EPA’s internal watchdog slammed state regulators for failing to raise alarms about Jackson, Mississippi’s crumbling infrastructure before a drinking water crisis gripped the city.
EPA’s Office of Inspector General said in a report released Tuesday that the Mississippi State Department of Health did not provide tough enough oversight of the capital city’s public water system. In 2022, flooding overwhelmed Jackson’s water treatment plant, resulting in boil-water notices that deprived the majority-Black city’s 150,000 residents of drinking water.
The incident grabbed national attention and spawned anger over systemic racism.
In August that year, EPA referred the matter to the Justice Department, which filed a civil complaint and put in place an outside manager to take over the city’s drinking water system. But the federal environmental agency may have acted sooner if the state’s health authority had enforced the law, the watchdog said.
