judge he had no idea what the city did with the funds. Wingate explained Monday that he wanted to make sure he was aware of all possible funding for JXN Water before approving a second rate increase in as many years.
It’s unclear how soon he’ll decide. In addition to Jackson officials, Wingate issued the subpoena on July 9 to the state and federal government as well as four different law firms. The subpoena gives the parties 30 days to produce any information on where the settlement funds went.
The judge also brought up the city’s history with shutting off nonpaying customers. Martin explained that the city, under then Mayor Tony Yarber, agreed to pause shutoffs for customers who had issues with Siemens’ water meters. Jackson prepared to bring back shutoffs in 2019, he said, but put them on hold again during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Rate decision on hold as Wingate tracks down Siemens funds 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 maintains a factual, neutral tone focused on reporting the status of a legal and financial issue concerning Jackson’s water utility and the Siemens settlement funds. It presents statements from both the judge and city officials without editorializing or taking sides. The language is straightforward and balanced, emphasizing transparency and accountability rather than ideological framing. The article refrains from promoting any political viewpoint and instead centers on the procedural and fiscal aspects of the case, aligning it with neutral, centrist reporting.
Vicksburg National Military Park is receiving over $5 million toward restoring a key monument and removing a building that previously was used as a visitors’ center.
Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park recently announced a $2.8 million private donation to the park by John L. Nau III, a Texas businessman and philanthropist who was a founding board member of the nonprofit Friends organization.
The National Park Service’s Centennial Challenge program will match the donation with $2.5 million in federal funds.
The money will go to restoring the Illinois Memorial and removing an unrelated building that was “erroneously constructed on core battlefield ground — an intrusion that obscures the story and sacrifices of the men who fought and died there in 1863,” according to the Friends.
“Standing on restored battlefield ground gives visitors a chance to truly understand the story of Vicksburg — not just read about it, but feel it,” Bess Averett, executive director of the Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park, said in a press release. “Visitors deserve to walk this hallowed ground and see it as Union and Confederate soldiers saw it during the siege.”
In 1863, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant laid siege to Vicksburg. After 47 days, the Confederate army surrendered, and the defeat turned the tide of the Civil War as the Union gained control of the Mississippi River.
Vicksburg National Military Park was established in 1899 at the battleground. It commemorates the siege and its role in the Civil War, as well as those who fought.
The Illinois Memorial is dedicated to more than 36,000 soldiers from that state who fought in Vicksburg. Both the stone and the inscriptions inside the building have worn down from weather exposure.
In the release, Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park said the park needs both public and private support, as the National Park Service manages over 400 units nationwide.
“We need donors and volunteers now more than ever before,” Averett said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Donor aids Civil War battlefield in Vicksburg 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 factual reporting on a private donation to Vicksburg National Military Park without evident ideological slant. The piece focuses on the historical significance of the park, the restoration efforts funded by both private and federal sources, and quotes from a nonprofit executive emphasizing the need for support. The language is neutral and informative, avoiding political framing or partisan commentary. It reports on the actions and statements of involved parties without promoting a particular political viewpoint, adhering to balanced coverage of the subject matter.
A Jackson County Chancery Court judge is denying the public access to a case that involves several politically connected Mississippians and their failed venture to ticket uninsured motorists using cameras and artificial intelligence.
Media companies Mississippi Today and the Sun Herald have filed for relief with the state Supreme Court, arguing that Chancery Judge Neil Harris improperly closed the court file without notice and a hearing to consider alternatives. The media outlets say the court file should be opened.
Mississippi Today in June filed its motion asking that Harris unseal the case, which he denied six days later.
Gulfport attorney Henry Laird writes in the media companies’ petition for state Supreme Court review, “The Chancery Court sealing the entire court file both before and after Mississippi Today’s motion to unseal the file violates the public and press’ cherished right of openness and access to its public court system and records.”
Mississippi judges have long followed a 1990 state Supreme Court decision that says, “A hearing must be held in which the press is allowed to intervene on behalf of the public and present argument, if any, against closure.”
Instead, Harris said he found no hearing necessary after reviewing the pleadings to open the file. The case, he said, is between two private companies.
“There are no public entities included as parties,” he wrote, “and there are no public funds at issue. Other than curiosity regarding issues between private parties, there is no public interest involved.”
The case involves what is usually a public function: Issuing tickets to the owners of uninsured vehicles. And, according to one party to the case, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety is owed $345,000 from the uninsured motorist program.
READ MORE: Private business ticketed uninsured Mississippi vehicle owners. Then the program blew up.
Since the entire court file is closed, the public is unable to see why the judge sealed the case. The Mississippians said in the Chancery Court case that they have “substantial” business interests to protect and “a lot of political importance,” an attorney opposing them said in a related federal case that is not sealed.
Georgia-based Securix LLC signed up its first Mississippi client in 2021, the city of Ocean Springs, an agreement with the city showed. Securix developed a program that uses traffic cameras, artificial intelligence and bulk data on insured motorists to identify the owners of vehicles without insurance.
To sign on other Mississippi cities, Securix enlisted three well-known consultants, Quinton Dickerson, Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson. Dickerson and Gregory are Republican political operatives in Jackson who have run numerous state and local campaigns and advise many of the state’s top elected officials. Wilkinson, a Coast attorney, has represented local governments and government agencies, including the city of Ocean Springs.
MS business partnership sours
In 2023, the Mississippians formed QJR LLC. Their company entered a 50-50 partnership with Securix called Securix Mississippi.
Securix Mississippi sold the cities of Biloxi, Pearl and Senatobia on the uninsured driver program.
Fees collected from uninsured drivers were apportioned to the company, the cities and the Department of Public Safety, the operating agreement with Biloxi showed.
The citations offered three options, according to copies included in a federal lawsuit filed by three Mississippi residents who received them:
- Call a toll-free number and provide proof of insurance.
- Enter a diversion program that charges a $300 fee and includes a short online course and requires agreement that the vehicle will not be driven uninsured on public roadways.
- Contest the ticket in court and risk $510 in fines and fees, plus the potential of a one-year driver’s license suspension.
The Securix Mississippi partnership soon soured.
Securix Chairman Jonathan Miller of Georgia said in a sworn court declaration submitted in the federal case that he was subjected around March 2024 to a “freeze out” by members and/or employees of QJR. They stopped giving him information, Miller said.
The Department of Public Safety in August pulled the plug on the controversial ticketing program, shutting off the company’s access to the insured driver database.
In September, QJR filed its Chancery Court lawsuit against Securix LLC.
What is known about the case comes from documents in the federal court file. QJR claims the company and its members have been defamed by Miller and Securix and wants their 50-50 business partnership dissolved.
The Chancery Court case does not even show up when the parties are searched for by name.
With a case number gleaned from the federal court file, a search of chancery records shows only that the case is under seal.
Normally, when a case is under seal, the docket would still be available. A docket lists all records and proceedings in a case. While sealed records are listed and described, they can’t be viewed.
“There is no court file,” attorney Laird said in asking the Supreme Court to review Judge Harris’ decision to leave the file sealed. “There is no docket sheet. There is absolutely no access on the part of the public or press to their public court file in this case.”
Judge closes file without public notice
All Mississippi court files are presumed open unless they are closed with notice and a hearing under guidelines established in the 1990 case Gannett River States Publishing Co. vs. Hand.
“It appears that the judge ignored what has been settled law in Mississippi since 1990,” said retired Jackson attorney Leonard Van Slyke, who represented Gannett in the case and still advises the media.
He added, “Since that time, there have not been many efforts to close a courtroom or a court file because the rules are pretty clear as to when that can be done. It is obvious from the rules that this would be a rare occurrence.”
A court file can be closed only if a party in the case requesting closure can show an “overriding interest” that would be prejudiced by publicity.
The Supreme Court said in 1990 that the public is entitled to at least 24 hours’ notice — on the court docket — before a judge considers closure. As a representative of the public, the media has a right to a hearing before a court file or proceeding is closed.
At the hearing, the judge must consider the least restrictive closure possible and reasonable alternatives. The judge also must make findings that explain why alternatives to closure were rejected.
The court wrote in Gannett vs. Hand:
“A transcript of the closure hearing should be made public and if a petition for extraordinary relief concerning a closure order is filed in this Court, it should be accompanied by the transcript, the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, and the evidence adduced at the hearing upon which the judge bases the findings and conclusions.”
Because Judge Harris held no hearing, the high court will have a scant record on which to base its review. Without a court record, Laird pointed out in his filing, the public can have no confidence the judge made a sound decision.
Kevin Goldberg, an attorney who serves as vice president and First Amendment expert at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Freedom Forum, said the First Amendment guarantees the public access to courts.
In the Securix case, he said, a private business was doing work normally performed by a police department or other public agency, and residents could be snared into legal proceedings when they received tickets and public funds were involved.
“These are not private people in a small town, going about their business,” Goldberg said. “These people’s business is the public’s business . . . I think that means they need to accept that they’re going to be scrutinized all the time, including when they voluntarily make a decision to go to court.”
This article was produced in partnership between the Sun Herald and Mississippi Today.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Coast judge upholds secrecy in politically charged case. Media appeals ruling. 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 maintains a largely factual and investigative tone, focusing on government transparency, judicial procedure, and public access to court records. It critiques the secrecy upheld by a judge in a politically sensitive case involving private companies executing public functions, highlighting concerns about accountability and public interest. The framing leans slightly toward advocating for open government and media rights, values often associated with center-left perspectives. However, it stops short of overt ideological framing or partisan language, striving to report the facts and legal context while underscoring the public’s right to scrutiny.
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