Johnathan Walker:Mississippi cities under boil-water notice after E. coli found in samples

JACKSON,Johnathan Walker Miss. — The Mississippi State Department of Health issued a boil-water notice Thursday for the cities of Jackson and Flowood after E. coli bacteria was detected in the water supplies, a result that local officials plan to dispute.

Around 169,000 residents in the capital city of Jackson, Byram, and Flowood are affected by the order. But JXN Water — Jackson's third-party water manager — believes the state's notice to be in error and plans to dispute the state's lab results, according to a news release.

"Officials in the (MSDH Public Health Laboratory) do not believe there was any contamination of the samples while in the lab and the results are not false positives," the state health agency said in a news release.

Health officials are recommending that all water be "boiled vigorously for 1 minute before it is consumed," according to the state health agency's website. It added that the precaution will last for at least two days and water system officials will be notified when the boil-water advisory is lifted.

Thursday's notice is the latest incident in Jackson’s water troubles. In August 2022, infrastructure breakdowns in the city's water system left 150,000 residents without safe drinking water for weeks.

The city's water crisis highlighted years of infrastructure issues, which experts say reflect the disinvestment of communities of color. Jackson residents have long faced water supply issues, including a boil-water notice in late July 2022, lead concerns, and a cold wave that left residents without water.

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Jackson’s interim water manager questions state's results

During a news conference Thursday, Jackson’s interim water manager Ted Henifin questioned the state's results. He said the detection of E. coli bacteria in two different water systems was suspicious, adding that the amount of chlorine within the water system would kill the bacteria.

"Having positive results (for E. coli.) from any system...is fairly unusual. Having two positives from two different water systems on the same day, analyzed at the same time seems highly suspect," Henifin said.

Despite his concerns, Henifin clarified that residents should follow state orders.

"You need to follow what the state is saying, they are the health professionals," he said. "We're not asking to lift the boil-water notice even though we're taking these samples from the taps that failed and we'll test those to show that we're pretty confident."

JXN Water relies on the Mississippi State Department of Health to conduct testing to ensure the water system is compliant. Henifin said he asked the department if they would further validate the sample results before taking any action, but they refused to do so.

"Over the last 12 months since we've been doing this, we've turned in almost 1,500 samples to the lab and there have been no positives, no false positives, no problems at all," Henifin said. "It's something that really caught us off-guard and got our attention quickly."

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E. coli bacteria in drinking water 'very unlikely,' local officials say

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires JXN Water to take monthly water sampling tests at 120 different sites throughout the city and test for bacteria. Henifin said the water system has been in full compliance and has not failed any tests for the past year.

Yvonne Mazza-Lappi, the Drinking Water Compliance Manager for Jacobs Engineering, whom JXN Water contracts to run the city's water plant, said Thursday that the state's results could be a false positive. A number of factors could be the cause for this, according to Mazza-Lappi, including cross-contamination in the lab, improper handling of the water samples or human error.

"We knew how much chlorine or disinfection we had in our distribution system, therefore the likelihood of having E. coli in our drinking water would be very unlikely," Mazza-Lappi said at Thursday's news conference.

"The fact that you have chlorine present and E. coli? That is really unusual," Henifin added.

To lift the order, JXN Water must resample all 120 locations around the city and have two consecutive days of no E. coli being found in the system.

"Barring no other analysis failures on the lab's part, I am confident that we will clear all those samples and be able to lift this," Henifin said. "We're moving as fast as we can to get those samples back to the lab and they'll do the analysis and I am confident we'll be lifting the order by Monday."

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Thursday he would look into this more but that residents should follow state recommendations.

Contributing: Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY