Mississippi’s failure to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act contributed to the 2022 Jackson water crisis, leaving 150,000 residents without drinking water, according to a new EPA report.
Zack Budryk reports for The Hill.
In short:
- The EPA’s Office of Inspector General found that Mississippi's health department did not properly enforce water safety regulations in Jackson between 2015 and 2021.
- Mississippi failed to report several Safe Drinking Water Act violations in 2016 and 2017, which prevented Jackson’s issues from being addressed.
- The 2022 water crisis resulted from long-standing management failures compounded by state oversight shortcomings, the report found.
Key quote:
“The [Mississippi State Department of Health] oversight failures obscured Jackson’s long-standing challenges, allowed issues to compound over time, and contributed to the system’s eventual failure.”
— EPA Inspector General's report.
Why this matters:
This report underscores how inadequate state oversight can lead to catastrophic public health crises, especially in marginalized communities with aging infrastructure.
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