Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Flooding at the Plant: The Rest of the Story

 Did flooding cause the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant to crash this weekend? If so, how so? The answer is yes and no.  

Mayor Lumumba said flooding hampered the O.B. Curtis Water treatment plant, causing it to crash.  However, the Mayor made it sound as if nearby floodwaters impacted the plant.  The only problem with that statement is drone photos shot at 4 PM Monday show a dry water treatment plant and surrounding area.


As readers can see, the plant remained dry throughout the flood.  Water is piped in through this structure in the Rez so the river below the dam should not have affected the plant either. 

 

It took some digging but JJ got a fairly good picture of what took place over the weekend.  

Floodwaters drained into the Pearl River above the dam.  Such water usually carries contaminants.  Indeed, yours truly gutted houses in the aftermath of the 2016 Baton Rouge flood.  Contact with the water often initiated a burning sensation on the contacted flesh.  Obviously such water is harmful and not safe to drink.  

However, Jackson suffered floods before, including  2014 and 2020.  The water treatment plant functioned properly during those flooding events.  The plant does not have cause to worry about flooding until the river reaches 38 feet.  What changed? 

Poor staffing and the failure to maintain the plant led to the system crash.  The chemicals in the water changed in both type and concentrations as the water poured into the intakes in the Rez. The plant lacked the staff to properly monitor and adjust the equipment that could keep such problems under control.  The problem was compounded by the tanks. 

The tanks were at very low levels.  Indeed, one tank was completely empty.  The lack of water in the tanks and failure of the pumps several weeks earlier meant the plant had problems creating water pressure and treating the water.  Thus the water coming out of the plant was not raw but was still little treated and thus a threat to public health.  

The Governor finally stepped in Monday night after things came to a head.  

WLBT's C.J. Lemasters asked Mayor Lumumba yesterday if the plant flooded because the drone photos showed otherwise.  The Mayor did not provide the explanation posted above but instead said those photos must have been shot before the flood, indicating he thought the plant flooded.  Uh-huh.  They were shot Monday afternoon by Rick Guy, a 30-year veteran of the Clarion-Ledger.  

So the plant did not flood but due to a lack of staffing and maintenance, floodwaters draining into the Rez screwed up the the plant's treatment of the water, causing the crash. 



35 comments:

Anonymous said...

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”

― George Orwell

Anonymous said...

The boy wonder

Anonymous said...

Remember when Tater said there would be absolute transparency during this process?

When will we get these reports from him?

Burke said...

Great journalism as always, which is especially valuable at a time like this. If anyone is reading this, I hope you have made a generous contribution to JJ.

Anonymous said...

I don't travel over the Rez very often, so does anybody know if the hole in the roof of the Rez pumping station shown in the last picture above has been repaired? I know that it doesn't have anything to do with the situation at hand, but if a simple hole in a roof can't be repaired, it just goes to show you the overall lack of maintenance of the entire Jackson water system.

Anonymous said...

It looks to me like Lumumba was dangling the low-hanging fruit of the plant-flooding narrative for the national press. I'm sure some will embarrass themselves and their organizations by taking the bait.

How many times will people have to get burned before they accept the fact that Jackson's mayor is a habitual liar, seemingly incapable to telling the truth?

Anonymous said...

The water quality at surface water intakes changes all the time, whether it floods or not. A hard rain can change it. Thats why there are systems to monitor it. And that, BTW, is one of the things that separates a Class A system from a Class B system.

Anonymous said...

1:00 PM
Good point. That hole in the roof has been there for at least two years, according to the inspection reports from the Department of Health. How hard is it to slap a tarp on it?

Anonymous said...

The cause of the plant failures can be seen but KF will not post this. No one in the plant knew enough about pumps to know there were variable speed pumps. When the speed is increased and the output pressure lowered a bit the pumps can put out much more than they have been doing. Also with all of the afro american engineering the pumps that were there were not piped in right and there was a great lose in output.

That is the main problems with the plant. The people who were working there who had the knowledge to keep it running were fired or run off and replaced with black, living in Jackson, people who had never been inside of a water plant.

Anonymous said...

“It looks to me like Lumumba was dangling the low-hanging fruit of the plant-flooding narrative for the national press. I'm sure some will embarrass themselves and their organizations by taking the bait.”

The majority of people in the national press aren't capable of feeling embarrassed. These people have no shame.

Let's hope the truth will be revealed to the rest of the world, so that the liars may be seen.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line, state intervention exposes Lumumba's incompetency to levels heretofore not fathomed. He's been in office 6 years, 2 months. He's blown off the EPA and his sycophants know but won't admit that he's been misleading them all along. Nobody in the metro believes him, nobody in the rest of the state gives a damn about him.

This crisis falls fully on his shoulders. He unable to do the job, he's incapable of doing the job. It has absolutely nothing to do with the color of his skin nor what previous administrations did or did not do relative to water and sewerage management.

Bennie Thompson threw him under the bus. It is that bad.

KZ said...

Thanks JJ for the update and comments. Office's are closing left and right in Jackson, due to water, but this problem will not go away with the flood waters. As you say, this is an excuse, hoping that the State or Fed would take over the issue, so that Jackson Admin, did not have to deal with it.
Even Bennie Thompson said in his last interview, there has not been an actual plan submitted to the Feds to request assistance. Guess we need another study to figure that one out.

The press conference must have worked, since literally it was world news. Sad to say, but we will be having this same conversation in a year.

Anonymous said...

1254, if you couold get your nose out of Donna Ladd's ass and sista O'mari's butt, you might could keep up. Tate gave a briefing yesterday afternoon, and during that briefing the explanation of the 'flooding' issue was given; that the heavy rains upstream from then Rez caused the water pH to change - the example given was with your backyard swimming poool being properly chlorinated until a big rain comes along and the pH changes dramatically. They went on to explain how the change in the water entering the plant needed to be properly treated, etc.

But, either you are too damn dumb to understand, or your hatred for tater is so great, or you are nothing but a troll for the city administration - or else, you just don't give a s**t and want to bitch. Whatever.

The transparancy is there - for the first time in the entire COJ water failure.

So - either keep up with what is being said on the national (CNN, MSNBC, etc) the social media sites, or JFP - or STFU.

Anonymous said...

1:06, important stuff to know, but the voters of Jackson and MSM have no clue as to what you are saying. They just run with "Lead in the Water" feed given to them by "activists" and ambulance chasers, via the DNC. Especially now just before midterms. We can't expect science and facts to be brought in and make any GOPers look halfway educated.

I'd wonder if you'd opine on the documented EPA reports of the changes from groundwater to surface water in Jackson over the last 25 years (like the switch in Flint, but done by black local leadership here, in great contrast). Every "suburban" system that they decry as "racist" seems to work, so, why did Jackson make the switch?

But, again, that might drag up inconvenient truths too horrific for the MSM and Dem Party to allow to roam free.

Anonymous said...

Nissan also gets (or not) its water from O.B. Curtis. Transparency in 3, 2, 1...crickets.

Anonymous said...

There are more conversations underway that go beyond flooding and drinking water. Bankruptcy and receivership for the City of Jackson are on the table. The mayor and his band of faithful followers are the only holdouts. This isn't the beginning of the end of the sage. Sadly, we're only a few chapters in.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the report. I trust your reporting above any other. I do this because you have always been above board with your reporting. It does not matter if you print this. It matters that you read this.

Anonymous said...

The Ross Barnett's water always has a heavy load of sediment in it and like the poster above, it is a constantly changing value. The PPM of the water in the main lake dilutes a ton of the sediment laden runoff from when it enters the Pearl River. Yes, it may have more in it than normal, but it is not a Frosty, it's closer to what it always is and that's chocolate milk.

Anonymous said...

1:00 pm I drove over the spillway yesterday at noon and the home was still there. Easy to see going from Brandon to Ridgeland on the high side

Anonymous said...

Could it be that the mayor's blaming of the flooding for the plant failure may be for the purpose of obtaining federal disaster funding?

Anonymous said...

KF, I said this in a comment to a previous post. You didn't need a whole new post to say it again.

And by the way, it's funny to me how many people commenting here are experts on everything except basic fifth grade English. If they can't even correctly spell and punctuate what they're supposed experts in, they aren't experts. They're not even spurts.

Anonymous said...

... state intervention exposes Lumumba's incompetency to levels heretofore not fathomed.

Yes. He's lost control of another narrative.

That'sMisterDeplorableToYou said...

Donnerkay says incompetence has nothing to do with the water problem. The problem is caused by everybody being all racist.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/jackson-mississippi-has-water-crisis-because-our-state-legislature-has-ncna1259819

Anonymous said...

This was all caused by systemic racism, right?

Anonymous said...

I've heard talk of receivership, too. Interesting that the first people the governor's team met with yesterday were representatives of the EPA. The city's refusal to abide by EPA orders and agreements, or to provide timely responses to agency inquiries may be the catalyst that moves the state to act - especially in light of the 52 million gallons of raw sewage dumped in the Pearl River.

Not to mention the suspicious garbage contract gambit, the depleted and demoralized police force, and the general lawlessness in the city.


Anonymous said...

I hope Gumflapper shut his damn mouth long enough to actually hear Earle Banks say, on the record to the press, that it is time for the entirety of the City of Jackson's water operations to be placed into receivership. That's a black house member whose district covers West Jackson. Uh-oh, Chuckles, it's gonna be hard to accuse Earle of racism.

Anonymous said...

PBS broadcaster was on to Antar’s bullshit by the end of a 5-10 minute episode last night. People aren’t dumb. You just have to get there attention. The gig is up for Antar’s grift and he’s going all out birserk in desperation. We need to stay calm and focused and email the shit out of NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and the entirety of Capitol Hill.

Why? Because this is about to be Flint, Michigan on steroids and that means 24 hour coverage for AWHILE.

Anonymous said...

@2:57
Its just so much fun to watch your grammer nazis seethe like children having a temper tantrum.

Anonymous said...

"You can't just say 'We need money'".

Congressman Bennie Thompson
(referring to Chokwe Antar Lumumba)
August 17, 2022

Anonymous said...

And now let's move on to giving raises to all the public works employees who couldn't keep the water turned on.

Anonymous said...

Folks Jackson has had these problems forever.

Time to fix it.

Anonymous said...

I could be mistaken but I believe Nissan gets its water from Big Black river and the system is maintained by CMU. The pumping station in at the end of Mt. Elam Rd off Virillia Rd.

Anonymous said...

106 you are correct about the A level plant treatment /surface water. The B level treatment is ground water (Wells).
The elephant in the room that no one is discussing- is that the B level operator exam is hard enough and takes about 2 years to complete!” A “level certified operators have another whole different set of circumstances changing ph/ turbidity/ filtering/ and the list goes on. Said operator must know math, chemistry, and have technical knowledge! You can’t just take an average non educated or barely educated person of any color and stick them in an operators position for 50 $k a year. Not to mention expect the said operator to conduct the job in a successful manner in the mess which is Jackson water department! The state health department has bent over backwards to help Jackson -(trying to get certified A operators trained) they also have given out of compliance letters and finally had no choice but to take over and put competent people in charge of straightening out a mess that has been created by well we all know why! That plant is practically new compared to the rest of the state’s infrastructure! What is sad is the rest of the state will probably suffer now that this has happened and all of the states ARPA funds will be reallocated to fix this socialist mess!

Anonymous said...

Thank God for Joe Biden.

He just saved jackson - that’s what leaders do.

Joe did that

Anonymous said...

@7:39 thanks! But,I fear the "blamers" and party loyalist won't listen.

The apples and oranges comparisons never end.

The source of contamination in any water is never made nor how it was allowed to reach the sources or surfaces.

And, much of what these folks suggest could have were never realistic...rather the kind of intervention found in fictional novels and movies.


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