Jackson Jambalaya

Sabotage by the usual suspects? Right?

MS state employees are not subject to human errors.

Tester fail to wash their hands after using the facilities?

If they are 100% on their protocols then why are they refusing to retest the samples in their possession. They know they screwed up and are covering their butts. How much you want to bet the samples submitted tomorrow are magically clear over night. That agency is a disaster like several others in the state.

Is it possible the Jacobs personnel contaminated the samples in the field before they got to the lab? Also, if by chance there is E. coli, I sure wouldn’t recommend waiting a day or two before doing anything!!!

@ 8:00 - so you are assuming that they have 'refused' to retest the samples. I'm sure you are right, (just like you are sure of yourself) but maybe the state employees and the agency is not quite the disaster that you consider all of state government to be.

I can't imagine any reason that the MSDOH would want to find failed samples from two different communities, just for the hell of it. And because I have a little more faith in those basic state employees who have a job to do it and do it every day, they probably do retest the samples before issuing such a report that has the impacts that these required notices have.

Granted, if the sample is contaminated - as some are suggesting - retesting a contaminated sample would give the same result ---- a failure. The option of taking another sample is (1) not an option under the statutory protocols, and (2) not the responsibility of the MSDOH.

Just for kicks, lets assume for a minute that you might just possibly be wrong - would you rather the MSDOH ignored the results and let you partake of the water with the bits of Ecoli in it? Myself, I'd rather err on the safe side without have anything more to base it on than your disdain for government

Cover up on Health Department. They should be held accountable financially for business losses.

Perhaps Hanging Moss creek's bo-bo has infiltrated a water leak between the two streets with the e-coli findings.

@9:31 - glad to know that someone has the actual factual details about this issue. based on your assessment, I agree that the state of Mississippi should pay millions of dollars to whoever asks, because you have determined that the Health Department absolutely screwed this up and that there is absolutely nothing wrong anywhere else.

Now, please tell us all where you think the checks should be sent, and in what amounts.

But, if just perhaps, you don't have shit to back up your claim, then why don't you STFU and let the adults deal with this issue?

@931 - same protocol apply to those on the other side? Financial accountability if, just by chamance, the State was correct? Then should the folks that claimed cover up without any basis have a financial accountabilty?

And -- either way --- who is it that would pay? The State? (taxpayers). The city? (taxpayers). The third party administrator? (taxpayers)

Get a grip. IF you happen to be a Jxn resident, just be glad that there is at least SOMEONE there that has some idea of what is going on, rather thann when Chockwe and his croynies were there with no staffing of the water system, no give a s**t about the water (whether you got any or not, regardless of its quality) - at least we get water EVERY day, not just occasionally when they got lucky AND bothered to pay the chemical supplier prior to the system not having ANY CHLORINE to eliminate ecoli -- and so far that water has been safe and drinkable.

I ain't taking up and saying that Henifin is beyond fu*k*ng up - he is too busy enjoying his acclaim to worry about the details. BUT, at least the system is running; they have taken care of getting redundant equipment in place so that with the upcoming cold weather it won't shut down for three weeks as it did und3er King Cho.ckwe who didn't give a damn. But there are plenty of places where this bad test might have occurred - not just in DOH but possibly, Either way, we have water. We might have a couple of days of disruption because somebody (I don't give a damn who at this point) might have had dirty fingers on the testing ---- it was, in both cases , done by a third party subcontractor anyway. And in Jackson (with Henifin, being pushed for his "minority contracting) who knows the person going around and collecting those 120 samples and getting them delivered properly to the MSDOH.

I don't know who is right or wrong - but Henifin ain't a GOD (despite what he has been told) and he still depends on his multiple of contractors that he still tries to accommodate the KUSH on with those that are collecting the samples. Lets see the final results before we make a determination of who/what/how this all happened.

Wish MSDH were half as transparent as Henefin is. This one is on the state.

I worked for an earth science agency and I collected water samples from rivers and lakes that were then sent to our national lab which would run detailed tests on the samples. The lab would enter the results into a national database where scientists from my office would retrieve the lab results, then compile and analyze those results, along with other data we had collected, and publish the results and their conclusions in publicly available reports. If anything was unusual in a sample, the tests were run again. If the anomaly was verified by a second result, the appropriate agencies, cities, counties, or water districts would be notified.

You never collect just one bottle of a sample at a site. At a minimum you collect two sample sets. A set may require two to four bottles. Bottles can break. You never just get one. More than likely they collected at least two and possibly eight bottles at every site. The four bottles (or maybe just two) in each set were going to be tested for different substances (biologicals, chemical, heavy metals, etc...) which require different handling techniques as soon as the sample is collected. And, labeling! Lots and lots of labeling and note-keeping. You measure pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and note the color at the sample site. Handling techniques included putting the samples on ice to keep cool so new things wouldn't grow in them before testing; put some samples in amber colored bottles to protect them from light so whatever was in the samples wouldn't deteriorate from exposure to light before testing; adding preservatives to some samples and not others, etc...). So, one sample may require up to four separate bottles to be collected due to the different tests to be run, and you always collect at least one back-up sample in case you drop & break one of them, and other reasons for two sets is you can retest to make sure the results are repeatable, by your lab or a different one.

Generally, if the agencies are science agencies, run by scientists, if there is a problem with the system, the agencies collaborate with each other to identify the weakness in the collection/testing/reporting protocols. You don't point to one part of the system that you are responsible for and say "we did everything right, so there is nothing else we can do". It looks to me that the political leadership put the state lab in a bad light. I don't believe the state lab folks are worrying about covering their asses. They are scientists and an anomalous event happened today. The lab is wondering why? And how do we fix it. The Dept of Health should have let the lab write the statement, or say nothing except "Yeah, it's strange. We're looking into it. It's too early to know what exactly happened". "Where is the source of the e-coli?" is a great question to ask right now.

E-coli positives are rare. Two reported in one day from adjacent cities should cause alarm bells to be ringing within the state health department, not a "circle the wagons" response we are seeing here. They should have had different crews already collecting new samples at the indicated sites to verify their results. T

Now, this is a notice for the homers here: I didn't say anything about not requiring, or delaying, boiled water notices. You do all of those things concurrently. Government is big. Issue emergency notices and re-sample and re-test all at the same time.

PS - 9:14 - It may be a regulatory protocol, but not statutory. Also, I am sure it doesn't discourage or prohibit public safety personnel from retesting and resampling due to a e-coli positive result. An e-coli positive in public drinking water supply is an all-hands-on-deck public health emergency. At most, it would say verify it with an on hand second sample, then report the e-coli result first, then resample and retest.

Maybe in Jackson Coliform bacteria is now the normal flora to be found everywhere.

@8:00 PM
Water samples for e. coli have an 8-hr hold time before the samples are no longer viable for certifiable results. To be clear, the hold time is the maximum time from sample collection to the start of the analysis at the lab. After the samples are received by the lab, a portion of the sample is homogenized and placed in growth solution. The growth solution is allowed to incubate for approximately 24 hours before it is examined for bacteria. By the time the analysis is complete, the original sample is well beyond the proscribed hold time, which renders it useless for certifiable results. Therefore, it will take at least 24 hours to get the retest completed. (probably more like 30 hours)

Are they false positives? Despite what I am about to write, please err on the side of caution and treat the sample results as valid. I live in an affected area, and my family is adhering to the "boil water" guidelines. That said, it is very easy to contaminate samples for bacterial analysis. Possible sources of contamination include improperly sterilized containers, errors made during sample collection, and contamination in the lab. The fact that multiple samples from the same day in separate water systems tested positive for e. coli is strong evidence of the results being an artifact of sampling or analysis. In my experience, neither sample collectors nor laboratories will ever admit that they are the problem. Therefore, the comments from the MDHS are exactly what one should expect.

Compared to bacterial analysis, chlorine analyis is much quicker and easily repeatable. Since sterile containers and equipment are not needed and there are very few sources of environmental chlorine, chlorine samples are much harder to contaminate by errors in sample collection or analysis.

Based on my limited knowledge of drinking water systems, proper chlorine concentrations and positive results for e. coli analysis are mutually exclusive conditions. Therefore, the e. coli results are almost certainly a false positive. Nonetheless, I will base my actions on the worst case and boil my water.

How the hell did 4:33 wander into here with facts and such?

Who said anything about false positives to begin with?

Thank you, 8:52, for taking the time and posting that comment.

8:58, I guess since you wanted to spout off about folks and their facts, we should call your facts out….Did you mean 4:32? I know it’s petty but :)

We knew whatcha meant ;)

Beats me, but,

I'll have what He's drinking!"

Ha Flowood be drinking poo water too

Thanks 4:32, 8:52. Excellent info. Appreciate it.

I don't think Health Dept is bad. I think they do a good job. But I do believe there was a problem/mistake there on this sampling/testing. The odds of 2 different cities getting this result on the same day are high. I think Henifin did the right thing by making a statement. He and his group have busted their butts and made 10,000 improvements so this was a hard blow. I still went out and bought water because I'll always abide by boil water notices. But this was a shame.

Well if their lab is run anything like the procurment office I know they messed up

If you or a family member got sick from bad water, and then learn that the authorities knew it was bad but "waited" to do another test before issuing a warning....then you'd see this through a different lens.

@914 you want to eat those words? All test were negative after retesting...

@914 Where you at? The just lifted the boil water notice…. They are eating that crow and know so are you…

The Miss. Dept. of Health is an utter joke of an organization. Doesn't do squat but pay a bunch of folks to sit on their butts.

When it comes to Heflin's word versus the MDOH's word, it's a no-brainer. Heflin's public statements can be trusted 100% of the time. The MDOH? Perhaps 33% of the time.