A water crisis in Jackson

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 15th of September, 2022.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re glad you are! Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Recently, Jackson, Mississippi drew international attention for its failing water system. The water pressure is mostly back, but the water quality is not. Unless a permanent solution comes, the next crisis is likely right around the corner.

BROWN: WORLD correspondent Gary Perilloux visited Jackson to see how the capital city is faring.

AUDIO: [Dog panting, barking, water cart rolling]

GARY PERILLOUX, REPORTER: Ollie The Poodle is straining his yellow safety vest. He’s searching for his master—30-year-old Cody Shelton.

SHELTON: I heard that there was no water pressure here, so I came and just — hey — you want half of my stuff?

It’s Tuesday morning in Jackson, Mississippi—the day after Labor Day. Cody and Ollie drove 10 hours from Charlotte, North Carolina, with supplies for a community in crisis. He’ll deliver gifts of bottled water, food, and diapers. Ollie is a bonus.

SHELTON: He’s an emotional support dog, so if anybody is down in the dumps, I thought maybe he could give them a smile, or something like that, you know, while I hand out water.

Shelton emerges from Forest Hill High School. Quality Data Systems sent Shelton to Jackson. The private, Christian-owned firm gives half a million dollars annually to communities it serves. Community Bank is the next customer on Shelton’s list. Mississippi’s state capital needs all the support it can get these days.

In late August, the Pearl River flooded, overwhelming pumps and filters at water treatment facilities. Water pressure plummeted. Gov. Tate Reeves activated the Mississippi National Guard. President Joe Biden granted a request for emergency federal assistance. More than a week later, Jackson residents could bathe and shower again — but they still can’t drink the water.

AUDIO: [Scooping ice for frappé, blending drink]

Coffee Prose is a coffee shop at the back gates of Millsaps College. Barista Tekoa Perry laughs with a customer about the need for bottled water and imported ice to craft a coffee drink. When she moved earlier this year from Spartanburg, South Carolina, Perry knew nothing about Jackson’s water problems.

PERRY: I moved down here and then, like, the boil-water notice happened and I’m like what is this? It’s been very frustrating like to remember to use the water, and to take the extra steps to not use the water. But I think I’m adapting.

Customer Michael McDonald moved from Montana to serve with AmeriCorps at a North Jackson nonprofit. He’s about to begin a job at Mississippi’s state archives agency. He’s cautiously optimistic that a water solution will come.

MCDONALD: I hope so. As a Jacksonian, you have to stay optimistic about a lot of different things and this is just one of those things where you want to believe that things will improve and get better. But you also, being a Jacksonian, you have a certain level of skepticism about all kinds of things that happen here. I mean, I’m just hoping this is kind of the straw that breaks the camel’s back for changes that are like desperately needed here with the infrastructure. I’m hoping the mayor and state government can work together, and of course we have more national attention now.

Water experts from as far as Michigan and Maryland are here. They’re helping maintain pressure in Jackson. But purifying the water is a bigger challenge. At Jackson State University, the Mississippi Urban Research Center studies the city’s ongoing water problems. Dr. Sam Mozee Jr. is the center’s director.

MOZEE: Of course, with the 2021 water crisis that was a result of the ice storm and winter storm that occurred, it only seemed natural that with so much disruption caused, that from a research perspective, we wanted to say: Let’s investigate what are some of the dimensions of the cause of the problem, as well as potential solutions to the problem. So that’s how we got interested in that particular topic.

In 2019, one research associate at the center discovered alarming data. Sheryl Bacon compared lead levels in Jackson water with that of 10 other state capitals in the South — and with Flint, Michigan.

BACON: I found that the water quality in Jackson for certain years, especially the period of 2015 to 2016, it actually had higher lead content — in terms of parts per billion — than Flint, Michigan, and the other cities in the Southeastern Region.

It’s important to note that lead levels were acceptable in 4 of 5 Jackson homes and 5 of 6 Flint homes sampled. But one Jackson sample hit 476 parts per billion, higher than any in Flint.

BACON: And as I kind of delved down that rabbit hole and MURC did more research into that, we realized that it was an infrastructure problem as a whole. It was back then that the alarm bell kind of started to go off like, hey, there’s a problem with water quality. And there’s going to be further problems because the infrastructure is aging badly and, you know, corroding. That’s kind of where everything got started, as far as us looking at water and water quality in Jackson.

Jackson State researchers recommended doing a risk assessment of Jackson housing. They called for more frequent water sampling and blood tests, especially at childcare facilities and schools.

A 2021 Congressional spending bill is bringing less than $75 million this year for water infrastructure in all of Mississippi. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba estimates it will take $1 billion to $2 billion dollars to fully upgrade the city’s water and sewer treatment systems. Replacing obsolete pipes in a 1,500-mile network could cost billions more.

DUNCAN: I’ve Lived In Jackson for 33 Years now and from the time I got here we had infrastructure challenges.

Ligon Duncan is chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary. RTS has produced thousands of pastors and counselors worldwide from nine campuses, but Jackson is its original home. The 2021 ice storm taught the seminary to be prepared with water trucks and supplies in West Jackson, where the infrastructure is worse.

DUNCAN: This is tough in all capital cities but Jackson has had, I think, a unique and even more extraordinary tax base problem.

Duncan points to Jackson’s location at the north and east edge of Hinds County. That’s prevented it from annexing areas across county lines, where population and wealth moved from the 1970s until today. Now, nearly three-quarters of Jackson’s metro population of 600,000 lives outside the city limits.

DUNCAN: I’m told this Jackson Water System situation is a Billion-Plus dollar fix, and the Jackson tax base cannot support that. That is completely out of the realm of possibility for our current tax base. Certainly, some sort of infusion is going to have to happen, whether that is a cooperative venture between business and government, whether that’s a cooperative venture between state government and federal government, but it’s going to take a major infusion to fix the infrastructure problem, because it’s a 50-year problem.

Duncan points out that Christians were among the exodus of the largely white population to the suburbs. But he’s encouraged by young Christians, from all backgrounds, who are choosing to live in the heart of Jackson today. In 2023, his seminary will move deeper into Jackson, too, with a new campus on Interstate 55 at Meadowbrook Road.

Four miles southwest of that site, the Rev. Willie Tobias pastors New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Many in his 400-member flock had to leave Jackson just to take showers.

TOBIAS: When you have people who are without water, which is a necessity of life, it doesn’t matter if you’re black, brown, green, yellow, Republican or Democrat: Do what needs to be done so individuals will not be without water.

Tobias succeeded Dr. Leon Bell, who led the church in the 1960s until his death in 2016. Photos of many African American greats line the church’s wall of fame — from Dred Scott to Aretha Franklin to Michael Jordan — but a portrait of Leon Bell in the fellowship hall is Tobias’s favorite. He remembers Bell saying, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” That, Tobias said, applies to fixing Jackson’s water woes.

TOBIAS: If funds can be made available to fund a war, if funds can be made available to replenish pots or whatever for paying off student loans, funds can be made available to cover infrastructure issues or pipes for water. In my opinion, it’s about individuals deciding where the funds should go. It's an extreme situation we find ourselves in, but it’s the perfect opportunity for God to do something great, so there’s always hope. I’m very hopeful, because this is the capital city and this is where our church is, so I’m extremely hopeful that things will work out. Matter of fact, I know it will. It’s just a matter of time.

Reporting For WORLD, I’m Gary Perilloux in Jackson, Mississippi.

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