If everyone seemed to know that Jackson’s water system was on the verge of failing, why did it take a natural disaster — a foot of rain fell on parts of the state, causing the Pearl River to flood, inundating the Jackson water plant and making it completely inoperable — for any money to be funneled to the city?
Jackson, with its tax base that is both shrinking and poor, couldn’t take on loans to modernize the system, which would have cost $1 billion. And the state of Mississippi didn’t make it any easier for Jackson to get any infrastructure funding, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report.
“Jackson originally was awarded 82 percent less loan subsidy per capita when compared to all other disadvantaged communities,” between 2015 and 2022, according to an EPA inspector general report quoted by POGO.
See “The Jackson Water Crisis Could Have Been Avoided” (May 24, 2024)
