Jackson water investigations said to test Biden racial equity pledge – The Vicksburg Post

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS | Associated Press

JACKSON — Federal investigations into public spending on the failing water system in Mississippi’s black-majority capital are a test of President Joe Biden’s commitment to racial justice, one of his congressional allies told hundreds of people at a town hall meeting hosted by the NAACP.

“President Biden made a fundamental policy in his administration to talk about justice. And this is a matter of justice and fair treatment of Jackson’s citizens,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson said Monday night at Jackson’s New Hope Baptist Church — the same sprawling sanctuary where Biden spoke during the 2020 campaign.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it is investigating whether Mississippi state authorities discriminated against Jackson by refusing to fund improvements to the water system in the city of 150,000, where more than 80% of residents are black and about a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

Thompson said the EPA civil investigation is expected to last about four months. The federal agency could withhold money from the state if it finds wrongdoing – potentially millions of dollars. If state agencies don’t cooperate with the investigation, EPA could refer the case to the Justice Department.

Thompson’s congressional district includes most of Jackson. He chairs the House Homeland Security Committee — one of two congressional committees also investigating how Republican-run Mississippi is spending federal money on water system improvements and whether some of the money goes to Jackson.
Biden was speaking at Jackson’s New Hope Baptist Church during a service in March 2020 as he sought the Democratic nomination for president. Biden had just clinched a victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, where black voters gave him a crucial boost — and Thompson introduced the former New Hope vice president as the “comeback kid.”

“If I’m the Comeback Kid, there’s only one reason I came back — the African American community across the country,” Biden told the mostly black community in Mississippi. He also pledged to care for marginalized, isolated and oppressed people.

Speaking about Biden on Monday, Thompson said, “I will continue to make him a man of his word. He sat right here on the front bench and asked people to support him, and many of us did. And now it’s about making sure that promises made are kept.”

Jackson has struggled with water system problems for years, and most of the city lost running water for several days in late August and early September after torrential rains exacerbated problems at the main water treatment plant. Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared an emergency on Aug. 29, and the state health department and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency have since overseen operations and repairs at the facility.
When Reeves issued the emergency order, Jackson residents had been told for a month to boil their water to kill any possible contamination. Volunteers and the National Guard had distributed millions of bottles of drinking water. Although the boiler order was lifted in mid-September, many residents remain skeptical about water safety.

In a Sept. 27 federal complaint, the NAACP said Mississippi officials “all but made sure” of a drinking water disaster by depriving Jackson of much-needed funds to improve its infrastructure. The organization asked the EPA to investigate the state’s alleged pattern of funneling money to majority-white communities with lower needs.

NAACP National President Derrick Johnson, who lives in Jackson with his family, said Monday that the state must direct federal funds toward “clean, safe drinking water for every citizen of this city.” He also said the system must remain under city control and not be handed over to private contractors or a regional board of directors.

“If you think about how water systems are funded in this state, it’s federal,” Johnson said. “And in the 25 years that the state of Mississippi received federal funding for water, the city of Jackson received funding only three of those 25 years. It’s an injustice that this government wanted to address.”

The AP reported in September that years before he became governor, Reeves touted his own track record of fiscal conservatism, citing his reluctance to spend federal money on Jackson’s crumbling water and sanitation infrastructure. The EPA is not investigating Reeves.