Anna Wolfe

Clarion Ledger

It is becoming clear to the city of Jackson and the Mississippi State Health Department that the water system issues that have contributed to high levels of lead reported at residents’ taps will not have a quick fix.

For this reason, the health department released a statement Wednesday urging pregnant women and children, who are at greater risk from lead exposure, to take extra precautions when consuming Jackson’s water. These include running the water before using and avoiding hot water while cooking.

“We realized that the city of Jackson cannot come into compliance quickly, so while they’re dealing with these alkalinity and these pH levels that lead to corrosivity, we just want to recommend that,” said Liz Sharlot, MSDH spokesperson.

Corrosion can cause lead piping and plumbing to leach, and the more corrosive the water is, based on fluctuating pH and alkalinity levels, the more likely it is that lead will be present in the water.

After the city discovered in January that 22 percent of homes in a June sample tested above actionable levels of lead, they tested another 100 homes and found 11 percent still testing above that threshold.

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Jackson Public Works Director Kishia Powell addressed the heightened sensitivity of the community to issues regarding lead in drinking water due to the national headlines coming out of Flint, Michigan, over its water crisis.

“We understood the concern because there are some similarities to Flint. Nobody wants to say, ‘Flint,’ but I’m going to say that, because there are some similarities,” Powell said. “The way that we dealt with it is very different. That’s not similar at all. The similarities are that they did change their water system. They changed to a very corrosive water system, water source, and they had no corrosion control.

“In the city of Jackson, we have corrosion control, and we changed from a known water source to another known water source that we have been using for years. Our issue stems from the fact that our corrosion control system at the plant needs to be upgraded, optimized,” Powell said.

Powell maintained that the problem is home-dependent, meaning that the increased lead levels can be attributed to the way that the chemistry of the city's water is interacting with lead plumbing materials at the home. She said that if the problem existed within the city's water mains — which carry the water from the plant to residents' property — more samples would have tested for higher levels of lead.

Mayor Tony Yarber ensured members of the media in the conference that the city has taken every necessary protocol since it was made aware of the lead results — six months after the fact, he stressed several times.

Yarber also said the city has found no indication that the water is unsafe.

The city released a statement Wednesday morning recommending that its residents follow the health department’s recommendations, including the following:

Before using tap water for drinking or cooking, run your tap on cold for one to two minutes;

Households should never use hot water for drinking or cooking;

Any child 5 years of age or younger and any pregnant woman should use filtered water (NSF53 certified filter) or bottled water for drinking and cooking;

Baby formula should be “ready-to-feed” or prepared using only filtered water or bottled water; and

Parents with children 6 years or younger should contact their child’s pediatrician or primary care provider to ensure adequate lead screening and blood testing have been performed.

“Although the majority of home lead testing performed identified no lead, or lead below the action level of 15 ppb, we are issuing these recommendations as a special precaution for young children and pregnant women,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs.

The health department came to request pregnant women and children to take these precautions after consulting with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency. Sharlot said MSDH has been in constant contact with the CDC and the EPA.

“What we're doing is out of an abundance of caution, it’s not something we were mandated to do by the EPA or the CDC,” Sharlot said.

Jackson residents learned in January that the water in 22 percent of homes in a sample from June tested positive for lead above the recommended level. Those results came from samples gathered and tested six months before.

The city reported that that the elevated lead levels detected in the water of 13 Jackson and Byram residences in June was as high as 128 parts per billion, or more than eight times the federal action level.

When the city resampled the 13 residences, they did not detect lead in six of the samples and the lead levels in the water from each of the other sites were significantly decreased.

Though, out of the total sample of 100 homes taken in January after the city first discovered the lead, 11 samples tested above actionable levels. The EPA mandates that the 90th percentile of a sample test below 15 parts per billion, but Jackson’s water system’s 90th percentile is 16 parts per billion, according to Sharlot.

The 90th percentile indicates the number of parts per billion that 10 percent of the sample is above and 90 percent is below.

Sharlot said the state has put the city on a compliance plan that ensures the water system will maintain consistent pH and alkalinity levels.

“They have to be able to maintain a certain pH level and alkalinity level to ensure that they can meet the .015 (parts per billion) recommendation. When you have those things constantly out of balance that will effect corrosivity," Sharlot said. "We estimate it will take six months before we can see those stable levels."

As part of the public education portion of the additional compliance measures the water system must take, MSDH will mail the health recommendations about lead to all customers on the city of Jackson Water System. Powell said the city is attaching a notice to customers' water bills as well.

Powell said the city has received an estimate from an engineer, which the city is required to hire, and that a corrosion control study and new design will cost $400,000. The upgrade to the corrosion control treatment itself, Powell said, will cost roughly $500,000 for one plant.

This will be paid for through the city's water and sewer funds unless the city can acquire outside help.

Yarber acknowledged that infrastructure concerns are not new for the city of Jackson. Yarber declared a state of emergency for the city’s infrastructure, with a focus on the city’s water system, in March of last year, "which was our way of being proactive about what we knew were imminent issues with the city and with infrastructure," he said.

"This conversation is a national one that Jackson, Mississippi, is right in the middle of, specifically as it relates to what's happening with urban centers," Yarber said. "The issues that we're talking about today are happening in more frequency in areas that are urban, in areas where there's been disinvestment, in areas where there's been flight, in a lot of cases, and in areas where the particular city is blue in the middle of a red state. We really need to look at the politics that are affecting our ability to make safety a priority for our citizens."

Councilman De'Keither Stamps spoke at the press conference, highlighting the city's needs for outside help. Stamps has called for the city council to declare a state of emergency regarding Jackson's water system at previous council meetings.

"We've got people here who have problems, who can not afford to pay for filtration systems in their homes. That's all this emergency declaration was about. Will the federal government send direct investment? I don't know," Stamps said. "You've got Beyonce doing a whole concert and sending the proceeds to Flint. Well, we need the same type of attention to Jackson, Mississippi."

Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.

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