A federal report is accusing the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) of malpractice leading up to the major crisis that left hundreds of thousands in Jackson without water for more than a month in 2022.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report this week indicating that federal help could have come to the city of Jackson’s water system sooner had the MSDH provided proper oversight and notified federal officials of discrepancies.
According to the report, the MSDH failed to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act properly. Specifically from 2015-21, state surveyors found that the system suffered from:
- Water treatment processes not functioning properly
- The inability to provide water in the event of a power outage
- Alkalinity levels not being properly maintained
- Missing or nonfunctioning equipment
- A lack of a usable backup source of water in the event of a PWS failure
However, the OIG’s report alleges that the state was derelict in its duties to adequately jot down these issues spotted in the city’s water facilities. MSDH surveyors also did not notify Jackson officials of any major deficiencies.
“Specifically, the state surveyors did not consistently document deficiencies, escalate frequent deficiencies, or notify Jackson of significant deficiencies. As a result, the EPA did not have a comprehensive understanding of the extent of the management and operational issues at Jackson’s system,” a portion of the report reads. “The MSDH oversight failures obscured Jackson’s long-standing challenges, allowed issues to compound over time, and contributed to the system’s eventual failure.”
One of the major discrepancies listed by the OIG was the MSDH’s failure to contact city officials and let them know that there was elevated lead presence in Jackson’s drinking water for a six-month period between July 2015 through January 2016.
The OIG’s report further noted that multiple Clean Water Act violations were not reported within a reasonable timeframe, putting the EPA in the dark about the disastrous shape Jackson’s water systems happened to be in.
The EPA was unaware of the extent of issues in Jackson until it conducted an on-site inspection of the system in February 2020. Although the EPA became more involved and proactive at the site, Jackson experienced a series of extreme weather events, and residents were continually placed on boil water notices, which culminated in failures of the water distribution system in February 2021 amid an ice storm and August 2022 when things came to a head.
As part of the report, the OIG recommends that the MSDH improve its sanitary surveys to ensure they are accurate and efficient in order to prevent another water catastrophe from occurring. The EPA is urged to develop a training guide to include a sanitary survey checklist and a process for states to alert the agency of public water systems with systemic issues. The goal is to prevent the federal government from having no knowledge of any future deficiencies that may occur in Jackson and other municipalities nationwide.
Officials with the MSDH confirmed to SuperTalk Mississippi News they are reviewing the report. No official statement has been provided by the state agency at this time.
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