by CFP Staff
Residents of Jackson receive bottled water.
On August 30, 2022, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, saying that a water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi - a city with a population that is 83% African American - threatened critical needs and that there was no end in sight. The governor went on to say that, while Jackson residents are accustomed to water challenges, the current shortage of safe running water is particularly dangerous.
The emergency declaration was issued after torrential rain and flooding pushed Mississippi’s Pearl River to dangerous levels, which ultimately led to low or no water pressure for many Jackson residents.
"This is a very different situation from a boil water notice — which is also a serious situation which the residents of Jackson have become tragically numb to,” Governor Reeves said in a statement. “Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale. It means the city cannot produce enough water to reliably flush toilets, fight fire and meet other critical needs.”
United States President Joe Biden soon afterwards approved the emergency declaration.
The Community Freedom Party means to direct no ill-will or disrespect toward Governor Reeves, President Biden, or any other public official. However, in our opinion, the facts show that an emergency declaration for Jackson, Mississippi, should have been issued years ago. It is not the residents of Jackson who have become “tragically numb” to Jackson’s water problems, but the government at the state and national levels:
When Governor Reeves issued his state of emergency, Jackson had already been under a boil-water notice for a month because the state health department had found cloudy water that could make people ill.
Jackson frequently has boil-water notices because of a loss of pressure or other problems that can contaminate the water. Some of these mandates affect all residents depending on the water system and can last for weeks.
Jackson’s water treatment plants suffer from chronic understaffing. One of the city’s water treatment plants, the O.B. Curtis Plant, has one-sixth of the number of certified operators it needed to be fully staffed. The city engineer previously said that staff shortages were so severe that the city would have to shut down one of its plants if one more operator left.
In January 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice that Jackson’s system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA said that an April 2021 fire at the plant had caused all five pumps to be unavailable for service, causing low water pressure, and that an inspection 6 months later found the pumps remained out of service.
In 2015, routine testing found higher than acceptable lead levels in Jackson water samples, and Jackson continues to publish public health notices about water quality not meeting minimum standards.
In 2016, the Mississippi Health Department found an inadequate application of water treatment chemicals because of a failing corrosion control system at the O.B. Curtis Plant.
In 2012, Jackson entered into a consent decree with the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice to bring its sewer system into compliance with federal water quality laws. Jackson remains out of compliance.
In late April, the city submitted a report to federal regulators showing that sewer failures caused the release of nearly 45 million gallons of untreated wastewater into the environment between December and March.
A water quality notice published in July listed precautions from the Mississippi State Health Department, including that baby formula should be made only with filtered or bottled water and that children younger than 5 should have lead screening and blood testing.
Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, said it could cost billions of dollars to fix Jackson’s water system, which is beyond what the city can afford. The question remains why didn’t the federal or Mississippi state governments allocate the necessary funds to fix Jackson’s water system before the recently issued state of emergency given the city’s decade of water-related issues? And why hasn’t the money been allocated even now? The answer to this question highlights why the current suffering of Jackson’s residents is not just a water crisis but a political crisis. It is a matter of African Americans in Jackson, as well as in many other municipalities around the country, not having their concerns and needs properly prioritized. If they were, the situation in Jackson would have been addressed a long time ago.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and as of September 2022, the U.S. government has already approved over $40 billion in aid for Ukraine and other countries affected by the conflict (Congress approved $13.6 billion in initial emergency aid less than 3 weeks after the invasion commenced). The Community Freedom Party is not saying that the people of Ukraine and of the other countries affected by the conflict there don’t need or deserve such aid. But we unapologetically maintain that they are in no more need and are no more deserving of that money than the people of Jackson, Mississippi. The people of Ukraine are experiencing the financial results of what it means to have political parties in the U.S. government which prioritize them. The Community Freedom Party believes that African Americans should have and deserve a political party in the U.S. government that will prioritize them.
In 2015, routine testing found higher than acceptable lead levels in Jackson water samples, and Jackson continues to publish public notices about water quality not meeting minimum standards.
The Community Freedom Party calls for the U.S. federal government to immediately approve $6 billion to repair or replace the water treatment system in Jackson, Mississippi. We also call for the Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily provide the necessary number of certified operators needed to ensure that Jackson’s water treatment plants are fully staffed.
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