Mississippi In Talks With Company To Run Jackson Water System, Mayor Says

The State of Mississippi is now in talks with a personal firm about managing its capital metropolis’s struggling water system, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba mentioned throughout a press convention Tuesday. The Metropolis of Jackson was additionally in discussions with the corporate earlier than the State took over, he added.

“We had been in dialogue with a company about taking up an operations and upkeep contract, however what I delayed telling you is that dialog stopped as a result of they picked it up with the State,” the mayor instructed reporters. “So we’ve been unable to achieve an settlement with them as a result of we’re not on the desk to speak about what that settlement would appear like.”

Lumumba didn’t identify the corporate. His remarks got here a day after Gov. Tate Reeves, at a separate Labor Day press convention, mentioned he was contemplating numerous long-term concepts for addressing Jackson’s water issues and that “privatization is on the desk.” 

The Mississippi Free Press requested the mayor’s workplace for the identify of the corporate with whom the Metropolis and State have had discussions, however Jackson Communications Director Melissa Religion Payne mentioned the Metropolis was not releasing its identify “attributable to ongoing negotiations.” The Metropolis offered no indication of a request-for-proposal course of.

No ‘Mission Achieved Banner’

The Metropolis of Jackson has been beneath a boil-water discover since July 29, however the issues reached acute ranges early final week when residents misplaced water strain attributable to failures on the O.B. Curtis Water Therapy Plant. The disaster required the mobilization of state and federal sources to assist repair the quick challenge and provide residents with tens of millions of bottles of water within the meantime. 

Officers mentioned that they had restored water strain to the capital metropolis by Monday, however the boil-water discover stays in impact. Although Jacksonians once more have operating water, officers estimate it’ll take greater than $1 billion to restore the Metropolis’s aged water system to keep away from repeats.

“I believe it’s crucial that we don’t drop a ‘mission completed’ banner simply but as a result of it’s as we mentioned it’s—it’s not a matter of if the programs will fail once more however when the programs will fail once more if we don’t have everlasting repairs in place,” Mayor Lumumba mentioned Tuesday.

In the course of the press convention, the mayor expressed frustration that the State had taken over discussions with the unnamed firm, saying that “if there may be some unity in pondering that this firm is adequate so as to function the Metropolis of Jackson’s water remedy facility, then there needs to be no barrier between our potential to let the Metropolis do this as a result of we’re speaking about the identical firm.”

“The one distinction can be how the income are distributed into priorities for the town,” the mayor mentioned, including that his administration desires these funds to go to “numerous infrastructure challenges with the primary precedence being ingesting water.”

Regardless of his willingness to enter right into a contract with a personal firm on behalf of the Metropolis of Jackson, although, Lumumba mentioned he’s “towards privatization,” warning that handing all the system over to the non-public sector may result in “the pillaging of public sources.”

“We have now to grasp the distinction between privatization and an operations and upkeep settlement,” Lumumba mentioned. “Privatization relies on an organization making an attempt to determine how they’ll revenue off of a metropolis. They’re not coming to be benevolent, they’re coming to make cash.”

Sometimes, corporations that enter into contracts with metropolis and state governments even have an curiosity in making a revenue. The Metropolis of Jackson has dealt for years with issues stemming from its 2010 water-billing and restore contract with Siemens Inc.

‘We’ve Had Many, Many Plans’

At a Monday press convention, Mississippi’s Republican governor criticized Jackson leaders, saying the State had “by no means obtained an actual plan from Jackson on the best way to enhance their water system so the state may contemplate the best way to fund it.”

“I personally imagine we are able to’t rely upon the Metropolis of Jackson to supply that and, due to this fact, we’re going to work with State and federal companions and with enter from the Metropolis to develop intermediate and long-term plans,” he mentioned.

Reeves famous that U.S. Home Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat whose congressional district contains Jackson, has additionally claimed Jackson had failed to supply a plan and raised questions on whether or not the Metropolis ought to regain “authority to run it.”

During a press conference last week, Mayor Lumumba appeared to acknowledge the necessity for a plan, vowing to reporters and residents that “you will note earlier than you in brief order, probably as quickly as subsequent week, a full-scale committee of people which might be working towards the execution and manufacturing of that plan.”

However on Tuesday, the Democratic mayor mentioned “we’ve had many, many plans.” He recited a listing of paperwork, together with a capital enchancment plan that he mentioned was commissioned in both 2018 and 2019; a listing of crucial repairs that the Environmental Safety Company beforehand recognized; and a Powerpoint presentation for the Hinds County state legislative delegation that he mentioned detailed $120 million in repairs for the O.B. Curtis Water Therapy Plant. (The Mississippi Free Press has requested copies of these paperwork). 

A WLBT evaluation discovered that the whole complete prices to restore Jackson’s water system might be as excessive as $1.7 billion.

The paperwork, Lumumba mentioned, present the Metropolis has already provided plans for addressing Jackson’s water points to State and federal officers on quite a few events. He additionally shared a March 3, 2020, letter addressed to Reeves, asking for “emergency funding from the State and federal authorities to make capital enhancements essential for the environment friendly operation of Jackson’s water remedy vegetation and distribution community.”

“These enhancements are crucial to our efforts to make sure that our residents and companies usually are not disadvantaged of unpolluted water once more,” the mayor wrote. “I’ve connected a listing of wanted enhancements for our vegetation and distribution traces with an estimated price of roughly $47,000,000. Your help in acquiring the funding to finish these initiatives shall be tremendously appreciated.”

The mayor mentioned he despatched copies of that letter to different leaders, together with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Mississippi Home Speaker Philip Gunn, members of the Hinds County state legislative delegations and members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation, together with Thompson.

“I need to be clear that we’ve got endeavored to speak,” Lumumba mentioned. “Now, if the trouble of communication that’s requested for isn’t adequate so as to meet these legislative requests, then we’re malleable.”

See the Mississippi Free Press’ full Jackson water-crisis protection, beginning in March 2021.