Jackson water update: Federal judge questions EPA public meetings, Henifin details system progress

On Thursday evening and Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency held listening sessions in the capital city to hear Jacksonians’ thoughts on the work being done with the city’s drinking water system.

While many recognized the progress in the system’s reliability, residents continued to lament JXN Water’s increased water bills, which went into effect earlier this year despite a key component of the billing change — a discount for SNAP recipients — being held up in court. Most of the complaints centered around the new $40 availability charge, as well as issues getting help through JXN Water’s call center in Pearl.

A meeting the EPA held at the Mississippi e-Center in Jackson to talk about the progress with the drinking water system, Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today

But before those meetings kicked off, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, whose 2022 order put JXN Water and its leader Ted Henifin in charge of the water rehabilitation, criticized federal attorneys over the EPA’s decision to hold the public meetings.

During a Thursday afternoon status conference, where Henifin detailed the faster-than-expected progress in fixing Jackson’s sewer system, Wingate questioned DOJ attorney Karl Fingerhood, who represents the EPA in the lawsuit over Jackson’s water system, for roughly an hour about the meetings.

The judge wondered why the EPA would invite feedback from the public in a venue outside the court, and even asked Fingerhood if the listening sessions would somehow undermine the court proceedings. Wingate repeatedly referred to a hearing he held in 2023 where he invited feedback from Jackson residents about Henifin and JXN Water’s work thus far.

While that meeting was held more than a year ago and Wingate hasn’t announced plans for one since, the judge wondered why the EPA didn’t consult him about their plans. Fingerhood explained that the meetings weren’t meant to be formal proceedings, but that the EPA had made a commitment to hear Jacksonians’ feedback and that it had been a while since the agency had last engaged with residents.

After last year’s hearing in Wingate’s courtroom, where residents and advocates made a range of requests including more communication from JXN Water, the judge filed a response brushing off most of the feedback he heard, even calling some criticisms of Henifin “racist.”

Both Wingate and Henifin also pointed to a letter that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba sent the EPA in March criticizing JXN Water, wondering if the EPA was holding the meetings in response to the mayor’s concerns. Fingerhood denied any connection.

Wingate also used the moment as a chance to call out Lumumba, who the judge has scolded in prior status conferences, saying: “The mayor it seems to me is not a friend of this endeavor to straighten out this mess.”

Sewer pipes are replaced on Lamar Street in Jackson, Miss., July 21, 2020. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Sewer and water system progress

At the start of Thursday’s status conference, Henifin informed the court that JXN Water has already repaired close to 300 sewer line failures around the city since it took over the wastewater system last year. Those include 215 that the court order listed in one of the priority projects. Henifin initially expected that project would take two to three years to finish. He added that JXN Water was able to make the repairs without any federal funds. Most of the lines needing repairs, Henifin said, were collapsed underground pipes, and were causing raw sewage to leak out onto city streets and even on residents’ property.

Henifin added that JXN Water inherited 2,200 service requests dealing with sewer issues around the city, and they’ve since reduced the backlog to under 200.

He said one of the city’s three wastewater treatment plants, the Savanna Street plant, still needs a lot of investment — about $36 million — for capitol improvements, but he added that JXN Water has been able to reduce the number of prohibited bypasses of wastewater into the Pearl River.

On the drinking water side, Henifin explained that by fixing leaks JXN Water has been able to reduce the amount of water it needs to put into the system by 25%, adding though that there is still a 50% loss of what water does get treated and sent out. The hope, he said, is to keep decreasing the amount of water needed to go out — to below 30 million gallons a day, versus the current output of 40 MGD — so that the city can finally close the age-old J.H. Fewell plant and save money on operations. To do that, JXN Water is working with four different contractors to find suspected underground leaks that never show up above the surface, thus making them harder to find.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (left) and water system’s third-party administrator Ted Henifin, answer questions regarding the current state of the city’s water system during a town hall meeting held at Forest Hill High School, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

In terms of billing, Henifin said JXN Water will in “the next few weeks” start shutting off connections to single-family homes that are falling behind, starting with the largest balances. Wingate added, “I don’t have very much mercy for those people” not paying their bills.

Public’s feedback

About 50 people showed up to each of the two meetings the EPA held at the Mississippi e-Center on Thursday and Friday. Some, like Jessica Carter, complained about a lack of communication from JXN Water when it shuts water off to make repairs.

“Just three weeks ago, I woke up and the water was off,” said Carter, who lives in northeast Jackson. “No notice, no letters, no nothing. I kept calling, kept calling, asking what’s going on … We went about 36 hours without running water this time. I have a 4-year-old, so I’m trying to figure out what do I have to do? Do we need to get a hotel room?

“I kept calling the hotline, they didn’t have the answers either… then once water came on, I was like, will be there be a reduction in the water charges for the 36 hours that the water was turned off?”

Part of the feedback the EPA asked for was over the long-term future of the system. While some said that the water system shouldn’t return to the city’s control, others noted that the city never had the resources that JXN Water is accessing.

“Before that Jackson didn’t have that money to do that work,” Natt Offiah, who grew up down the street from the meeting but now lives downtown, said about the $600 million Congress appropriated for Jackson after the federal takeover. “Now we got that money to do the work, everyone’s acting like Jackson didn’t care, but we didn’t have those resources to begin with.”

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