The Poor People's Campaign issued the following statement.
Following on the heels of a major legal victory for residents’ efforts against HB 1020, a group of Jackson, Mississippi, based grassroots organizations are once again seeking relief from the courts with a motion filed late yesterday to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the federal government against the City of Jackson for its failure to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). With residents currently shut out of closed-door settlement negotiations about the future of their water system, Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign (MS-PPC) and the People’s Advocacy Institute (PAI) are seeking an official role for community involvement in the co-design of just, equitable solutions to the decades-long water crisis. They seek public accountability and increased information-sharing related to water quality and the management of an unprecedented amount of federal funding to fix the public water system.
After the Department of Justice
filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
in November 2022, the parties came to an interim agreement that called
for a third-party manager (ITPM) to oversee
the response to the crisis. But MS-PPC and PAI, and the residents they
represent, say the appointee, Ted Henifin, and the EPA have not
adequately engaged Jackson residents and community leaders in the
process, have failed to keep them informed about the safety
and quality of their water and the status of repairs to the water
system, and have executed long-term contracts without proper
transparency or oversight.
“Water is sacred, water is life,” said
Danyelle Holmes of the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign,
one of the organizations seeking intervenor status in the lawsuit.
“Water shouldn't be a silent killer. Yet, this is the
reality for Jackson residents. It's criminal to allow residents to
consume unsafe and unclean drinking water. We will not sit idly by and
allow Jackson's harmful water quality to silently kill us.”
In August 2022, flooding shut
down Jackson’s main water treatment plant, leaving thousands without
safe drinking water. For the 160,000 residents of this predominantly
Black city, this was only one episode in a multigenerational
environmental injustice that has included lead contamination, hundreds
of boil water notices, and three complete shutoffs that left some
residents without water for up to three weeks or more. A widespread lack
of trust in the system led most residents to stop
drinking the water years ago.
Intervention in the case is only
one part of the group's efforts to give residents a say in the response
to the crisis. Last month, they
filed an emergency petition
with the EPA asking for emergency interim water relief, among other remedies, and, the month before, they submitted a
community statement
to the EPA. Both the motion and the petition were submitted on their behalf by attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights, Forward Justice, and the ACLU of Mississippi.
Attorneys from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) joined the groups in representing
PPC-MS and PAI on the emergency petition and community statement.
Both the City of Jackson and the EPA have agreed not to oppose the organizations’ motion to intervene in the case.
“Mississippi Poor People's
Campaign and People's Advocacy Institute are seeking to join this case
under the federal rules of intervention and under a provision of the
Safe Drinking Water Act that gives residents and community
groups like them the right to intervene and partner with the government
in enforcing the Act's requirements,” said
Mikaila Hernández,
Bertha Justice Fellow and attorney
at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Our clients are doing exactly
what they have the right to do, and what they have been invited to do
by Congress, to protect their community from the hazards of racialized
environmental injustice. We appreciate the
decision by the City of Jackson and the EPA to not oppose this action.”
PPC-MS and PAI are proposing a
range of changes to foster community involvement and ensure all entities
involved in resolving the crisis, including the parties in the
Safe Drinking Water Act case,
are accountable to the groups and residents. They seek a meaningful
official role for community members in negotiations; more frequent
provision
of scientifically-backed data to support the third-party manager, EPA, and other government entities’ broad statements about water quality and safety; and alternative water sources
for residents.
“Jackson is one of more than 100 cities that have hiring and contracting policies that prioritize residents,” says
Brooke Floyd, lead organizer for the Jackson People’s Assemblies.
“It is unconscionable that the federal government finally grants us
hundreds of millions of dollars and there’s
no requirement that these funds create employment for our residents.
This is one of the many reasons why we need a seat at the table.”
Caused by decades of
discriminatory neglect and disinvestment by its state government, the
Jackson crisis is similar to crises facing other majority-Black and
Latinx communities around the country, as shown in a September
12, 2023, shadow report submission
to the United Nations Human
Rights Committee by Jackson community members, academics, and
organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Collapsing water and wastewater systems are threatening the health
of residents in Alexandria, Louisiana; Baltimore, Maryland; Laredo,
Texas; and Lowndes County, Alabama.
Kingfish note: Where were these people when the Mayor was hiding the EPA order for over a year? Where were they when the EPA called him out for not hiring Class A water operators? Where were they when his administration didn't even advertise for water operators? Where were they when his administration hid the truth about the ammonia leak or the "bad chemicals" that shut down OB Curtis? Why is it they suddenly raise hell when the water system is finally working?
58 comments:
These people are fucking crooks. Self-serving con artists only interested in stealing as much of other people's taxes as they can.
What? No "inclusive" mentioned in their moving papers? At least they mentioned "Latinx."
What Marxist, gold digging, race baiting, drama queens, and Chowke's fingerprints are all over this. Right?
Waiting for Judge Wingate to bitch slap these narcissists.
KF, to answer you last question - they don't want it to work, but rather to fail, so they can demand more money from the Xiden administration.
KF, great reporting.
Why? Well, because they and their unqualified contractors, merely awarded contracts because of their skin color(hello racism!), aren't getting their piece of the pie. They had big plans for their cut of the hundreds of millions of dollars you see when Chokwe sabotaged the water system in hopes of a federal takeover.
What a joke. Their press releases are just laughable at this point. Everyone knows exactly who is behind them and why. Especially the EPA.
We're honestly lucky Henifin hasn't thrown his hands up and said good riddance to this city and its "leadership".
Here in her Declaration, this Danyelle lady includes partial screenshots from Nextdoor to show how bad JXN Water allegedly is.... well if you go to the actual comment thread on that post in Nextdoor (which is still available), you'd see they were attempting to contact the City of Jackson and not getting results. Once they called JXN Water the issue was resolved promptly. Complete opposite of the point she was trying to prove. You can't trust anything they blast out to the media as "facts" that fit Lumumba's narrative.
https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2023/08/_2023.08.09%20-%20Ex.%20A%20-%20Decl.%20of%20Danyelle%20Holmes.pdf
Absent a role as a productive member of society, people have disposable time to pursue frivolous matters. By any measure a mature, sensible individual would understand that the recent changes in the city of Jackson are well planned, well executed and have improved the water and sewer system operation significantly in a relatively short period of time. If it were not so sad it would be amusing.
Judge Wingate has already told Rukia and this bunch to f_ck off.
They obviously are going to learn the hard way to sit down and shut up.
Do these fucking idiots not realize that Judge Wingate will be hearing the case and has already heard and shredded these arguments from them on 7/21?
"A group are...." Lost me there, Sistah.
Rukian anarchists want "inclusion"? No, they want the money and will fix things their way. Judge Wingate and even fair minded Ted Henifin have seen through these hosers' veneer, know who they are, what they're after.
At some point Chokwe is going to have to accept that he messed up and lost. Until then he only looks like a petulant child lying and denying they broke everything!
When's the garbage RFP?
Grifters will grift and raise the race card at every opportunity. Right?
Judge Wingate smack down in 3, 2, 1...
@6:27 PM - That's pretty much the definition of a narcissist. Right Chowke?
On the positive side, if the judge allows them to intervene the judge just might hold their feet to the fire if they make unfounded and untruthful statements about the current status of Jackson's drinking water. If I remember correctly the judge doesn't appreciate the parties in this case making exaggerated statements which are intended to cause uncertainty in the public's opinion of the current safety of the water.
How many times these fools gonna stick their finger in the light socket?
“ decades of discriminatory neglect and disinvestment by its state government”…..what Mississippi town’s water system was paid for by state investment? I’ll save you the time you of looking it up. None.
“They seek a meaningful official role for community members in negotiations”
Why?
What skills or knowledge base to they bring to this situation? What do they add or
Have to offer?
Then need to STFU and stoop interfering with the adults that are trying to fix this disaster.
" and Latinx communities "
I thought the Latin American community quashed the word "Latinx" a few years ago.
Can Chockwe just move to Colorado and take a few damn idiots with him?
Read maybe half of it
How ignorant is Rukia or whoever wrote this? Am I even bias for saying that? These people need mental help in my opinion. This isn’t even giving me high blood pressure. Rukia, you lost NW Jackson. Sure NW Jackson is a pretty smart part of town, but what happens when the majority of NW Jackson, NE Jackson, East Jackson, and others vote your brother out? War veterans did more in 5 minutes for our country then you and your brother have ever done. Jeff Good, Melvin Priester Jr., Aaron Banks, Stokes, Foote, please get together and figure out who in town needs to draw the straw of taking one for the team and voting these people out.
Rukia, your brother acted as if the water crisis of January 2009 or 10 never happened. The water crisis of January 2016 or 17 never happened. Y’all fail to understand that the vast majority of the people in this city would do a much better job of running Jackson, but don’t want to get involved in politics. Where did y’all get y’all’s awful sense of entitlement?
Funny how they use all the buzzwords and talking points of the national Democrats and the Woke Community.
On another note, water and sewer systems have to be run in a businesslike basis, just like a private utility. Can’t have all the crackpots and know nothings on the board running things.
WLBT, WJTV, WAPT please call Rukia out. This isn’t partisan. This is calling out bs. Ted and his team are doing a heck of a job compared to what it was like before. Y’all going to show some southern hospitality and stand up for Ted and Co or be cowards? Y’all got any pride for y’all’s team? It’s not like y’all have to go on a battlefield. We’re talking about hitting a keyboard and pressing submit or something of the sort. The second graders at Casey could rip this bs to shreds.
Regarding limitations to the 1st amendment on free speech, is there any difference in yelling “fire” in a theater and yelling “the water is poison” to the whole city?
A bunch of huff and puff racist comments that I intended to copy and paste, until I read KF's last sentence.
Hammer meet nail.
@8:40
The Latino community never uses the word Latinx… the white liberals insist on it though. Latinos are conservative socially and refuse to accept this word. Also Chokwe just needs to go. Not sure why the one person suggested Colorado. He’d not fit in that demographic at all. Ever been to Colorado? You’re hard pressed to find people in chokwes demographic.
You see the issue is this… they view the government grant as an employment mill rather than actually correcting the water situation. These are the same morons that view JPS as employment mill rather than an actual school. Every last one of these idiots are ignorant and lack any knowledge or reason the government has stepped in. No solution, just a government paycheck and they likely pay zero in taxes.
All that to say, "We want a voice in designing OUR water system".
First off, it's not OUR (your) water system. It's a government operated (typically) system put in place to serve your needs. You don't get to design it. You only get to use it and pay for it (typically).
Secondly; Who can imagine a group of citizens (poor or not) demanding to have a voice in designing and operating the Entergy electric power system? Or citizens having a voice in designing and operating airports and natural gas delivery systems?
Those heading up these bitching groups are nothing but grifters.
I am really getting tired of the racism on this blog.
They seek a role in negotiations to ensure they can steer contracts to their buddies who will then award a "subcontract" of $610,000 per year for "information technology" services for an existing company with a couple of trash trucks who needs maybe $100k a year of IT services at most so they can slide the $500k difference to the pockets of the Lumumbas.
IT IS SO OBVIOUS WHAT THEY ARE DOING!
Worthless trash out of hell.
Right on time just as literally everyone expected. Rinse, wash, repeat. I’m more shocked to lear water is wet than to hear the Lumumba camp filed a lawsuit against someone trying to better the city’s water situation. They are as predictable as the sun coming up, and everyone with any sense laughs at them.
Judge Wingate has ruled and Heflin was chosen to fix the water situation, let them do their jobs! They don’t need over site, just help! Stop hindering the process!
Would you want community input when your house is burning? Would you want over sight when one of the thugs shoot Big Mama?
What y’all naysayers can do is go out in the streets and stop the violence!!!
Rukia must be poor as she hasn't paid her property taxes.
Thanks for posting this, Kingfish. And excellent Note at the end of the post. My thoughts exactly. In my mind, the answer is---there was no Federal money back then, the cutoffs are going to start, and the 7000 who aren't paying for water are coming to light.
I hope and pray Judge Wingate stops this mess. He was patient before when they came to court and handled it beautifully. I pray he sees thru this and does the same. Stay out of Henifin's way too. He's set up something that is working. My God, its working, after all these years.
And thanks to the poster who mentioned the Nextdoor thing. I hope the Judge picks up on that as well.
They seem very well funded but only a small mostly college types. Who is funding these people?
I applaud the work Mr. Heflin has done.
Unlike the rest of you, I'm not ignorant of the fact that for decades the poorer areas of Jackson were neglected when it came to maintenance and city services.
I'm not ignorant of the fact that the county supervisors rewarded the least populated areas of the county with federal money.
I'm not ignorant of the fact that it is federal money that pays the bulk of the costs of infrastructure maintenance and repairs in this state.
I'm not ignorant of the fact that a lack of transparency in government is usually a bad unless it involves defense of our Nation.
I'm VERY aware that the water crisis was a minor, short lived, inconvenience to me because for decades those of us who pay the highest property taxes get attention more quickly (though some can't tolerate any inconvenience or appreciate they have to resources to reduce the effects).
I am more than aggravated that the politics in Mississippi divide primarily among racial lines.There is zero philosophical basis and that is proven by the deficit spending of the Trump administration. The GOP is no longer the party of business principles and fiscal conservatism. It is a giveaway to the rich.
As a State and as a Nation, we are only as strong as our weakest links. If you are opposed to individuals having equal opportunities to excel and contribute their best talents to our society, you are just enabling every enemy we have.
This is not a ballgame where loyalty is to a "team". That we have allowed the political factions to divide us and weaken us is exactly what our Founders, ALL of them feared when discussing the various forms of government and economics. But, here, you all know more about the Civil War than our Revolution. So, you fall prey to sentences out of context and glorify a lost war that never had a chance to be other than that. Then too, they lacked any sense of what would be needed to win besides "loyalty to a cause". And the firebrands of those days left the South NEEDLESSLY impoverished for a hundred years. Like today, there were several solid solutions to resolve the issue of slavery gradually without economic disruption or destruction. And,the irony is then as now, the working poor and business and professional classes thought the loyalty to the wealthy would benefit them.
History's biggest two lessons are 1: if you expect anyone else to work and think for YOUR BENEFIT without knowing and understanding what they are doing, you are a fool and 2: if you have a Civil War "outsiders" will reap the benefits. Last time only oceans and European distractions saved us from the worst of that " side effect".
This bunch are the same types trying to bring this country down.
Lubumba 2025, vote early, vote often!
4.41 is 100% correct. They want it to fail. they want to sue and be sued. Jackson has to pick up the tab for the legal work defending Chokwe. His intentions have become clear. He wants America to say nobody will help poor Jackson. The Racist people in Mississippi will not even give them water and waste management. If they only knew. Please Someone in Big media have the guts to call this guy on his BIG CON
Lord Fish, I just took a photo with my phone of your paragraph that beautifully sums up the Mayor's manifold sins and wickednesses regarding the City's water supply. I plan to refer to it from time to time to remind me of a list that is so long it is hard to commit to memory.
I wish I knew more about these protestors. Is there a Jackson Kush element of any size?
Stokes or Banks or Mel, Jr. We need a Black mayor who doesn't give a hill of beans for ideology, one who actually cares about bringing peace to the city.
September 30, 2023 at 10:39 AM, when is the first book signing?
@10:40 PM - The "yelling fire in a theater" prohibition is an urban legend/old wive's tale. However, if there is no fire and people get hurt than the yeller may suffer the consequences, such as manslaughter, etc., if someone dies.
@KF Can you find out if these people who are complaining about Ted even pay into the system? I have heard their free the land, free the water bs. I wonder if they are part of the 7k not paying. If so, they shouldn't be given a voice. Period.
Can you find out and report back?
“ Why is it they suddenly raise hell when the water system is finally working?”
because now there will be water shutoffs for nonpayment
“ I am really getting tired of the racism on this blog.”
since when? forever?
JJ comments are good for hearing what the Walmart checkout line thinks
Judge Wingate must not have much regard for the poor people's campaign. He has turned the sewer system over to the water czar. My, my, what will the mayor, and his sister, do now?
Why, you ask?
Because for years these groups have had a contract to provide water distribution for the Mayor, and now there is no need. Read the demands in the EPA filing, they demand that the EPA force Ted to give them another contract. They had the audacity to list their name as the contractor. Ted has stepped on their check book and he fired one of their activist members. Remember?
September 30, 2023 at 6:41 PM, thanks for the Dollar store comment.
@7:25 AM - The fox smells his shit first, Mr. Race Card raiser.
Do I have this correct? The Mayor sister, who tells him what to do, is trying to enter a lawsuit against him Mayor/City in order to be able to tell the ITPM and the EPA what to do because she represents the voice of the people?
Didn't the people just tell her loud and clear that they do not want her representing them?
September 30, 2023 at 7:25 AM
Me too. I'm tired of giving airtime to the Lumumbas and their cronies.
Rukia embodies the worst type of person and what is wrong with the world right now. Truly pathetic and disgraceful how much effort they put into trying to ruin city services and quality of life
Some savvy lawyer should file a friend of the court brief, and recommend that Judge Wingate turn the street department over to the third party water czar, also. He may be receptive to such.
I think this will come down to whether the movants have standing. I'll be interested to see what Judge Wingate does with this. If he grants the intervention, they will be held to standards I doubt they can meet.
I hope that Judge Wingate takes notice of the fact that, out of over 700 recent public comments about Mr Henifin's management of the water system, over 95% were favorable towards Mr Henifin and his management. I don't think he needs the help of someone (these two groups) who has zero knowledge or expertise regarding the operation of a water treatment system.
So, PPC, what experience do you have running/operating a water treatment system ? Uh, none. What experience do you have negotiating contracts for a public works project ? Uh, none.
Rukia for mair. Wait for it.
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