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Here’s the latest on the Jackson water crisis

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Jackson’s long-term infrastructure problems are far from over, but the crisis the mid-February winter storm left on the city’s residents has been largely addressed.

The city’s large-scale water service disruptions are over for most residents, with the remaining incidents of low or no water pressure being mostly caused by faulty water meters or broken pipes at individual buildings.

A historic winter storm beginning on Feb. 14 froze water plant equipment and burst many pipes in the capital city, and at least 40,000 residents — mostly Black — were without water for about three weeks.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the city said she does not know how many of Jackson’s 43,000 water connections were down after the winter storm but that the number of calls to the city’s help line to report service issues had greatly diminished. 

Of the 126 reported water main breaks since the winter storm, 80 have been repaired, 7 are ready for repair and 39 are yet to be confirmed.

The city’s next hurdle is removing the boil water notice for its 43,000 surface water connections. City leadership has not presented a timeline for this, but hopes to be able to submit samples over the weekend. The city lifted its boil water notice for its 16,000 well water connections on Wednesday, but this affects a small number of customers in South Jackson as well as the cities of Terry and Byram.

City leaders, who have neglected funding the water system for decades, say they need major investment from the state to repair system, which is estimated to cost at least $1 billion. State lawmakers are debating how to address the water crisis before they are scheduled to leave Jackson on April 4.

READ MORE: Lawmakers consider Jackson water crisis options as end of session nears

The post Here’s the latest on the Jackson water crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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