City remains under boil-water notice

City remains under boil-water notice

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City remains under boil-water notice

The city of Jackson is still dealing with water pressure drops on top of an ongoing water quality warning.

The latest problems stem from two massive pumps that started malfunctioning at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, which further crippled a water system that city officials have not been able to get clear of safe drinking water regulations.

"I will say to you again, our water treatment facility is in a constant state of emergency," Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said.

The mayor said the two 8 million-gallon water pumps pull water from the reservoir into the water treatment plant.

"They had to get a crane to pull one of those pumps out, in order to do repairs," Lumumba said. "They are still trying to do repairs on that, so if we can't get water in, consequentially, it puts a damper on the system to get water out."

Large parts of the city, particularly from South Jackson to Byram, have felt the effects of the pressure drops. Jackson Public Schools said the fire department is on standby to provide tanker trucks, if needed, to schools like Wilkins and Wingfield.

Fire Chief Willie Owens said the city has reached outside city limits in case it needs help fighting fires and water pressure becomes a problem.

"We have other resources we could tap into if we had a problem with the fire hydrants. Right now, they are not bad, as far as I know," Owens said.

City council leaders said they are still assessing how federal ARPA money should be spent in the city. Right now, $25 million of the $42 million is assigned to infrastructure repairs, but it could be more.

"The $25 million is based on plans that have been appropriated. All of that has not yet come before the council," said Jackson City Councilman Aaron Banks.

City officials are hoping to get the water pump problems fixed, as well as the ongoing cloudiness problems that state health leaders said require that a boil-water notice for the city continues. There is no indication when that will end.

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