Jackson City Council Closer to Enabling Federal Oversight for Water Solutions

Jim Craig, with the Mississippi State Department of Health, left, leads Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, right, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), center, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, rear, as they walk past sedimentation basins at the City of Jackson's O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Facility in Ridgeland, Miss., on Sept. 2, 2022. Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo, Pool

Officials from Jackson City in Mississippi, a region that recently faced a water crisis, have voted to allow a one-year legal agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that allows the federal entity to get involved in the city’s efforts to ensure water security in the region.

Jackson City has faced water problems for decades. However, things got a bit more heated in late August when heavy rains affected a local plant, depriving the city’s 150,000 residents of running water.