Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed on Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department has obtained a federal judge’s consent to carry out an unusual intervention to strengthen the fragile water infrastructure in the state’s capital city. This comes months after the system’s partial breakdown. The agency submitted the intervention request on Tuesday, and U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate in Mississippi authorized it later that day.
The action approved the hiring of a third-party manager to monitor changes to Jackson’s water system, which struggled and almost failed in the late summer.
The idea, according to Garland, is required to “stabilize the conditions” in Jackson as quickly as feasible while municipal, state, and federal authorities negotiate a court-enforced consent decree, she said at a press conference in Washington.
Garland emphasized that something needed to be done right now. We cannot wait till a complaint is answered since the water is an urgent issue right now.
Last August, while several businesses were temporarily forced to shut due to a shortage of potable water, citizens in the capital of Mississippi waited in line for days for water to drink, wash in, cook with, and flush toilets. Following floods on the neighboring Pearl River that month, which aggravated ongoing issues in one of Jackson’s two water-treatment facilities, the water system partially failed.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department both filed complaints against the city of Jackson on Tuesday, accusing it of failing to consistently supply drinking water that complies with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Wingate placed that legal action on wait for six months by approving the idea.
According to Garland, the complaint’s goal is to provide the Justice Department the opportunity to negotiate a consent decree that would give a federal court the authority to compel reforms to Jackson’s water system.
The plan, which the city of Jackson and the state health department signed on Wednesday, was the result of months of cooperation, according to a press release from Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
The deal, according to Lumumba, is “another stage in a lengthy process” that assures Jacksonians won’t be overlooked and that the creation of a sustainable water system will be accomplished in the end. “We hope that this cooperative effort to upgrade Jackson’s water infrastructure will serve as a national model for other American towns dealing with comparable problems,” the authors write.
Additionally, Ted Henifin’s appointment as the temporary third-party manager of the Jackson water system and the Water Sewer Business Administration, the city’s water billing division, was hailed by Lumumba. Henifin, a former director of public works in Virginia, has been “helpful” in sharing his knowledge with regional leaders, according to Lumumba.
13 initiatives are included in the Justice Department plan that Henifin will be in responsible of carrying out. According to a press release, the improvements are intended to increase the stability of the water system in the foreseeable future. A winterization project to strengthen the system is one of the highest objectives. After pipes froze during a cold spell in 2021, tens of thousands of residents in Jackson were left without flowing water.
In accordance with Garland, the Justice Department’s plan for attaining environmental justice in “overburdened and neglected populations” includes intervention in the Jackson water situation.
“The defense of American citizens’ civil rights was the department’s original goal. I wanted to work on those issues, which was a reason I wanted to be attorney general “Wednesday was Garland’s day. This is an illustration of how the Justice Department’s resources are being used to address civil rights concerns.
Following through on President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to prioritize environmental justice concerns in an all-government manner, the Justice Department established an environmental justice section in May. In July, the Justice Department said that it was looking into unlawful dumping in Black and Latino communities in Houston, the fourth-largest metropolis in the US.
According to Garland, the Justice Department needed to act with the “maximum possible haste” in response to the situation in Jackson.
We are aware of how terrible the situation is there, he said. It’s difficult to fathom without having access to clean drinking water by turning on a faucet.
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