By Eric Cox and Carlos Barria
JACKSON, Miss. (Reuters) – Seven new distribution sites opened in Mississippi’s state capital on Thursday to dispense bottled water to residents who have been without clean tap water since the city’s long-troubled treatment plant failed four days ago.
While residents continued to line up at distribution sites and grocery stores in Jackson for bottled water, the city said “significant gains” had been made overnight in repairing the O.B. Curtis Water Plant. Complications from recent floodwaters knocked the plant offline on Monday night.
“There are some challenges remaining to navigate over the next few days, but the outlook for today is currently continued progress,” the city said in a statement. It said limited water pressure had returned to some areas.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said 600 National Guard service members would be deployed to the new water distribution sites through the city and surrounding area of 180,000 residents.
“To everyone in the city, I know that you are dealing with a profoundly unfair situation. It’s frustrating. It’s wrong. It needs to be fixed,” Reeves said during a news conference.
The crisis has hobbled Jackson. Many stores and restaurants have shuttered, while the public school system and Jackson State University have been forced to move classes online.
Even before the crisis, the city had been under a boil water notice for the past month due to “elevated turbidity levels,” which makes the water appear cloudy. That followed a string of disruptions to the city’s water supply in recent years caused by high lead levels, bacterial contamination, and storm damage.
Since the plant failed on Monday, state and local crews have raced to install a temporary pump and make repairs and adjustments to existing equipment. The city said on Thursday that more than half of the tanks on the surface system have begun filling back up and that the pressure throughout the system would continue to improve as tank levels increase.
The Biden administration approved an emergency declaration late on Tuesday to free up federal assistance, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Environmental Protection Agency had been sent to Jackson to assist.
(Addition reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Rich McKay in Atlanta)
