"The Justice Department today sued Jackson, Miss., for violating federal safe drinking water rules and floated a plan with the city and state to appoint a third-party manager to run the city’s beleaguered water plant as negotiations continue.
The federal action marks the latest development around the Biden administration’s pursuit of long-term relief for residents of Jackson that have long been plagued by boil-water notices, line breaks and contamination scares from equipment failures at the O.B. Curtis plant. The system’s crash this summer on the heels of severe flooding triggered congressional and federal probes and sparked finger-pointing among city and state officials, lawmakers, and civil rights groups over spending and federal investment (E&E News PM, Nov. 16).
“Today the Justice Department is taking action in federal court to address long-standing failures in the city of Jackson’s public drinking water system,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The Department of Justice takes seriously its responsibility to keep the American people safe and to protect their civil rights. Together with our partners at EPA, we will continue to seek justice for the residents of Jackson, Mississippi. And we will continue to prioritize cases in the communities most burdened by environmental harm.”"
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