Hillary Clinton pushes for Jackson water issues action
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she’s concerned about lead levels in Jackson's water and called for national infrastructure improvements.
Her comments follow a similar lead-related water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and Clinton's earlier remarks advocating for “environmental justice” for low-income minority communities.
State health officials notified officials in Jackson on Thursday that 22% of water samples taken from city residents’ homes in June contained excessive lead levels. City officials notified residents Thursday and Friday.
“I’m heartened that Jackson city officials are taking the right steps to fix the problem, including repeated testing and openness with the results, so families can stay informed,’’ Clinton said in a statement. “As the emergency in Flint, Michigan, has made clear, cities and states must treat these situations with the utmost seriousness and do everything in their power to ensure that families — especially children — have access to safe, clean drinking water. We as a nation must make urgent investments to modernize our utilities and infrastructure, to keep families and communities safe and healthy.”
In Flint, Clinton sent top aides to meet with city officials. Days after the meeting, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver expressed her support for Clinton.
Clinton’s comments follow Monday’s presidential caucus in Iowa, where she barely eked out a win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“It is the political thing to do,’’ said Rickey Hill, chairman of the political science Department at Jackson State University. “She has declared some months ago that she saw the Southern primary states as being her firewall in the event that Bernie Sanders did well and even won some of these northeastern, mid-western and western primaries.’’
The Clinton campaign already is looking ahead to primaries in the South, where black voters traditionally play a key role, he said. Clinton’s comments on Jackson’s water issues get her out early on the issue.
“She’s trying to get ahead of Sanders… around these issues involving black lives in urban centers,’’ Hill said.
Mississippi will hold its Democratic presidential primary on March 8.
Jackson is predominately black and Mississippi is home to the largest number of black elected officials in the country.
Mississippi Republicans questioned Clinton's sincerity on the issue.
"Politics, not genuine concern, can only explain why#Hillarywould speak out on an infrastructure issue in Jackson,'' tweeted the Mississippi Republican Party.
Sanders' campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Republican candidates, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, and businessman Donald Trump, also did not respond.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose district includes Jackson, hasn't met yet with city officials about the lead levels but said it's "extremely important that the water supply in Jackson be kept safe and usable.''
"I encourage local leaders to immediately address the issue and continue to keep up public awareness of any potential danger,” said Thompson, who has endorsed Clinton.
Lead in Jackson water
Thirteen of 58 water samples taken from southwest Jackson and north Jackson in June showed 17 to 20 parts per billion of lead — above the federal action level of 15 parts per billion. The Mississippi State Department of Health conducted the test on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.
On Jan. 28, Jackson began notifying and resampling the affected residences. City officials said they were not notified of the sampling results until January, six months after the fact.
MSDH officials suggested they do not have an obligation to analyze the data from such studies until the end of a three-year compliance period set by EPA, which ended Dec. 31.
Jackson's Ward 4 city councilman, De’Keither Stamps, expressed frustration toward the state for not notifying the city sooner.
“The state needs to be more forthcoming in information, analysis and solutions,” Stamps said. “Why hasn’t the state offered any assistance in this matter?”
Byrd said the city will begin issuing lead and copper notices to all of the city’s customers within 60 days, as required.
In a written statement, EPA said its agency has contacted MSDH to verify that Jackson will satisfy all requirements under the Lead and Copper Rule. These include providing educational materials to all customers and informing residents "of ways to reduce the risk of lead exposure, such as flushing the water for 30 seconds to two minutes before drinking or cooking."
The city also must assess its water treatment system to decrease the risk of corroding leaded pipe materials in customer's homes.
Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman said he does not know anything about Jackson’s lead-in-water situation beyond what local news outlets reported.
Tillman cited the old infrastructure Jackson runs on — pipes that have existed over 100 years made of materials like cast iron that have corroded.
“Of course I think that’s unsafe,” Tillman said. “That’s the reason we asked for the one percent sales tax because we realized we had all kinds of problems.”
City officials have assured the public that the increase in lead levels cannot be attributed to an issue with Jackson’s water system.
“We have every reason to believe this is home dependent, which means that it is related to the internal plumbing of the home, and that’s largely because we had 58 samples taken, only 13 of them exceeded the actionable level and there were homes on the same street that were sampled that did not exceed those levels," Jackson Director of Public Works Kishia Powell has said.
More questions
David Rosner, Professor of History and Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University and author of "Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children," said it’s not enough for a city to claim individuals’ plumbing is to blame.
“If that is the source, why is it leaching now? What happened to the water supply? What happened to the corrosive nature of that water supply?” Rosner said. “This is a public health issue. This is not just someone’s private problem.”
Drawing comparisons to the crisis in Flint, in which the city switched its water supply from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to the Flint River, areas of south Jackson did receive a change in water supply during the time of the most recent sampling and after the results came back.
Before August 2014, the Jackson's Maddox Road Well system served much of south Jackson along the Mississippi 18 corridor. At that time, the city took the well system offline, and the residents’ service was switched to surface water.
The water samples in the health department report were taken in June, while the entire city was utilizing the city's surface water system. The city switched back on its well system, which continues to serve the area today, in July, due to a water line break.
“As a result of the switch to the well water system, customers may experience discoloration and changes in taste and odor due to the well water mixing with surface water. This mix of well and surface water is safe to drink and use,” read a press release from July.
Powell stressed that the city has not violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. But Flint and other water crises have highlighted just how lenient the country’s regulations are in regards to water safety.
In public health, Rosner said, a public official’s legal responsibility is the lowest bar they can meet. What these cases illustrate is a more of a moral obligation.
“Public health officials have to have a higher standard than that,” Rosner said. “This is not normal to have lead in your water.”
The Flint water crisis has put the spotlight on environmental justice issues. Civil rights groups have long complained about the lack of resources and focus on infrastructure in predominately black cities.
In an op-ed in MSNBC last Saturday, Clinton promoted her work on such issues, particularly during her tenure as a U.S. senator representing New York.
“Environmental justice can’t just be a slogan, it has to be a central goal,’’ she wrote.
High levels of lead in tap water is not unique to Flint or Jackson. Outdated infrastructure across the country can contribute to problematic drinking water.
“If you can make an investment in the infrastructure then you can fix the problem,” Stamps said. “If the state of Mississippi, in this legislative session, does not invest in the capital city, we’re going to be pushed against the wall and have to take some drastic, drastic measures.”
Contact Anna Wolfe at awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter. Contact Deborah Barfield Berry atdberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett
