Judge Orders Jackson, Mississippi Mayor To Court Following At-Home Filter Comments
After failures in infrastructure, loss of public trust, and disagreements among elected leaders, the latest crisis for Jackson, Mississippi’s drinking water saw a local official ordered to clarify that tap water is now safe.
“U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate ordered Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Ted Henifin, whom Wingate appointed in November to manage the city’s beleaguered water system, to appear in court because of comments Lumumba made at a June 14 news conference,” the Associated Press reported. “Wingate was worried the mayor ‘may have misinformed the public’ about whether Jackson’s water was safe to drink.”
During the press conference in question, Lumumba announced efforts to distribute at-home water filters, which Henifin said could have implied that Jackson’s water wouldn’t be safe without them, according to Judge Wingate.
“We know for several months now residents have been quarterly receiving notifications about the potential threats based on how we treat our water, and the agents that we use in order to treat our water, [and] the potential threats to … pregnant mothers and mothers who have young children,” Lumumba said at the press conference, per WLBT.
At the court-ordered follow up, Lumumba clarified his statements without totally dismissing his belief in the importance of at-home filters.
“Lumumba stood by his comments,” according to AP. “He pointed to guidelines on the Mississippi Department of Health’s website that say any child age 5 or younger and any pregnant woman should use filtered water or bottled water for drinking and cooking. He also cited his statement at the news conference that it hadn’t been ‘demonstrated that (Jackson’s) water is dangerous.’”
Jackson recently received $115 million in federal funding to stabilize its water system, but public officials recognize that the infrastructure problems there are dealing considerable damage to public confidence. Further exacerbating the problems has been the inability of local- and state-level leaders to agree on a path forward for drinking water management in the city, and that might be part of the reason why Judge Wingate is so worried about public perception of the system’s safety.
Clearly, as Jackson works to recover from one of the most high-profile drinking water crises in recent memories, communication to the public is an ongoing challenge.
“Both Lumumba and Henifin said the state health department sends precautionary notices to Jackson residents about water quality,” AP reported. “The notices, which are required until the city makes certain infrastructure improvements, make it harder to rebuild trust in the water system, Lumumba and Henifin said.”
To read more about how water systems communicate with consumers, visit Water Online’s Consumer Outreach Solutions Center.