Did anyone win Powerball? Winning numbers for March 27

Mayor update south Jackson residents on water system woes. Help is on the way

Ed Inman
Special to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba addressed residents of south Jackson Wednesday at Forest Hill High School as Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks (right) and other city officials look on.

Approximately 75 south Jackson residents braved cold, rainy weather Wednesday evening to attend a town hall meeting called by Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba to discuss new developments in the city’s long-troubled water and sewer system.

The meeting, lasting nearly two hours, was called at Forest Hill High School, 2607 Raymond Road — an area frequently hit the hardest by prolonged water outages over the past several years. 

Many residents there went with little or no water pressure for approximately 10 days during the recent Christmas holidays and the school has frequently had to transition to at-home learning due to a lack of water pressure in the building.

“South Jackson is disproportionately affected because it is the farthest away from the water treatment plants and many of you live at higher elevations than in other parts of the city,” Lumumba said.

He described the situation as “an inequity in the system that happened a long time ago.”

And while Lumumba said the problems won’t go away overnight, he told residents, “I have reason to be optimistic.”

In particular he praised the $600 million appropriation passed in December to address Jackson’s water system as part of a federal omnibus bill. Between that and other funding “there will be $800 million — all dedicated to improving our drinking water,” Lumumba said. 

Approximately 75 people attended the mayor’s town hall meeting to address water issues Wednesday at Forest Hill High School’s auditorium.

He thanked Mississippi’s U.S. District 2 Rep. Bennie Thompson for “being instrumental in this” as well as U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker for his support of the project.

Lumumba also took time to address wide-ranging comments and questions from the residents.

One of the first speakers, Sarah Sickles, said her home went without water for approximately 12 days in December.

Having recently come to Jackson from Burlington, Vermont, to take a new job, she noted that before coming to Jackson, “I had gone my entire life without ever losing water.”

Other residents raised questions over persistent water leaks, sewer backups and improper, inflated billing from the city’s Water and Sewer Business Administration. 

On infrastructure issues, Lumumba said “Our challenges have exceeded our means to correct them.” He noted, for example, about 50% of Jackson’s treated water is lost to leaks before it ever reaches customers. Comparatively, “the average nationally is about 15%,” he said. 

He predicted that as much as 25% of the city’s most critical water distribution problems can hopefully be addressed within the next year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will assist in repairing and replacing the bad pipes — which Lumumba described as the first priority in getting Jackson water system back on track.

On billing issues, Lumumba said state law prevents the city from completely forgiving or writing off past due bills, but said approximately $150 million of the federal appropriation will potentially allow for some “flexibility” in providing financial relief to the hardest hit residents.

Other speakers raised questions over the role of Jackson’s new federally appointed third party water system administrator Ted Henifin, and whether Lumumba believes he can be trusted.

The mayor described his working relationship with Henifin thus far as a good one and said he believes the new administrator brings “a lot of expertise” to the table. “I’m not going to let anybody take advantage of the city,” Lumumba promised, but added that he has no reason “doubt his (Henifin’s) sincerity.”

Henifin’s first task, to develop a computerized model of Jackson’s water distribution system, is being performed at no cost to Jackson, Lumumba noted.

Mayor Lumumba addressed wide ranging questions from residents Wednesday at Forest Hill High School.

Exactly how long Henifin stays and what sort of transition will occur afterward will largely depend on the progress of his work and will be decided by the federal courts who appointed him, the mayor said.

On Henifin’s controversial proposal to transition water billing to non-metered rates based on assessed home property values, Lumumba said he is still studying that issue and remains neutral. He said “there may be other ways” to address the WSBA’s longstanding billing problems.

Lumumba also addressed bad conditions at the WSBA’s office inside the largely vacant Metrocenter Mall. He said because the space is leased the city cannot legally repair potholes in the parking lot or address other issues, but he said an effort is underway to relocate the office to a different building. “We want to remain in the area,” Lumumba said.

Jackson’s Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks also addressed the meeting briefly Wednesday. He called Jackson’s water problems a “case of disinvestment that began a long time ago.”

While acknowledging he and Lumumba have disagreed on some issues, Banks said he supports the mayor’s leadership on the water crisis.

“We need to all work together and back the mayor on this,” Banks said.