Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital may begin negotiations with the University of Mississippi Medical Center over a potential lease of the rural, 29-bed hospital and all of its operations, including its nursing home, clinics, emergency department and ambulance services for the two counties.
After seeking out potential buyers earlier this year, the community hospital received lease proposals from UMMC and Delta Health System. The committee that evaluated the proposals, which included representatives from both counties and the community hospital, chose the Medical Center over Delta Health System, which has its own financial problems and recently closed the only neonatal intensive care unit in the Mississippi Delta.
“Due to the economics of the hospital, particularly during COVID, they sought a partner that would strengthen their ability to serve the community,” said Charles Weissinger, attorney for the Issaquena County Board of Supervisors and one of the Issaquena County representatives on the committee that evaluated the lease proposals. “They went through a request for proposal process and the University of Mississippi Medical Center provided the best hope for results going forward.”
UMMC declined to comment for the story.
Details of the proposal submitted by the Medical Center are not publicly available due a provision in state law that exempts “records directly relating to prospective strategic business decisions of a public hospital.”
Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, like many rural hospitals across the country, has struggled to stay afloat for years due to low patient volumes. The two counties have a collective population of fewer than 6,000 people.
To cut costs, the community hospital, which has 125 full-time employees, has been pooling its resources with small hospitals across the state over the last few months to buy supplies at a discounted wholesale rate. Though the arrangement is beneficial for all the involved hospitals, it’s not enough for Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital to remain viable in its current state, Weissinger said.
The community hospital is jointly owned by Sharkey County, which owns two-thirds of the hospital, and Issaquena County, which owns the remaining one-third. The board of supervisors of both counties have greenlit entering into negotiations with the Medical Center to finalize a deal, but the hospital’s board of trustees must also sign off on the plan for negotiations to begin. Their next meeting will be Sept. 29.
UMMC’s efforts to expand have played out amidst its public and contentious fallout with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, the state’s largest private insurer.
Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, like UMMC, has its own history of legal battles with Blue Cross. In 2017, the insurer sued the community hospital over an alleged lab testing scheme that cost the insurer nearly $10 million.
Under the alleged scheme, two Texas-based lab testing companies ordered lab tests for Blue Cross customers in other states and were allowed to submit reimbursement claims to the insurer for the tests by using the hospital’s name and billing information, though the tests were not performed by the hospital’s own laboratory.
The community hospital allegedly received kickbacks from the two Texas companies as part of the deal, which Blue Cross claimed was used to take advantage of the favorable reimbursement rate the hospital received from the insurer for lab tests due to it being small and rural..
Ultimately, nearly $34 million in misrepresented claims were submitted to Blue Cross, according to court filings, though the insurer only paid for $9.8 million of them before discovering the arrangement.
After a month and a half of Jacksonians needing to boil their water for consumption, the Mississippi State Health Department finally lifted the advisory at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Gov. Tate Reeves announced the news shortly after, cautioning there’s a long road ahead to ensure similar water system failures don’t occur again in Jackson.
“While we have restored water quality, this system is still imperfect,” Reeves said. “We cannot perfectly predict what may go wrong with such a broken system in the future.”
When asked by reporters about the next steps for managing the capital city’s drinking water, Reeves laid out the possibility that Jackson will not regain control of the system after the state declared a public health emergency and took it over.
“To the residents of Jackson, I would simply say, I don’t think it’s very likely that the city is going to operate the water system in the city of Jackson anytime soon, if ever again,” the governor said.
Reeves reiterated that any decision to remove the water system from city control would have to go through the state Legislature.
State officials first took control of operations and emergency repairs at Jackson’s primary treatment plant, O.B. Curtis, after the governor’s announcement on Aug. 29 that the plant was on the verge of failure.
The state is also taking the next steps to contract a project manager to handle equipment issues at O.B. Curtis, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency executive director Stephen McCraney explained. The request for qualifications window closed Thursday at noon, and MEMA will review applications before it picks a vendor.
The goal for the contractor, Reeves said, is to increase redundancies at the plant in the case of future equipment failure.
Before Jackson residents return to drinking water straight from their taps again, the Mississippi State Department of Health says they should first run their faucets for three to four minutes to allow clean water to recirculate. Residents can visit MSDH’s website for a full list of next steps after a boil water notice.
However, the department also warned Thursday that pregnant people and young children are still advised to follow precautions before using or consuming tap water.
The state’s announcement on Thursday that it was lifting the boil water notice suggested a lack of communication with City of Jackson officials.
On Wednesday, the city said in its daily update that full sampling required to lift the notice had not yet started, and that officials were still investigating when sampling could begin. Per state health requirements, the state health department has to record two straight days of clean samples to lift the notice.
When asked by a reporter for clarification, Reeves said, “I don’t read the city’s daily reports and I don’t think you should either.”
After another reporter asked what he meant by that, Reeves refrained from further criticizing the city, only saying that he recommends people use MEMA’s updates for the latest information on the water system.
MSDH Director of Health Protection Jim Craig also reminded Jackson residents, particularly young children and pregnant people, to take precautions consuming and using tap water because of the potential for lead in the water system until the city finishes the necessary corrosion control in the distribution system.
“Although the majority of home lead testing performed to date identified no lead or lead below the action level set by the (Environmental Protection Agency), the health department is continuing its recommendations as a special precaution, especially for households with young children or pregnant women,” Craig said.
Jackson businesses that have been racking up costs to stay open through the water crisis can now apply for low-interest loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Applications are due June 14. Gov. Tate Reeves applied for the loan program earlier this week.
The loans are available to businesses and nonprofits that experienced economic losses as a result of the total or near water pressure loss following the Pearl River flooding in late August. Businesses in Hinds, Claiborne, Copiah, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Warren and Yazoo counties are eligible.
“These low-interest loans will go a long way to support our Jackson businesses and help them make it through the ongoing water crisis,” Reeves said. “I’m committed to ensuring that we both restore clean water to the city and relieve the burdens of this crisis for Jacksonians.”
The loans are intended to assist businesses through the recovery period, can be up to $2 million per applicant, and will not have an interest rate above 4%. Applicants may apply online at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ela or call (800) 659-2955.
When the latest emergency in Jackson’s long-running water crisis hit — most of the city lost water again from a combination of broken or ill-maintained machinery and flooding — state leaders began talking of intervention.
And one of the first ideas floated in backroom discussions was creating a “regional authority” to oversee and overhaul waterworks for Jackson and, ostensibly, other areas, particularly those surrounding areas already on the capital city’s system.
This would make sense. Regionalization and consolidation of water and sewer services has been a trend nationwide. Regionalization appears to help garner favor — and funding — from Congress and environmental agencies. Studies by experts say regional approaches allow systems to comply with stricter standards, connect unserved communities to water and sewerage and, importantly, save customers money using economies of scale for upgrades and repairs.
Jackson’s chamber of commerce has called for creation of a regional water authority. And there’s growing sentiment among many Mississippi leaders that someone other than the city of Jackson should run or help run the system. But so far, talk of a regional authority for Jackson and surrounds has gained little traction, particularly with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and leaders in areas around Jackson.
The realpolitik is a true regional water system would be a tough sell in the Jackson Metro Area. It would appear no other cities want to be in a regional water authority with Jackson, and state leaders are unlikely to force it. A regional authority, as it stands, would more likely include only Jackson and some small systems in Hinds County and be run largely by the state, with Jackson having some say, but not control over the system.
After Hurricane Katrina destroyed systems, Mississippi Gulf Coast governments formed regional water authorities and a large regional wastewater authority and it helped them pull down hundreds of millions of federal dollars to rebuild and expand. It took some doing, politically, with local governments reluctant to give up any autonomy. But ultimately then-Gov. Haley Barbour and legislative leaders sold them on the concept.
Across the country, as aging large or poorly amortized smaller systems struggle to meet regulations and finance upgrades, there’s been a realization they can’t afford it on their own. There’s power in numbers, and economies-of-scale savings for residents. Sometimes, there’s special money available for regionalization.
Some states, such as North Carolina, incentivize consolidation. Others, such as California, force it. Kentucky has long been a leader in water system regionalization, and since the 1970s has reduced its more than 3,000 water systems to less than 800.
Some cities, such as Detroit and Harrisburg, Pa., have used regionalization to navigate water crises like Jackson’s with some success.
But for Mississippi’s capital city, the trend is going the other way — other cities or areas served by its water and sewerage have either left or are trying to. Some large institutions have dug their own wells, and others are considering it. Jackson has run regional sewage operations for Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties since 1973, but recently, West Rankin Utility Authority pulled out and has built its own new plant to serve Brandon, Flowood, Pearl, Richland and other areas.
Byram wants out
“I have concerns this thing has finally hit bottom, and we need a change, need to move on,” said Richard White, mayor of Byram, a relatively new city bordering the capital city and served by Jackson’s water system. “… We need to be dealing with development, parks and recreation, not having to worry about our water. We’re going to move forward with our own system.”
White said being on Jackson’s water system has provided nothing but frustration for residents of the fledgling city of about 13,000 people to Jackson’s south, with water outages and boil-water notices, bills for some Byram residents double those inside Jackson and reported breaks taking Jackson weeks to repair. Plus, Byram has no representation or say in how the system is run.
State Sen. David Blount, who represents parts of Jackson and Byram, said that whatever solutions are found for Jackson’s water crisis, “It is essential for me that the people of Byram have a voice.”
“After Hurricane Katrina a lot of people in Mississippi felt like we weren’t being heard in the national conversation because so much focus was on New Orleans,” Blount said. “Obviously, the people of Jackson deserve attention, but the people of Byram cannot be forgotten in this … There are people in Byram paying more than double, and getting worse service, if that’s imaginable.”
For Byram residents and businesses further than one mile outside Jackson’s city limits, the Public Service Commission sets their rates, and they are commensurate with what Jackson residents pay. But for those within one mile — a large portion of Byram’s most populated area — the Jackson City Council sets their rates.
“That 1 mile is at double (Jackson’s) rates,” White said. “I heard from one family — they have two small children — that was getting bills for $200 a month for water … Then I’ve got other people who call me all the time and say they haven’t gotten a bill in six months.”
Byram leaders have hired an engineering firm to price a buyout of Jackson’s water pipes in the city and installing new wells and tanks and petitioned the Public Service Commission for its water independence. White said that given a green light, Byram could have its own system up and running within a couple of years. Byram already has its own sewerage. He said that given Jackson’s problems in maintaining its system, Byram would be doing it a favor by peeling off.
White said joining a regional authority with Jackson would be a nonstarter for Byram and, “That may be too much government, too, creating a new group.
“We want out.”
Clinton creates regional authority, but not with Jackson
Clinton, Jackson’s neighbor to the west with a population of more than 28,000, has its own infrastructure issues.
To meet wastewater discharge regulations, the city needs to build a 19-mile, $97 million pipeline to the Big Black River by 2030, largely because Jackson and other areas are already discharging more treated (and sometimes untreated) wastewater than the Pearl River can handle.
Mayor Phil Fisher and other city leaders have been working on this issue for years. They have a concise plan and have secured about $25 million in funding “from several separate pots” so far and believe they have matters in hand. They hired a lobbyist to help secure funding from Congress. They are forming a regional authority with neighboring cities of Bolton and Raymond, who would face similar wastewater issues if left on their own.
“Congress appears to prefer an authority rather than Raymond and Bolton just feeding into Clinton,” Fisher said. “You need a coordinated effort that makes sense and answers a bigger need. From Bolton’s and Raymond’s perspective, they need an authority, they could never come up with the match for any of this, and even Clinton’s too small for that. Coming together allows us a chance to work as a group and plan, and then Congress looks at that with a lot more enthusiasm than if Raymond just showed up and said (environmental regulators) have an issue and we need money and put it together really quick.”
Fisher said he believes Clinton’s detailed, long-range planning for the project and using a regional approach will allow the project to move forward, including with help from a state infrastructure matching program.
And instead of looking at the large wastewater project as a problem, Fisher said it’s an opportunity for Clinton and surrounding areas.
“That’s going to be 19 miles one way to the Big Black, paralleling I-20,” Fisher said. “So going both ways, that’s going to be 38 miles of mostly unused land that that can be converted to residential, commercial, retail development. All it’s lacking is water and sewer. We have trucking, rail, the port in Vicksburg and if Hinds County would ever build it we’ll have air. This land along I-20 could become the largest and most valuable economic development area maybe in the Southeast.”
Fisher said at least one small rural water association has expressed interest in joining in with the authority’s sewerage and he believes others would follow suit and, “I envision one day all coming together under one water association.”
But not with Jackson.
Fisher said that, given Jackson’s water and sewage problems, it wouldn’t make sense financially or politically for Clinton to join in with its larger neighbor.
“I think I would be run out of town if I made that proposal,” Fisher said. “The only way I could see anyone joining an authority with Jackson would be if they had an equal number of votes on running it, no matter their size.”
But Fisher said it’s in Clinton’s — and the entire state’s — best interest for Jackson’s water and sewer issues to be resolved.
“Nationwide, people don’t know that Jackson and Clinton have two separate systems,” Fisher said. “… Last year, Jackson was No. 1 in murder rate per capita. People are seeing the water crisis now. It makes it difficult for surrounding cities to go out and make a good story. Jackson needs to fix its problems, quit finding excuses or finger pointing or getting up at a press conference and criticizing others.”
But Fisher, whose city has for years used a private company to manage some sewer operations but still owns the system, provided a warning to his neighboring city about full-scale privatization.
“If you sell your system, they’ll buy it, but the hook is, you get money up front and they won’t change the rates for five years, but then it’s Katy bar the door,” Fisher said. “Then, you’ll have the legislative mindset with city leaders: ‘Hey, I didn’t raise your rates, they did.’ Everybody elected will have something to hide behind, but at the end of the day the city loses control over rates.”
Jackson opposed to giving up control
At least publicly, the only common denominator idea for fixing Jackson’s water crisis mentioned by Gov. Tate Reeves, Lumumba and others is privatization, at least of operations and maintenance of Jackson water. But privatization comes with a cost, usually borne by water customers.
Studies have shown that privatization can leave residents with higher water bills, poor service and loss of control to fix problems. One study by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch recently showed investor-owned utilities typically charge 59% more for water and 63% more for sewer service than government utilities.
Nationwide, many cities that turned to privatization years ago are now ending their contracts, taking their utilities back over and partnering with neighboring communities.
Mayor Lumumba has said he has talked with a company about contracting out operations and maintenance of the system, but is adamant he doesn’t want the city to lose ownership or major control of the system. He has in the past accused state leaders of wanting to use privatization as a power and money grab against Jackson, and he said private companies don’t do work out of benevolence, but “They want to extract a profit from you.”
He has also expressed skepticism about joining a regional authority.
Some leaders and pundits have discussed an outright state takeover of the system, but legally and politically that would be arduous, and as some have pointed out, the state has no real expertise in running a water system or manpower on hand to do so. As one observer recently put it, that would be “like getting a D student to do your homework for you.”
Another option proposed has been a temporary receivership, perhaps overseen by the Public Service Commission until problems are resolved.
Jackson’s legislative delegation hasn’t endorsed a specific solution, but most share Lumumba’s opposition to the city losing ownership or control of its system.
“I was actually having a conversation at lunch today about regionalization,” Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said last week. “I’m not sure if that’s the best route. I’m still researching it … But that’s an issue, anyone wanting to work as a region. Didn’t Rankin County just come off of our sewer? That’s another blow, $3 million to $5 million. You’ve got Byram wanting to leave. I’m hearing the Country Club of Jackson is trying to do its own water well, and Jackson State. Honestly, the attitude of those folks out there is they don’t want anything to do with us in the first place, and the only way they would join us is if they have a majority of board members — and that would be an entire fight all over again.”
“If there is any private company brought in, I would still support the city owning it,” Bell said. “At the end of the day, if it makes sense for someone to run it under contract, that’s one thing. But just having the state take over… .”
State Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said he’s mostly been focused on resolving the current emergency with water, and that any talk of long-range solutions “is in the very early stages.”
“Whatever we do has to be inclusive and well thought-out and very deliberate,” Horhn said. “… I lean towards the city being able to hold onto its assets, but it’s very clear it needs to outsource operations. The mayor himself has let it be known he’s been in contact with a third-party administrator”
As for creation of a regional authority to run the system, Horhn said, “All that’s above my pay grade. But I favor the city being able to retain ownership of its assets.”
Jackson’s troubled water system failed in late August, leaving about 250,000 people served by the system with little or no water pressure for several days.
Though pressure has been restored city-wide, the drinking water supply is still not safe to drink. Meanwhile, the city has been under a federal consent decree since 2013 because of its failing and unsafe sewer system.
With state and federal leaders at the table discussing long-term solutions to the Jackson’s water and wastewater systems, many are first trying to determine the full extent of the systems’ problems.
Each year, the city of Jackson is required to file financial reports to its bond debt holders. These reports contain a great deal of information about the state of the systems.
Jackson’s water and sewer debt is rated as “junk bond,” and the city, along with Newark, N.J., is one of very few large municipal systems not rated as investment grade debt. The city has about $191 million in revenue bond debt outstanding.
The city made its financial reports for debt holders last year, with data through Sept. 30, 2020, but is behind on filing this year.
Some highlights of the reports:
Overview
The city water system covers about 150 square miles and serves a population of about 250,000 people in Jackson, Byram and other parts of Hinds County. The city also supplies water to the Nissan Plant and its suppliers near Canton through a contract with the state.
The city operates three wastewater treatment plants and provides sewer services to Jackson, as well as to parts of Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties.
In 1973, the Jackson Metropolitan Regional Water Quality Management Plan was adopted for Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties. Jackson has a contract with the city of Ridgeland for sewerage, with Ridgeland having contracts with other entities in Madison County for sewage treatment.
After many years of Jackson treating western Rankin County’s sewage, the West Rankin Utility Authority has built its own new plant to serve Brandon, Flowood, Pearl, Richland, the Jackson Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, the state hospital and other areas. This will mean a loss of up to $3 million to $4 million a year for the Jackson sewer system.
Water and sewer customers
(Year: water customers/sewer customers)
2016: 51,884/43,820
2017: 57,183/48,430
2018: 53,733/47,706
2019: 54,063/47,987
2020: 55,079/46,609
Largest water customers
(As of Sept. 30, 2020)
Premium Water (water bottling plant in Byram)
Jackson Public Schools
Double G Coating, Inc.
Griffin Industries
City of Jackson Zoological Park
Merit Health (former Hinds General Hospital)
Entergy Mississippi
City of Jackson Wastewater
Century Pacific
Autumn Trace GN LLC
Water customers outside of city
(As of 2020)
About 11% of Jackson’s water customers are outside its city limits.
Outside city limits (within 1 mile): 2,050
Outside (beyond a mile): 4,070
Businesses/institutions with their own water wells
(As of 2020)
Baptist Health Systems
Conceptual Designs Inc.
EP Engineered Clays Corporation
Jackson Country Club
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Tougaloo College
St. Dominic Hospital
McCarty Farms
Veterans Administration
MS Material Co.
Premium Water plant
Sources of water
Jackson has two main sources of water for the system: the O.B. Curtis surface water treatment plant that draws from the Ross Barnett Reservoir, completed in 1993, and the Fewell Plant, originally built in 1914 and most recently upgraded with a $12.4 million project in 2008, which draws water from the Pearl River.
The city also has two ground water well systems. In 2014, with the completion of the Maddox Road Booster Station, all city customers began receiving drinking water from surface treatment (from the reservoir and river). But due to an emergency with pressure loss in 2015, the ground water system was reactivated and remains in use.
Repairs and upgrades
In 1997, the city commissioned a water and wastewater master plan, according to disclosures the city must make to water system bond holders. It called for $375 million in capital improvements to the system by 2012. This included $180 million for the water system and and $195 million for wastewater.
Since then, through 2021, the city has completed or begun projects totaling $148 million for water and $76 million for wastewater.
In March 2013, the city entered into a consent decree with the EPA and MDEQ on its wastewater, which requires upgrades originally estimated to cost $400 million over 17.5 years. In 2013, the cost was estimated at $800 million. Last year, city and state officials said the consent decree capital costs for the sewer system are estimated at $945 million.
Fines, fees and reprimands
Jackson’s troubled water and sewerage system has faced litigation, consent decrees, fines and reprimands from various regulatory and other entities.
In 2010, after violating environmental regulations for its Savanna Street Wastewater Plant, the city paid a civil penalty of $240,000 in four installments of $60,000 and pledged make improvements. In 2012, the city paid a fine of $22,500 for sewage violations from its Presidential Hills plant.
In 2013, the city and EPA entered a consent decree in federal court over violations of the Clean Water Act and state pollution control laws. The city has paid a civil penalty of nearly $438,000 and agreed to make improvements, only a portion of which have been done.
Mississippi Today has partnered with WJTV to provide video of press conferences regarding Jackson’s water crisis. Gov. Tate Reeves gave an update at 1:10 p.m. on September 15.
At the southwest entrance to the Metrocenter Mall on Saturday, Sept. 3 – the sixth day of Jackson’s current water crisis – shards of glass cluttered the sidewalk where doors used to be. Inside, a city worker drove a green forklift which left tracks on the marble floor and beige carpet as he reorganized hundreds of pallets of donated water one by one.
This abandoned mall, where the primary tenants are police and water department, has in recent weeks become the nexus of a city-widewater distribution effort called the Rapid Response Coalition, a partnership between the City of Jackson and volunteers with 30-plus advocacy organizations.
Water donated from across the country is brought here in 18-wheelers and then distributed early each morning to six coalition-run sites in neighborhoods in south and west Jackson, predominantly Black and poorer parts of the city more affected by the water crisis.
Danyelle Holmes, a member of the Poor People’s Campaign, has spent nearly every day outside at the mall, helping to manage the massive distribution effort that the coalition estimates has put more than an 1.2 million bottles of water into the hands of Jacksonians for free.
She said the goal is to help the city with its distribution effort and to fill gaps in the state’s response.
“We’ve seen a lack of response from our government – our state government leadership, and so we decided two years ago when the pandemic hit that we weren’t going to wait on anyone to come and save us,” Holmes said. “So it’s our goal and it’s our mission to save ourselves.”
Two and a half weeks into the current water crisis, the coalition has scaled back operations as the city and state have restored the water pressure at the O.B. Curtis Water Plantand turned attention to addressing the boil water notice. This week, only two coalition sites – Westland Plaza and Oak Forest Community Center – are still open daily, with the rest operating just two days a week. Volunteers are prioritizing home delivery, Holmes said.
Now, the coalition is shifting focus to drawing up demands – tentatively scheduled to be released this week – for a long-term solution to the water crisis. They hope to pressure state leaders to enact solutions they view as more equitable.
There are currently a handful of proposals on the table to fix Jackson’s water system, but every option reportedly entails Jackson ceding some control of its water system to an outside party, be it a state entity or commission, a regional authority, or a private company.
To many activists, the state and to some extent the federal government bear responsibility for the water crisis, not the city.Any move that infringes on Jackson’s control of its water system seems to suggest the city is responsible for the crisis – a notion they attribute to racism. They emphasize that the water crisis would not have happened without white lawmakers withholding state funding.
“We’ve only had Black leaders for the last two or three terms, so how can you blame this divestment on the fact that we have Black leadership?” asked Lorena Quiroz, the executive director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity.
One proposal in particular – privatization – has been widely condemned by activists. State leaders have suggested that the city could lease its water system to a private company that would manage operations. The second week of the crisis, Lumumba said the city had been in talks to contract out operations and management.
When some Jacksonians hear the word “privatization,” though, they picture a for-profit company outright purchasing the water system.
Private water systems come at an increased cost to customers, though research has shown they are less likely to violate federal clean drinking-water laws than public utilities.
Private water systems can also be less accountable to the public, which some activists said could be problematic at a time when trust needs to be restored in the system.
“The thing with privatization is they control what they think is best for us,” said Imani Olugbala, a member of Cooperation Jackson. “If it’s government-led, we have some oversight. If it’s exclusively for profit, we have to pay the price for water, and it’s going to be whatever they say, because that’s the capitalist construction. What’s next, the air?”
Many also noted it’s ironic that state leaders who ignored Jackson’s water crisis get to decide the response.
“I would’ve liked to see swifter movement on the state-level because it seemed like it was weeks before we heard anything from Gov. Reeves,” said Blaise Adams, a pre-law student at Tougaloo College who was passing out water at IAJE’s pick-up site. “Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been proactively worked on.”
Quiroz questioned if Jackson’s water system can ever be truly fixed in a stratified, capitalist economy.
“Water should be free. We shouldn’t have to pay for water,” she said. “That should be something that’s provided by the fucking state.”
The work of distributing free water might not sound radical during a crisis, but to Holmes and other members of the Rapid Response Coalition, it is a model for how another, better society could function.
Since the water emergency started, members of the coalition have held an 8 a.m. Zoom call to discuss plans for the day. They decide collectively how to spread out their resources – how much water should be allocated to each of the six pick-up sites based on the amount distributed the day before and who should respond to emergency calls the city’s 311 line receives from Jacksonians who need water.
The approach to activism is known as “mutual aid,” in which people in a community provide resources that the government failed to in a way that aims to not recreate systematic disparities. A term coined by a famous anarchist, mutual aid also aims to create social change by harnessing the collective work to achieve a political end.
“We create our own system while at the same time pushing to change the current systems that fail people,” said Lea Campbell, the founding president of the climate-justice organization Mississippi Rising Coalition at IAJE’s site on the corner of Fortification and N West Street.
That Saturday morning – the same day Holmes was at the Metrocenter Mall – about 17 volunteers stood between cases of bottled water on the sidewalk. An occasional hitch like the backdoor of a Honda minivan closing slowly held up the line.
Some members donned red to show they were members of the local Democratic Socialist of America chapter; others, college students from Tougaloo and Oxford, wore shirts that said “DO GOOD” and “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”
“We got everybody in the house,” Quiroz said. She supervised the line with the attitude of a school teacher (she used to be one) overseeing car pick-up, inviting passersby who stopped to get some water to park their cars and volunteer.
It’s important for organizations like IAJE to step up during disasters, Quiroz said, because many people can’t afford pricey and personal solutions like buying their own water or installing filtration systems.
“It’s like the Roe v. Wade decision,” she said. “Folks that have the money can have access to abortion as health care, they just have to get in their car and drive.”
It can be scrappy work. At the Metrocenter Mall, the coalition’s base of operations was right next to a distribution site run by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Stocked with non-potable water, porta-potties, military-style forklifts and dozens of uniformed National Guardsmen, MEMA’s site looked very different from the coalition’s.
“The National Guard has far more money than we do, the state has far more resources, so we can’t begin to compete,” Holmes said. “That’s comparing apples to oranges.”
As Holmes talked with Mississippi Today, about a dozen volunteers sat on empty wooden pallets, waiting for the workers inside the mall to finish unloading an 18-wheeler of water. At one point, a city water department employee tried to drive a forklift even though she had no experience.
Kadin Love, an organizer with Black Youth Project 100, said he thinks the solution to the crisis is better state and local representation for Black Mississippians that will only be achieved if activists from across the country invest time and money in the state at a level that hasn’t been seen since Freedom Summer.
“Money isn’t poured down here, folks don’t come down here to help us organize,” he said. “We’ve had to address our own issues systematically since basically 1964.”
His experience this past year watching national news go ignored as it unfolded in Jackson has not exactly left him feeling optimistic.
“Mississippi was the epicenter of the fight for abortion, but we didn’t see millions of people down here organizing,” he said. “In Jackson, at some of our largest protests we max out at maybe 200, 300 people.”
“Why didn’t we have any support beforehand?” he continued. “Why are we the last line of defense?”
Law enforcement officers with several associations have raised money and provided bottled water to fellow officers serving in the Jackson area during the city’s water crisis.
The Mississippi State Troopers Association, Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, Troopers Coalition and Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks Foundation have provided about $2,500 worth of bottled water to officers with the Jackson Police Department, troopers serving in Jackson, the Capitol Police and MDWFP game and fish officers in Jackson.
Master Sgt. Scott Henley, vice president of the Troopers Association, said: “I thought about how hard it would be for law enforcement officers trying to work and take care of their families during the water crisis, so we wanted to show our support for them and their families.”
Besides state and federal government emergency crews supplying Jacksonians with drinking and non-potable water, many local and nationwide organizations have supplied and distributed water. While most of Jackson now has flowing water again, a boil-water warning continues into its second month for the city system.
