The federal government said Jackson currently has 256 sanitary sewer overflows in a status report submitted to U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate yesterday.
The Justice Department periodically files status reports as required under a 2013 consent decree with the city of Jackson. Although the consent decree is a decade old, the city has made little progress in meeting its terms. The report states:
As a result, the City continues to violate the CWA, the MAWPCL, and the City’s NPDES permits. From March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2022 alone, the City reported 460 SSOs, which released over 111,081,920 gallons of untreated wastewater, 13 SSOs at the West Bank Interceptor low point (408 S. Jefferson St.), known as the “Entergy Manhole,” which released over 95,219,768 gallons and 27 Prohibited Bypasses, which allowed 4,465,590,000 gallons of wastewater to discharge into the Pearl River without the required treatment. Currently, there are approximately 256 known SSO locations in the City’s WCTS requiring immediate emergency repair, yet the City has been unable to quickly respond to or rehabilitate the vast majority of them. Accordingly, many millions of dollars of stipulated penalties against the City have accrued pursuant to the Consent Decree.
The city presented a litany of excuses in response:
(Jackson) represented that severe financial difficulties – including a long period of significantly reduced water and wastewater billing collections attributed to a failed investment to replace the City’s customer water meters and water billing system, the downgrading in 2018 of the City’s bond rating, a global COVID-19 pandemic, and a continuing declining income level of the City’s ratepayers – have affected this commitment and the City’s ability to comply with the Consent Decree.
The city made some progress as it rehabilitated the West Bank Interceptor. However:
Nevertheless, the City has not yet begun crucial elements of the Consent Decree and others remain significantly delayed. Most importantly, the City has not initiated the evaluation of its WCTS – more than two years after the deadline for doing so – nor has it started thenecessary rehabilitation of its WCTS.
Jackson said it spent $136 million on fixing the wastewater treatment system from 2013 to 2021. The city completed a $30.5 million improvement project of the Savannah Street Wastewater Treatment plant in 2022. However, the city said it will cost $840 million to comply with the consent decree.
The Justice Department said it is negotiating with Jackson over the costs and implementation of the consent decree. Water Receiver Ted Henifin has expressed interest in expanding his authority to operating the wastewater treatment system but no formal request that would allow him to do so has been made in this case.
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32 comments:
If this happened in a Republican run city, the EPA would be marching people out of City Hall in handcuffs.
The biggest sewage overflow comes from the mouth of the mayor every day.
I seem to remember someone who was caught dumping something in a manhole who has already gone to court and been convicted for it. I don't think they dumped more down that manhole than Jackson has dumped into the river.
WHAT THE HELL IS THE HOLDUP?
Folks down stream should file a law suit against CoJ.
Where are the tree huggers, eco-terrorists and PETA demanding consequences for 8 Billion gallons of toxins dumped into the world?
There’s a sign, supported by a metal ground support, much like a political candidate or yard sale notice, at the corner of Jefferson Street and Bellevue warning passersby that the liquid flowing is sewage as it flows into the storm drain.
If this happened in a Republican run city, the EPA would be marching people out of City Hall in handcuffs.
One of the biggest environmental crimes in Mississippi history while the Barksdalers and LaddCo Fraud Press look the other way.
Patiently waiting for Chok's statement... will he just do a find and replace for "auditor" and "U.S. Government?"
9:46 is exactly right and everyone knows it.....even the snowflakes.
Is that a lot?
A "60 Minutes" crew will be arriving to investigate in any century.
This thing called Jackson
4,465,590,000 gallons of wastewater to discharge into the Pearl River
Where is the Sierra Cleb?
Because of its makeup, the City of Jackson is totally immune and bulletproof from any consequences resulting from this environmental crime.
EPA winking at Jackson-
thats a lot of poop for the alligators in the pearl river to eat.
This is the kind of divisive treatment that is ruining our society.
The 1% liberals think they are doing a kindness by letting the Democrat leaders face no consequences for their many crimes.
They are so proud, they cannot even see that they are the ones enabling the horrific conditions that the impoverished COJ residents have to endure.
Conservative State leaders try to help and he is the racist because Bennie and Chuck would rather see black people live in sewage, than lose the political power grip they have.
We are living in the Upside Down World.
The lack of accountability is appalling. The consequences of Jackson's poor leadership effects more than her own citizens. Where are the state and federal authorities. While it is important to know what is happening, it is equally important to address the situation. Why is that not happening?
256, that's all. They need to do a recount.
No I didn't. Honest! I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts! It wasn't my fault! I swear to God!
110 MILLION gallons of untreated wastewater from 3/1/2020 to 2/28/2022! Holy crap, how much did they treat - 50 gallons?
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That's a lot of boo boo!
It will never get fixed because they don't care. Radicals think this is how everyone should live (third world country). Everyone has sewage everywhere except the political class. Just go check out Central America, or Mexico. I hae been to El Salvador and I have to say San Salvador looks better than Jackson.
Chowke is connected to the deep state in Washington, so his billions of gallons of raw boo boo is given a free pass. Right?
@9:46 and @10:28 are correct. There is no way that the EPA would let any other city in the Metro area get away with it. And Mississippi Today and Mississippi Free Press allow it to happen and just call it racism if you think Jackson should property treat their sewer. There should be scathing articles written every day. If we didn't read this blog, 99% of us wouldn't know the truth about the water/sewer in Jackson.
I wouldn't exactly call those overflows "sanitary."
One Lake can't get here fast enough. A giant sewage lagoon will help with a lot of this.
If we had a genuine opposition party, maybe some of this radical democrat shit (pun intended) would be stopped....and even cleaned up.
But we don't. And it only gets worse from here.
Antar intentionally refused to fix the water treatment system and let it fail, so the state and feds would come in and pay to fix it. Now he's intentionally refusing to fix or even trying to fix the wastewater treatment system and letting it fail too in the hopes that the state and feds will come in and pay for it too. In the meantime, the citizens of Jackson, who are mostly African American, suffer. The problem he has is that he burned too many bridges with the state over the water treatment fix, so the state will not come in and help fix the wastewater system. And I doubt the feds will either. The feds have known about this whole wastewater problem for over a decade and haven't come in to fix the problem yet. Antar, stop waiting and hoping for someone else to come in and do your job for you and at least try to fix the problem. Even if it's fixing one leak at a time, do something.
Jackson has just made the news again. It is now rated as a 4th world city.
"Folks down stream should file a law suit against CoJ." Every little burb alone the route of the Pearl.
The discharge flows eastward past Grand Island through St. Joe Pass and into the Mississippi Sound. The West Pearl River flows into The Rigolets, thence into Lake Borgne. Both discharges eventually reach the Gulf of Mexico.
That's a shit load of folks affected. Plus the EPA should be making sure that the appropriate fines are not just levied, but paid.
Strange. I only counted 255.
I bet those incompetent racist Auditors counted one of them twice. They need to understand the size of the leak does not necessitate counting that biggest one twice.
How is it possible to have a 'sanitary sewer'?
That would be like seeing a 'sober attorney' or a female swimmer with testicles.
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