JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — “Layers of inadequate oversight and enforcement” by state and federal agencies contributed to a water crisis in Mississippi's capital city that left tens of thousands of people without safe drinking water for weeks in 2021 and 2022, a watchdog agency says. The Mississippi State Department of Health did not consistently document deficiencies in the Jackson water system or notify city officials about significant problems after the department conducted sanitary surveys and annual inspections from 2015 through 2021, the U.
S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General said in a report issued Monday. “The MSDH oversight failures obscured Jackson’s long-standing challenges, allowed issues to compound over time, and contributed to the system’s eventual failure,” said the inspector general, an independent group inside the EPA that began investigating Jackson's water woes in September 2022.
Because of those shortfalls, the EPA did not know the extent of management and operational issues until it inspected the Jackson system in February 2020, the inspector general added. State health department officials will respond to the inspector general's report after they've finished reviewing it, spokesperson Greg Flynn told The Associated Press on Wednesday. About 25% of Jackson residents live in poverty, and the city struggled for years with water quality problems and understaffing at its water treatment plants.
In early 2021, a cold snap f.