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Jackson declares emergency over Christmas water woes

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2 years ago

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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 1906

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3 hours ago

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January 22, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-01-22 07:00:00

Jan. 22, 1906

Willa Beatrice Brown served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. Credit: Wikipedia

Pioneer aviator and civil rights activist Willa Beatrice Brown was born in Glasgow, Kentucky. 

While working in Chicago, she learned how to fly and became the first Black female to earn a commercial pilot’s license. A journalist said that when she entered the newsroom, “she made such a stunning appearance that all the typewriters suddenly went silent. … She had a confident bearing and there was an undercurrent of determination in her husky voice as she announced, not asked, that she wanted to see me.” 

In 1939, she married her former flight instructor, Cornelius Coffey, and they co-founded the Cornelius Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first Black-owned private flight training academy in the U.S. 

She succeeded in convincing the U.S. Army Air Corps to let them train Black pilots. Hundreds of men and women trained under them, including nearly 200 future Tuskegee Airmen. 

In 1942, she became the first Black officer in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. After World War II ended, she became the first Black woman to run for Congress. Although she lost, she remained politically active and worked in Chicago, teaching business and aeronautics. 

After she retired, she served on an advisory board to the Federal Aviation Administration. She died in 1992. A historical marker in her hometown now recognizes her as the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license in the U.S., and Women in Aviation International named her one of the 100 most influential women in aviation and space.

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

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Mississippi Stories Videos

Mississippi Stories: Michael May of Lazy Acres

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20 hours ago

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January 21, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – rlake – 2025-01-21 14:51:00

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey takes a trip to Lazy Acres. In 1980, Lazy Acres Christmas tree farm was founded in Chunky, Mississippi by Raburn and Shirley May. Twenty-one years later, Michael and Cathy May purchased Lazy Acres. Today, the farm has grown into a multi seasonal business offering a Bunny Patch at Easter, Pumpkin Patch in the fall, Christmas trees and an spectacular Christmas light show.  It’s also a masterclass in family business entrepreneurship and agricultural tourism.

For more videos, subscribe to Mississippi Today’s YouTube channel.

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 1921

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1 day ago

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January 21, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-01-21 07:00:00

Jan. 21, 1921

George Washington Carver Credit: Wikipedia

George Washington Carver became one of the first Black experts to testify before Congress. 

His unlikely road to Washington began after his birth in Missouri, just before the Civil War ended. When he was a week old, he and his mother and his sister were kidnapped by night raiders. The slaveholder hired a man to track them down, but the only one the man could locate was George, and the slaveholder exchanged a race horse for George’s safe return. George and his brother were raised by the slaveholder and his wife. 

The couple taught them to read and write. George wound up attending a school for Black children 10 miles away and later tried to attend Highland University in Kansas, only to get turned away because of the color of his skin. Then he attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, before becoming the first Black student at what is now Iowa State University, where he received a Master’s of Science degree and became the first Black faculty member. 

Booker T. Washington then invited Carver to head the Tuskegee Institute’s Agriculture Department, where he found new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops. 

In the past, segregation would have barred Carver’s testimony before Congress, but white peanut farmers, desperate to convince lawmakers about the need for a tariff on peanuts because of cheap Chinese imports, believed Carver could captivate them — and captivate he did, detailing how the nut could be transformed into candy, milk, livestock feed, even ink. 

“I have just begun with the peanut,” he told lawmakers. 

Impressed, they passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. 

In addition to this work, Carver promoted racial harmony. From 1923 to 1933, he traveled to white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. Time magazine referred to him as a “Black Leonardo,” and he died in 1943. 

That same year, the George Washington Carver Monument complex, the first national park honoring a Black American, was founded in Joplin, Missouri.

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

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