Wednesday, February 2, 2022

What Will It Take to Fix Jackson's Water System?

Jerry Mitchell authored this article for the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. It is reprinted with his permission.  

The number one thing the city of Jackson needs to do to solve its water crisis?

Hire the right experts to develop a first-class plan so the city can get all the funding it needs to repair its crumbling system, said Rengao Song, a water quality and treatment expert who works as an adviser to the Louisville, Kentucky, city water system.

“You have to be ready to pull the trigger,” he said. “The city can’t just say, ‘Well, we need this much money to help.’”

He said Jackson has a chance to obtain federal funding from the $1.2 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. President Biden even talked of the capital city’s water woes in pushing the legislation.

Many states have already allocated this funding; Mississippi hasn’t. It has not decided how to spend the $1.8 billion it received.

Of that money, $459 million is earmarked for water improvements across Mississippi, which is problem. The city of Jackson is one of many in line, and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has said publicly the city needs $1 billion to fix its water system and $1 billion to fix its sewer system. And the Mississippi Rural Water Association told lawmakers water districts need $1.4 billion in upgrades to their systems across the state. 

About four months earlier, another sewer line erupted, flowing into the creek, Lockhart said. “When it’s not contained in the pipes like it’s supposed to do, it makes its way into somebody’s drinking water, somebody’s fishing water, somebody’s swimming hole downriver.”

Those leaks are among the many that contaminate the Pearl River. In the first quarter of 2020, about half a billion gallons of raw sewage leaked into the river, according to a city report.

Since 2012, the city of Jackson has been under a consent decree from the EPA because of this sewage problem.

 

“Over the past four years, it’s only gotten worse,” said Abby Braman, executive director for the Pearl Riverkeepers. “It’s extremely frustrating to us.”

The Savannah Street treatment plant puts so much partially treated wastewater into the river, “it could fill four NFL stadiums,” she said.

Pearl Riverkeepers is now pushing state lawmakers to use American Rescue Plan Act funding to make these repairs.

“You have citizens that literally don’t have clean drinking water and don’t have an operating sewer system,” Braman said. “We feel like this is something the state should prioritize.”

When MCIR asked for the details on this, city officials shared a report that showed replacement for water lines in each city precinct would run between $7.3 million and $11.3 million. Repairing one water treatment plant would run more than $20 million; the other, $15.6 million.

The cost of failing to deliver the water may be even greater. More than 40% of the treated water never makes it to customers, according to the Mississippi Department of Health.

The city’s report detailed 135 sewer collection system failures affecting 127,000 residents and businesses. The price tag for those repairs? $30 million.

Leaks in these aging lines mean not only water leaking out of the pipes, but unwanted water going in and causing sewer pipes to overflow.

On Jan. 9, that happened in Lefleur’s Bluff State Park when “a tremendous amount of rain overwhelmed the system,” said Chris Lockhart, a board member of Pearl Riverkeepers, which monitors the river.

That rainwater blew off a manhole cover, causing sewage to empty into Eubanks Creek, which feeds into the Pearl River. The ground remains covered with toilet paper and waste.

Experts say water and sewer pipes should be replaced on a rotating basis each year, but that hasn’t happened in Jackson, which has been devastated by falling tax revenues. More than 100 miles of pipes are more than a century old. (KF: Whoa. Hold on a second. Jackson has not been "devastated by falling tax revenues." Jackson gets more money than ever. It is the water/sewer department that is losing money - thanks to the Siemens deal and idiotic moratoriums on cutoffs. Earlier post)

Eric Rothstein has worked on some of the nation’s biggest drinking water disasters, including Flint, Michigan. “My specialty is water financing,” he said. “Sometimes, I feel like the Zelig of utility finance disasters.”

He worked as a consultant for Jackson, noting the city is hardly the first to have suffered such a fate, “letting systems fall into disrepair. These systems are underground and easily forgotten.”

He said the city of Jackson represents “everything that can go wrong — billing problems, metering problems, difficulty in retaining qualified personnel.”


 

Billing problems have been so catastrophic that between 2014 and 2021, the city missed out on more than $83 million in water billing revenue, according to city officials.

Officials blamed much of that on metering woes. Last year, Jackson received a $90 million settlement from Siemens as a result of faulty meters, but that failed to solve the city’s water billing woes.

A third went to lawyers. What happened to the rest is less clear.

A Clarion Ledger analysis concluded that half went to the city’s general fund, to the Public Works enterprise fund or to pay down city debt. Another $10 million of the settlement remains, earmarked for water meter and billing fixes, but city officials say they need another $37 million to pay for all these changes.

In August, the city began installing new water meters.

As for its two water plants, the city is supposed to have 24 Class A workers running them. That number has fallen to five or six, violating the city’s consent decree with the EPA.

City officials say that Class A operators make about $14 an hour, despite having college degrees. Those without a degree can become Class A operators with a GED and six years’ experience and also pass the exam, according to Mississippi Department of Health standards. In both cases, applicants must have at least one year of working experience in a Class A plant.

The Jackson City Council recently boosted these salaries, as much as $10,000 a year for some, hoping to retain these operators, whose average salary across the U.S. tops $48,000 a year.

Jackson’s water treatment operation continues to struggle. In April, an electrical fire caused two service pumps to fail at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, resulting in a temporary loss of water pressure. In November, the city issued a boil-water notice after unsafe chemicals were used to treat the drinking water.

The Clarion Ledger reported that two-thirds of all water samples taken in Jackson since 2015 have contained at least a trace amount of lead.

Song said if lead contamination is a concern, faucet filters “are the way to go for customers.” Some of the more expensive filters utilize reverse osmosis to remove contaminants.

For more than 26 years, Robert Miller worked for the water system in Louisville, Kentucky, 17 of them as chief financial officer.

After he retired in 2008, he decided to move to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding their water system following the destruction from Hurricane Katrina. “My job was to rebuild the administrative side,” he said. “The city was about six weeks behind in paying their bills. They hardly had any money in the bank.”

While there, he said, “reforms to business processes, improvements to financial planning and program of rate increases helped the water system go from junk bonds to A and A+ rated bonds with more than a quarter billion dollars in the bank” by the time he left.

After Lumumba took office in 2017, the mayor’s transition team lured Miller to work for the city of Jackson.

“When I met him, I became convinced that he was the type of transformational leader that comes along once in a generation,” Miller said. “I wanted to become part of his team.”

Miller managed the water and sewage plants through two winter emergencies, when the temperature dropped to 13 degrees each time.

Asked what advice he would give the city of Jackson these days, he replied, “All of the advice I had for Jackson I gave while I was there.”

He retired again in 2020, returning to Kentucky.

“It is disconcerting to read of the struggles that the citizens of Jackson continue to endure as the city works to resolve the problems with billing and collecting for water and sewer service,” he said. “However, it is important to keep in mind that these fixes take time to implement.”

Rothstein said the American Rescue Plan Act brings hope to Jackson.

“My experience is that Atlanta, Detroit and even Flint had leadership pay consistent attention to these issues,” he said. “Atlanta faced a huge problem with its consent decree. The mayor there took on the moniker of being the ‘sewer mayor.’ He showed a commitment to the right thing and ultimately gained support.”

Song said the number one priority for water plants is “to make sure the water is safe to drink. That cannot be compromised.”

Unlike items we buy that can be recalled, “we can’t recall water,” he said. “We can’t tell people, ‘Sorry the water you had yesterday is bad.’”

Kingfish note: Perhaps it is time to consider hiring a private company to run the water plants.  

 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

City leadership is irresponsible. The only way out of this morass is to suck the federal tit-

Anonymous said...

There is not going to be a magical pot of gold to solve it.

Step 1: Increase JPD salaries and hire more damn officers to make citizens safe. There shouldn't be hour long waits before a house alarm going off gets responded to. Cut as much non-necessities from the budget as you can. Zoo - gone. The basics should be a given.

Step 2: As crime becomes more controlled, work your ass off on business development. The area needs jobs. The State should also help here to end the "brain drain." Part of ending "brain drain" is creating a vibrant City young college grads would actually want to live in.

Step 3: Watch people move back from the suburbs. Jackson is convenient as hell to live in. They'll come back if they are safe and there are things to do.

PittPanther said...

The $60M from the lawsuit is gone? With no changes to the water and sewer problems? What does the city council have to say about that?

Robert Miller's comments are telling. He was unable to get the current leadership to do anything. And this from a man who was successful in NOLA.

Out of all the cities that fixed their water, I don't see that hiring a private company was required. What's required is leadership that wants to solve the problem, which Jackson doesn't have. If the current leadership were to hire a private company, they would either low-ball the bid so that no one could do the job, or argue about paying them and eventually would fire them, having accomplished little.

Anonymous said...

Well, A good start would be to have more actual plumbers and mechanical than Cousins, Uncles and Nieces on the payroll. Yah see, your Public Works Dept. , in theory, would run way better if you had qualified PUBLIC WORKS folks on the payroll.

Anonymous said...

Before I even read a word of Mitchell's thesis, I'll bet anybody fifty bucks he eventually lays all blame on the evil, white man.

I will now read as much of it as I can stand...

Anonymous said...

No doubt Baby Chowke has some con$ultant$ in mind, right sis?

The Shadow Of Incompetence Looms Darkly said...

Well, Mitchell pulled up short of playing the race card. Or did he? He may actually have inadvertently played it in reverse!

This is the most telling quote in the entire copy and paste article: "Miller managed the water and sewage plants through two winter emergencies, when the temperature dropped to 13 degrees each time. Asked what advice he would give the city of Jackson these days, he replied, “All of the advice I had for Jackson I gave while I was there.”

What the above quote obviously means is: I thought I was joining a good team. While there, I gave them advice which was ignored. I left.

In the opinion of this poster, it's always prudent, when developing and approaching solutions, to at least define and acknowledge the problem. The problem is not so much the dilapidated system as it is the perpetual, rotating lack of leadership who sit around and wait for the federal government to resolve this circle-jerk. Meanwhile, people are fishing in, playing in and drinking raw-sewage-shit-water.

Anonymous said...

"Hire the right experts to develop a first-class plan so the city can get all the funding it needs to repair its crumbling system," said the guy who wants to be hired for millions of dollars.

While planning is prudent, I wonder how many millions of dollars the city has already spent on planning projects which it has never implemented.

As far as "losing" 40% of the drinking water, I suspect that number. Probably a significant percentage is actually reaching users, but is unmetered. We have found that to be the case in other cities. Some users, such as charities and public facilities, may not have meters. Others may be broken. Some may be bypassed. Regardless, it doesn't matter, if you're not even collecting the bills that you are metering.

Also, someone needs to check the math in the article.

Anonymous said...

Miller is white... no one here going to listen to him.

Anonymous said...

The nerve of a city that doesn’t pay its workers and doesn’t collect payments but screams they need the most money to fix the problems they created.

Kingfish said...

copy and paste? Go look at Cl. The article was copy and pasted from Jerry Mitchell's outfit. Go over there and make the same complaint.

Anonymous said...

Why do many of us feel like we could give Jackson 2 Billion dollars and in 5 years we would still have many of the same problems with the water sewer system. Why do I get this feeling that most of would be spent on consultants?
Its called lack of trust in leadership.

Anonymous said...

Other than a few comments there isn't anything new in this Mitchell piece that hasn't already been reported previously here and elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

@9:20

Step 3 is a pipedream

Anonymous said...

Jerry Mitchell ain't got a clue. He only writes what he is told (never actually digs into the facts himself). Lazy.

Anonymous said...

In the meantime, the city is rebuilding the sidewalks on both sides of Gallatin Street between Hwy. 80 & the train overpass.
Is there about to be a walking contest in that area?

Anonymous said...

The leaders don't want factual answers to the problem.
They just want more money.
And when they get the money they have zero plans to use the money for improvements.
Then, they will cry for money and scream racism so loud that the rational voices cant be heard.

Miller saw this basic fact and left.

Just like the rest of us with common sense did.

If you stay and contribute to this funding of theft, you are tacitly endorsing this.

Enjoy, Jackson!

Anonymous said...

The only realistic option is at the federal level, and you bet everything that Tate will significantly cleave funds earmarked for Jackson.

Anonymous said...

1122, the city recently resurfaced that stretch of Gallatin. Under current USDOT requirements, and ADA agreements, if a portion of a street is resurfaced, then any existing adjoining streets and curbs must be made ADA compliant.

So, while there will likely be few people walking these sidewalks, they - like others throughout the city where repaving has occurred - have been repaired to make them compliant.

Make sense? That's for everyone to decide on their own. But at least the street is now drivable.

Anonymous said...

11:22 Notice how they totally screwed up the street lines at 80 ?

Anonymous said...

He (Eric Rothstein) said the city of Jackson represents “everything that can go wrong..." In a nutshell.

Anonymous said...

all the advice he gave while in Jackson...

just let that sink in...

Anonymous said...

"Sewer Mayor of Jackson" has a nice ring to it.

Anonymous said...

Such projects are not "shovel ready"... Years to secure funding, engineering, then years bidding, and years actually do the work. Whatever they say it will cost, double it then double it again.

I dunno, I am thinking segregate(can that word be used?) the system into pieces around the city, keeping tie in valves and drill some wells at strategic points. At least with a cold snap you might not lose the entire city and have to rely on the feeds from the poorly maintained water treatment plants. You can inject wells directly in the lines and run their speed based on pressure and that would prevent injecting the cold water from the rez, pearl river, and elevated tanks from shocking the piping with rapid temperature change. Could do that faster and as a stopgap than the decades pipe dream "totally fixing the system"

Just thinking out loud, probably a bad idea

The Shadow Of Incompetence Looms Darkly said...

The Almighty Kingfish Sez: "copy and paste? Go look at Cl. The article was copy and pasted from Jerry Mitchell's outfit. Go over there and make the same complaint." February 2, 2022 at 10:49 AM.

Ah, Mighty Kingfish...the definition of copy and paste is doing no original work but lifting (copying) quotes and reports and sentences and paragraphs from other sources who have reported on a subject. Nothing in this piece reveals original research or revelation on the part of Mitchell.

The copy and paste I referred to was on the part of Mitchell, who copied every damned word of it from other sources, zero originality. As hard as it is for you to believe, not every post is about you or the blog.

But you knew that. You just felt a need to comment. (Obviously, this post is destined for the cutting room floor)

Anonymous said...

Just invite more batshit crazy liberals to come in and gentrify Jackson, you’ll see all types of new stuff including water and sewer. That’s about the only way it will ever get rebuilt.

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows how to fix Jackson’s water problem. I’m sure many have posted the fix but there not posted here because Kingfish has a little bit of Jellyfish in his backbone!

Anonymous said...

Imagine The Cush of the Third World New Afrika if Baby Choc had the authority to ignore utility bills. Imagine the havoc if he could decree that nobody receiving power from Entergy need worry about paying their monthly power bill. He's done that with water, but, only because he has the authority to do that. Imagine the rush of people into Jackson, seeking not only free water but free electric power. And what would be next?

His father's dream is coming alive. His father was the first coming and HE is the second coming...sent to put his father's dream in place. Jackson is a reservation - a reservation of lawlessness, despair and iniquity.

The Potential Mistake That Looms Like A Dark Cloud said...

How many damned fools make up our State Legislature? That's the number of fools we'll be pointing at if millions of dollars are turned over to the city of Jackson in the name of infrastructure repair and maintenance.

Making money available for municipal improvements is one thing. Giving the mayor the combination to that vault is quite another.

That'sMisterDeplorableToYou said...

The only thing that will even possibly fix this RIGHT, is a massive injection of federal money -- either directly to the city or conduited through the state. The problem is just too big. Expecting Jackson to fix something this large and complex is akin to expecting a 5-year old to fix a window he threw a ball through. But even that solution won't work unless there is some VERY CLOSE oversight on how the money is spent. Without that oversight, you may as well toss those millions of federal dollars into the monkey cage at the zoo.

Anonymous said...

Question: What Will It Take to Fix Jackson's Water System?

Answer: A competent Mayor.

Question: Does Jackson, Mississippi have a competent Mayor?

Answer: No.

Anonymous said...

9:20 for the win. Reduce the crime and money comes back. Money comes back, and young people have something to stay for. I say this as a young person who grew up in NE Jackson.


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