Environmental Protection Agency announced that testing had shown Jackson water is safe to drink. 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. “Chokwe Lumumba believes our water is safe.“īoth Lumumba and Henifin said the state health department sends precautionary notices to Jackson residents about water quality. “I’m trying to figure out how I’m both factually correct and reckless at the same time,” Lumumba said. Instilling confidence in Jackson’s water will be harder than rebuilding the infrastructure to deliver it, Henifin said. Henifin added that he believed all of Lumumba’s comments were factual, but they might have lacked the context necessary for reassuring residents about the water’s quality.
“We really need to be careful with messaging about the water.” “There is no health risk drinking the water that I’m aware of,” Henifin said. Specifically, Henifin said, the promotion of water filters might have implied that Jackson’s water wasn’t safe to drink without them.
In court Wednesday, Wingate said he became concerned at a meeting with Henifin after the news conference in which Henifin took issue with some of the mayor’s comments. Most of the city lost running water for several days in August and September after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems at the city’s main water treatment plant.Īt the June 14 news conference, Lumumba announced a new initiative to distribute free water filters, focusing on pregnant women and families with young children. Jackson has struggled with water problems for decades. “Not only must we address the water woes, we have to worry about instilling confidence that the water is safe to drink,” Wingate said in court Wednesday.
Wingate was worried the mayor “may have misinformed the public“ about whether Jackson’s water was safe to drink, court records show. 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. (AP) - The water flowing from faucets in Mississippi’s capital is safe to drink, city officials said in federal court Wednesday.
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