Jackson Jambalaya

A good measured response. What's been reported from the JPS?

Not disclosing the actual levels is a wholly bogus action. Now this fiasco is smelling of a major coverup. DEBACLE.

Cudos to St. Andrew's for investigating to see if there was a problem and then being transparent about both the problem and the fix.

Good LORD how long were those children drinking the water with lead?

I smell a lawsuit.

Betcha they are secretly thinking twice now about that massive new investment in the lower school. Ooooops!

Come on in boys, the waters fine.

I'm glad the school acted quickly and took necessary precautions once the news was out.

12:04, Who sues who? City of Jackson is at fault but has no money and nothing else of value to get. Just get your children out of Jackson now or they can sue the parents.I think I would sue Kane Ditto who started this mess.

This must be some sort of nationwide problem. No way this is limited to Flint Michigan and Jackson. Perhaps it is surface water only.

Is it in the distribution lines or the private lines? Lots of questions and so far the Health Department has not been forthcoming with any information that I have seen.

does this pinpoint that it is coming from city source, or their water lines?

Suit filed in Flint today. Watch for similar action to be taken here.

Unfortunately, it won't change anything. Is it any wonder that people are fed up with their government?

If you accept incompetent government, then you eventually end up with negligent government. If you put up with that, then you end up with grossly negligent government. If you continue failing to act, you wind up with criminally negligent government. We have GOT to hold our government accountable: at the polls, at the courthouse and, if need be, at the jailhouse.

@1:27 PM, they sue St. Andrews, of course. Ignorance is not a defense.

Other Jackson schools have also been tested and showed positive for lead. St. Andrew's isn't the first. This isn't the school's fault. Nor is it a reason to criticize a new building to improve the school. One has nothing to do with the other.

1:27, it's a bit difficult to sue the City if the lead comes from the private lines. So far, nothing has shown that the lead came from the source. That is how some test sites have shown lead and others do not.

The Health Department needs to get on top of this. Where is the lead poison coming from? How widespread is it? What amounts are considered dangerous andhow much does the water have in it?

The Health Department has dropped the ball.

3:54, the problem is not with water plant or residential private lines leaching lead. It is the low pH of the water leaving the plant that corrodes the lead lines under certain residential houses. The water plant is required by law to have an adequate corrosion protection system in place to prevent this type of issue but obviously the system is not working properly. All this means is, yes the water treatment plant is the root of all the problems - not old pipes.

@ $15k per head to attend to attend their grade school it better be some damn fine lead. Time to punt.

I don't know too many people at St. Andrew's, but I get the vibe most of them are above the idea of suing someone unless it's for a really good reason.

Minimum of $210,000 if your kid starts St. Andrews next school year all the way through HS graduation. LOL Hope they are testing all the skeeters for the Zika virus too!

There is the possibility that the contamination may be coming from their pipes instead of the city water system.

Just put my house up for sell in Northeast Jackson. Tomorrow, I will call my real estate agent to lower the price. Hope it will sell. Neighbor house been for sale for 2 years. What do you all say reduce it by 10%?

4:02, You are correct about corrosion control measures. but if that is the root of the problem, all testing sites would be positive. I tested mine and it is utterly negative, the same as other houses. This is not to say there Is not another, undiscovered reason..

Trulia/Zillow link, 4:43?

Make sure those drinking fountains aren't the ones where the storage tank was lead lined!

http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/drinking_water/pdf/lead_in_water_coolers.pdf

5:39,

Incorrect. Corrosion control measures means that the pH of the water is controlled so that downstream corrosion doesn't occur. Nearly all older buildings and homes with copper piping, brass valves, etc would have had lead solder used when doing the connections.

The water being produced is harsh and causes more corrosion to the joints, which leaches the lead from soldered joints.

It's much like obtaining the best pH and alkalinity for your swimming pool. Having a little bit of scale is a good thing.

This issue has been known by the EPA for over 15 years as the water treatment changes that have been implemented altered the chemistry by trying to "soften" water. Those minerals in the water that make "hard water" also provide the scale that reduces the corrosion.

Does the service pipe at the street (header pipe) have lead in it?

per http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/water.htm

Who is responsible for the header pipe? I'm sure it's the homeowners responsibility...naturally.

4:43 - Have fun waiting. Mine's been on the market 6 months and I haven't gotten an offer yet.

Anyone who bought or refi'd in Jackson during the runup to the 2006-2007 housing bubble blowing up is screwed.

Selling in Jackson is hell. Take what ever you can get for in 2 years may get nothing.

Kennuff Stokes be drankin' dat wata aw de times. Maybe dats his problem.

People only want cookie-cutter homes. Thats why they sell. But this is a thread about water . . .

How does one obtain a list of "environmental engineers certified by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to determine if lead is present in water"? Funny, I've worked with Environmentwl consultants for decades and I don't know of this list. Really, take a water sample to an accredited lab for analysis.

Know how to properly take the sample or you are wasting time and money.

Why won't the school release the actual readings?

You people trying to sell your homes would be much better off just renting them out. Mine sat on the market for two years. I finally put a 'for rent' sign up and was immediately able to rent it for a premium. Granted, my current tenants are hood rats from west Jackson, but it's steadily produced income for the last three years. Finding a buyer with the credit and money who wants to move to that area is virtually impossible.

No matter what the subject is, the Madison wanna-be's live to bash Jackson. Get a life and grow up

So true, 8:03. And for the record, several houses in my Jackson neighborhood have sold within a short period of having been listed. Some have even sold without ever having to be listed in the first place.

Lead does not materialize out of the air. If there is no lead in the water supply the lead has to come from the water lines. If the water in your house gets the lead from your lines it is up to you to stop it.

If you are trying to sell a house in Jackson you need to get all of the insurance you can buy then rent it out. The house will not sell, who would buy a home in Jackson? If you rent to people moving into Jackson you will not have a home for long.

Get out of Jackson before they build a fence around it and condemn it.

Please, NEJackson is a raging buyer's market and getting worse by the day. You aren't fooling anyone.

Not trying to fool anyone, just stating some actual facts of what has happened in my neighborhood over the past year or two. By the way, there are some "raging buyer's markets" within the suburbs, too. On the other hand, there are some seller's markets in NE Jackson, Madison and Rankin, all depending on specific location. With that said, I would agree there are some buyer's markets in Jackson, but not everywhere. All depends on location.

This whole issue about 'lead' is much ado about almost nothing. To hear people compare the isolated cases of testing positive for lead to the Flint MI situation is the most ridiculous. Kinda like comparing the gravy at Two Sisters to their tea.

There are some isolated cases of 'testing positive' for lead. That is not the same thing as 'Lead Poisioning" - dear 4:02. And - the Health Department is on top of this. They do random sampling of all water systems and that is where this issue was first raised. Jackson's water system serves 150,000 or so residential users, plus numerous commercial users. They have found samples of a few users that exceed the allowable lead which is far from a dangerous amount.

What should be understood is that the water is also tested at the watertreatment plant and if it were to be bad there, we would have a problem. But with the test only showing over the allowable amount at a few sites, it is not an unusual problem.

Don't go test your bottled water - depending on the brand, it is likely to test worse than what is coming through your lines. Bottled water is not subject to any kind of testing, and a lot of it comes straight from community water systems.

Dear petulant 11:14,

This is identical to Flint Michigan. The only difference is that Flint changed water sources. It didn't introduce lead into the water, it did not have proper corrosion control (Jackson, MS) and caused lead leaching from homes' pipes.

This is also identical to numerous other municipalities over the past 10 or so years.

You should do some self-education before attempting to explain to someone else what should be understood.

March 7 @ 9:10... You are a racist bigot. Why make veiled racist jokes?!? You probably got bullied growing up and probably still can't keep a lady.

If you have an older home and even if you have well water, there's a good chance you could have unacceptable levels of lead. It was commonly used in pipes and wells for decades ( even the wrap on wells can have lead).

You can also have pipes wrapped with asbestos as well ( google Camp Lejeune and asbestos in water). This problem was known in 1947.

The State of Mississippi has the weakest possible regulations for clean air and water and building standards.

Flint and Jackson are not the last American cities that will be facing this problem. And, frankly, there's no excuse for politicians in any State or city not to have been addressing the problem for the last 35 years. Flint's problem is not exclusively home based. We will have to pray that Jackson's is.

I'm in Jackson and there's no lead in my water so I'm hopeful. That is not a surprise as I do not have metal pipes with lead in or leading to my home.

Leading poisoning is offering a possible explanation to the rest of the world as to why we appear crazy to them. Reduced mental function and mood disorders are common.

If you are one of the hostile people on this site, and you have muscle /joint aches and tingling in your extremities and high blood pressure, you might should get tested!