EPA/DOJ conduct hearing on Jackson water supply system

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EPA Officials Kathlene Butler, left, and Keriema Newman (Advocate photo: Joshua Martin)

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the federal law that sets the standards for Jackson’s public water system with the aim of supplying everyone a steady and healthy supply of drinking water. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), the two federal agencies responsible for the enforcement of SDWA standards, conducted public hearings on October 10-11 at JSU’s e-Center to elicit opinions and evaluations from Jackson water customers about their new water delivery system that has been in place just one month shy of two years.

Since failing an EPA inspection in 2012, the City of Jackson had been unable to bring its system into compliance with EPA standards in the ensuing years, due mainly to inadequate funds, a dysfunctional metering system, and inadequate personnel to run it. After a record freeze in winter 2021, Jackson’s O. B. Curtis water processing plant was closed for a month. The plant was still under emergency operation when the flooding of the Pearl River overwhelmed the system in August 2022. 

On November 29, 2022, a three-way agreement was signed by the feds (EPA and DOJ), the state of Mississippi, and the City of Jackson that was officially called an Interim Stipulated Order (ISO). The agreement brought new life to Jackson’s water system, under the judicial authority of U. S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate and Interim Third-Party Manager (ITPM) Ted Henifin.

In December 2022, Congress allocated $600 million for operation of Jackson’s water system under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Henifin has announced that he will remain at the helm of the water company, JXN Water, Inc., for four years instead of the one year he initially signed on for. The ISO has a lifespan of 20 years unless otherwise changed. 

ACCOUNTABILITY AND INQUIRY

The hearing for public accountability and inquiry conducted by EPA and DOJ representatives Oct. 10-11 was designed to listen, record, and catalogue the opinions and criticisms of Jackson water consumers and customers, a hearing official said. 

The EPA held a similar hearing in March 2023 that allowed residents and community organizations to submit their critiques and proposed solutions for Jackson’s water system. 

The turnout for the 2024 hearing was modest over the two days. About 90-120 people were in and out of the meeting room on the first day. And around 80 were present on day 2 at the JSU e-Center on Raymond Road. 

FOUR VISITORS 

As monitor for the hearing, Assistant U. S. Attorney Mitzi Dease Paige of the Mississippi Southern District Office of the U. S. Attorney said EPA and DOJ sought to gather information to ensure Jackson’s drinking water system is meeting up to the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in providing safe, clean, and reliable water to all its customers, which includes Jackson, Byram, and parts of several other communities in the greater Jackson area.

“The agencies are requesting your inputs to inform future decisions with respect to Jackson’s water system …They’re also requesting inputs from the community on how best to communicate with you. In conjunction with EPA regulatory authority, this is just a conversation between the citizens of Jackson, the EPA, and the DOJ,” Paige announced.

The state, city, and the water system managers were not asked to participate, said Paige, “because the voices of the citizens are most important at this hearing. Questions asked will be referred to the appropriate departments and will be given responses in time,” she said.

Sitting at the tables in front with Paige were Keriema Newman, EPA Director Region 4 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division; Kathlene Butler, Director Region 4 Water Division; and Karl Fingerhood, Trial Attorney for the DOJ.

JACKSON TURNAROUND

Newman said she has come to know Jackson’s water and sewage system quite well. The Interim Third Party Manager was directed to increase and improve reporting of data to improve transparency with the public, she said. And ITPM’s office must also file quarterly reports on work that has been completed, ongoing work, and the work on funding, among other requirements. The quarterly reports and comments can be found on EPA’s Jackson Drinking Water site, Newman said. 

Jackson needs more trained staff to help maintain and operate the system, Newman noted. JXN Water has made significant progress on critical equipment projects such as filter repair, corrosion control optimization, and completing winterization of the plants. During last winter’s freeze , the water treatment plants were able to operate at full design capacity for the first time in winter for the first time in years, Newman explained.

A noteworthy achievement in the past year was the repair of a 48-inch water line at the Old Colonial Country Club that leaked between five and six million gallons of clean water a day that went undetected for years, Newman said. That amounted to about 10 percent of the water produced by the Jackson water system, she said. 

Butler dealt with financing the drinking water system. Long-term stability relies on producing a long-term financial plan, which is still in development, Butler said. 

“We’re all still working on that. The current revenue for the drinking water system doesn’t fully cover all the costs for the system,” she said. “They are working at all levels of government to develop grants that will help, but they won’t be there for the long term.”

One of the grants planned for Jackson was for emergency purposes only. Once the emergency has abated, the funding will not be available. None of the grant funds can go to the sewer system, Butler said. 

THE Q & A BEGINS 

Most of the comments from the audience Thursday, Oct. 10, were complimentary about the steady and reliable access to water during the past year. Many complaints, however, were to the contrary and questioned JXN business operations. One issue that bothered a number of attendees was the location of JXN Water’s office in Pearl, rather than in Jackson. Some of the complaints wanted to return control of the water system to city government.

Roy Hill, with IMS Wastewater Consultants, spoke up in defense of JXN Water’s slow progress in some areas: “Improvements are being made. We just need to be a little patient. Things are getting done. We can all look at the positive side here and offer feedback, as requested.”

Lee Bernard asked why $40 was added to his monthly bill. A seat mate next to him said that if the customers didn’t get larger meters, they should not have to pay the additional fee. And this person went on to ask why there isn’t a physical location where customers can take their complaints and get answers.

Shelton Swanier of South Jackson said the last water bill he paid was dated June 28 of this year and cost him $100.37. 

“On July 12,” he said, “I got a water bill for $22,172.31. I got in touch with JXN Water, but all the young lady could say is that ‘you got a water leak.’”

After that, Swanier said, another bill came for July and that bill was $1,259.04.

“I contacted (ITPM) Ted Henifin by text and he called me back the next day. And in the last month and a half, I’ve texted him twice but haven’t gotten a response. They have not cut my water off, but I haven’t paid another bill since I paid the bill in June.”

SECOND DAY

The hearing on October 11 followed the same format. Paige explained the objective of the hearing before statements were made by the two EPA representatives. 

Milton Chambliss of Jackson said the Department of Justice’s intervention in the water crisis “saved the City of Jackson.”

“You can’t live without water,” Chambliss said. “And the City of Jackson had become unlivable. I just want to thank the Third-Party Administrator. They have done a tremendous job.” 

An anonymous attendee complained about the ongoing boil-water notices that remain a regular feature in some neighborhoods but sometimes go unannounced to the city at large. 

“We are still having a lot of boil water notices,” the woman said. “But everyone doesn’t know about them. It needs to be given in some other way than the ‘next door plan.’ We need to have boil water notices given to us in real time.” she said.

MINORITY CONTRACTORS

Gennie Jones, President of the Mississippi Minority Contractors Association, focused on JXN Water’s Local, Small, and Minority Business Initiatives. Over 100 business owners attended “Doing Business with Jackson” sessions in January 2023-2024, she said. She was appreciative of JXN Water’s taking the initiative in setting up such a program. 

“We have been working with Mr. Henifin to put together this Local Small Business Initiative, and at this point, I feel it has been very successful. If you have questions about who’s doing business with JXN Water, about the revenue that’s being generated or earned by minority contractors, you can find it in JXN Water’s quarterly reports.”

Jones was the director of the Small Business Division for the State of Mississippi during the building of the Nissan plant in the early 2000’s. “We did a great job because we had leadership that was very interested and pro-active and intentional when it came to minority participation. Under the current leadership in the state, I don’t see this.”

“Recently, our organization has been working with JXN Water and I’m excited about what JXN Water has been doing. They’re getting a mentor-protégé process in place to assist or to build contractors by giving them the resources and the tools they’ll need to assist long term in the operation of the water treatment facility. I think that’s huge.” 

Renee Donaldson of R & L Unlimited is a minority contractor working with JXN Water. Her company works mostly on restoring areas that have been disturbed during JXN Water’s field operations. 

“When they do the find-and-fix, we go back and restore the asphalt, the concrete, and some of the grass. We do the final work,” she says. “We make sure the asphalt and concrete look new again. Once we get the job, we go and scout the repair. Then we call 811, because we want to be safe, and because there are other utilities in the area. So, we have to give them time. And we send someone out to soft cut the site because we want it to look nice and neat when we dig it out.”

JUDGE UPSET

As the EPA hearing was getting underway last Thursday, Judge Wingate was holding a status hearing on the city’s water system only hours before the EPA hearing was scheduled for the e-Center. Wingate indicated that he was “upset” because the hearings had the air of an investigation into the operation of Jackson’s water system. “The hearings might do more harm than good,” he said.

Henifin testified before Wingate that some of the EPA’s announced concerns were similar to complaints Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba had previously filed with the court in regard to the lack of community involvement with JXN Water operations.

DOJ counsel Fingerhood, however, reassured the court that the EPA hearing was about obtaining public feedback to support the agency’s regulatory decisions, and it was not in any way related to the issues Mayor Lumumba might have raised with the court.

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EPA/DOJ conduct hearing on Jackson water supply system

By Earnest McBride
October 28, 2024