Jackson residents claim city’s water woes stem from decades of neglect in new lawsuit
Walter Houston unloads a case of water bottles donated in Jackson, Miss., by the Salvation Army to the Mississippi Industries for the Blind. (Leslie Gamboni for NPR)
A new class-action lawsuit has been filed against Jackson, Mississippi city and public officials, alleging that the recent water crisis that left hundreds of thousands of residents without reliable drinking water for more than a month was caused by decades of neglect and mismanagement.
The lawsuit was filed by a group of Jackson residents on Friday in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Mississippi, one day after a city-wide boil water notice was lifted, and announced by attorneys working the case on Monday. The suit names the City of Jackson, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, former Mayor Tony Yarber, former directors of Public Works Kishia Powell, Robert Miller and Jerriot Smash, and private engineering companies like Siemens Corporation and Trilogy Engineering Services LLC as defendants. Among other things, the plaintiffs are asking for money and a jury trial.
The boil water notice, issued by the Mississippi Department of Health in late July, cited high turbidity, or cloudiness, of water. Residents also dealt with low or no water pressure during that time — aggravated after highly contaminated flood waters from the Pearl River led to a disruption of operations at O.B. Curtis water treatment facility in late August.
But the lawsuit includes claims that the water quality was poor long before the recent pump failure at the city’s main water treatment plant. The case states the water supply was unfit for public consumption due to high levels of lead and other contaminants. It also claims that the water supply has caused personal injury to the plaintiffs including, but not limited to, lead poisoning, income loss, and brain and/or developmental injuries.
“It’s time that the government officials and any other official or company responsible is held accountable, and more importantly that they fix this system and bring clean water to Jackson,” Mark Chalos, the lead counsel for the class-action case, said.
The city of Jackson has yet to issue a response to the lawsuit.
Can’t see PDF below? Click here.
The new lawsuit is not the only one Jackson is facing. Since late last year, nearly 1,800 claims have been filed on behalf of children affected by lead poisoning. The plaintiffs, represented by the same attorneys who won a settlement in Flint, Michigan’s major case of mass lead poisoning, met with lead attorney Corey Stern and others last week to get an update on the ongoing case.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration among Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama and WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
US launches new retaliatory strike in Syria, killing leader tied to deadly Islamic State ambush
A third round of retaliatory strikes by the U.S. in Syria has resulted in the death of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated leader, said U.S. Central Command.
NASA rolls out Artemis II craft ahead of crewed lunar orbit
Mission Artemis plans to send Americans to the moon for the first time since the Nixon administration.
Trump says 8 EU countries to be charged 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland
In a post on social media, Trump said a 10% tariff will take effect on Feb. 1, and will climb to 25% on June 1 if a deal is not in place for the United States to purchase Greenland.
‘Not for sale’: massive protest in Copenhagen against Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland
Thousands of people rallied in Copenhagen to push back on President Trump's rhetoric that the U.S. should acquire Greenland.
Uganda’s longtime leader declared winner in disputed vote
Museveni claims victory in Uganda's contested election as opposition leader Bobi Wine goes into hiding amid chaos, violence and accusations of fraud.
Opinion: Remembering Ai, a remarkably intelligent chimpanzee
We remember Ai, a highly intelligent chimpanzee who lived at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University for most of her life, except the time she escaped and walked around campus.
