A federal judge has approved a deal that puts the man who is already in charge of Jackson’s water, to also oversee the city’s sewage system.
The Environmental Protection Agency Justice Department, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, and the city of Jackson, Mississippi, agreed last week to a stipulated order that will expedite needed sewer system repairs and to address spills of raw and undertreated sewage into homes, businesses, streets, yards and waterways.
Under the terms of the agreement, the federal court appointed Ted Henifin as interim third-party manager of the city’s sewer system. Henifin, who has been serving as interim third-party manager for the city’s drinking water system since November 2022, will manage, operate and maintain the city’s sewer system.
A public comment period is in place. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate reserved the right to make any changes to the agreement based on those comments. Wingate said the order would be entered once the comment period ends Oct. 31.
Jackson has been under a federal consent decree since 2013, under which little progress has been made. According to the agreement, the sewer system has, in fact, further deteriorated over the past 10 years.
Henifin estimated the cost of repairing the city’s sewer system is $130 million. The first step will be collecting unpaid water bills.
“It is still going to be a bit of a sticking point. People need to pay their bills because we are going to do this largely locally-funded at this point,” Henifin said.
Henifin said cut-off notices will go out next month to the roughly 50% of JXN Water customers who are behind on paying their water bills.
“You will get a notice. People will get an opportunity to pay. You get a challenge to pay, but other than that, you have got to pay to get our services,” Henifin said. “We need that money to make the sewers work.”
Henifin said there are about another 7,000 in Jackson who are getting water without even having an account with JXN Water. There is about $36 million coming in from water bills, but Henifin believes it should be about twice that.
Source : 16Wapt