The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is visiting Jackson for the fourth time in a year to continue discussions on the city’s water system. Mississippi’s capital city has been under a state of emergency for two months, but the governor’s order is scheduled to expire next Monday. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba says the city’s water system is moving in a direction that will be more beneficial to residents.
“Not only to secure a more dependable, sustainable system, but one that is affordable and equitable,” says Lumumba. “Finding solutions not only in the agreement we’re working towards putting in place but also how we as residents of Jackson can find solutions to all of the ancillary problems that are connected to a lack of water.”
Mayor Lumumba says he is hopeful that the governor will extend the city’s state of emergency to continue the on-site state partnerships at treatment facilities.
Long-term and short-term solutions are being discussed, however, officials declined to share details of these plans due to ongoing litigation. EPA Administrator Michael Regan says once the plans are finalized and city officials approve it, there should be more transparency. He says these plans will need to be multifaceted.
“We have to walk and chew gum at the same time,” says Regan. “So we’re thinking about the future, but we also have an obligation right now to invest in the existing systems so that people have clean, safe affordable drinking water right now. So we’re going to work on sort of a two-pronged approach. The first is getting clean drinking water with the existing system, while we think about these longer-term solutions.”
Regan says his agency will be working with the city beyond current emergency orders to help secure funding for the improvement and maintenance of the water systems.
