Mississippi Water Crisis

ElPigto · Sep 18, 2022

DatRocketFan said: ↑

To b fair the death of a queen who's reign last for years is quite a notable thing to b covered. A world leader passed is sure to have news media covering it.

Hopefully if this sht doesn't make folks vote blue then Mississippians deserve it. If u rather hate it so much to have libs govern than you have to live with how Republicans are doing it.
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The issue has been going on with decades regarding their infrastructure, so this definitely will not change how they vote.

DatRocketFan · Sep 18, 2022

ElPigto said: ↑

The issue has been going on with decades regarding their infrastructure, so this definitely will not change how they vote.
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Then they deserve it. If they aren't willing to make an effort to change leadership for the better bailing them out will change nothing. Gonna end up repeating the same mistake.

It's sounds fked up but that reality. Say the president enacted his will upon the missipissi state to address this issue or bail them out to fix it. The problem ain't gonna go away for long. Hell folks will btch about states right and hate biden even further. Vote in the same incompetent republican to let the problem spiral out of.control again

pgabriel · Sep 18, 2022

Reeko said: ↑

this is insane

the media would rather spend days talking about the Queen of England…

meanwhile we have citizens with sh*t water coming out of their sinks as they illegally funnel millions to Brett Favre

They’ve been on a boil water notice since July. July!!

Recent flooding, operational failures and understaffing at the treatment plant—and decades-long infrastructure decay, have culminated in an indefinite failure in the supply of safe tap water to Jackson water customers. The governor called it a “health threat.”

“This is a very different situation from a boil water notice, which is also a serious situation which residents of Jackson have become tragically numb to,” Reeves said at a press event on Monday. “Until it is fixed, we do not have reliable running water at scale. The city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to flush toilets and to meet other critical needs.”

O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant is the facility that serves Jackson, and it has been relying on backup pumps, which have limited water pressure, since its main pumps failed last month. The Pearl River, which runs through the city, began flooding this past weekend and damaged the already vulnerable treatment plant—causing the Jackson resident to lose most of their water pressure altogether.

The facility has had ongoing issues with understaffing that result in a significant lack of employees who are qualified to operate the plant. Part of the governor’s emergency plan will include recruiting additional qualified operators immediately, and splitting the cost of this with the city.

Reeves previously declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the Pearl River flooded due to severe storms. Meteorologists have since reported that the flooding is not as severe as it has been in recent years, but rainwater entering the reservoir contaminates the water supply and that the flood exacerbates the existing structural fragility of the plant. The flooding is due to recede, however, damage to the plant still needs to be repaired to restore water access.

On Tuesday, President Biden declared a state of emergency in Mississippi and said that he wanted to look into longer-term federal support for Jackson. Biden also said he spoke with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba about the best way to get FEMA and the Army Corp of Engineers involved in restoring water to the city.

Jackson has had a boil-water notice in place since July. Two weeks ago, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba said that at least one of the main O.B. Curtis pumps would be fixed by the end of that week, but that didn’t happen.

Lifting a state-imposed boil-water notice entails collecting water samples from 120 sites across the city and getting two days of clear results. The city had failed this process multiple times since July because the samples were cloudy and more likely to contain disease-causing pathogens.

“This is an issue that we work on each and every day—not just when there’s a boil-water notice, not just when there’s low water pressure. This is something that we have gone to the highest level of government, in order to speak to,” Lumumba said at a press event earlier this month. “I have literally spoken to the president himself as to the funds that the federal government is attempting to send to the city of Jackson, and what is available.”

Jackson has struggled with safe water access for decades and has lacked the funding to implement change. Mayors and city council members have called for repairs since the 1940s, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported. In the 1970s and again in 2020, the EPA warned that the city had to get serious about updating its infrastructure to improve water quality. The 2020 report highlighted lead pipes, faulty monitoring equipment and insufficient staffing. Years of neglect have built up and in 2021 alone, the city had dozens of boil-water notices due to the old, fragile water system.

“We’re facing an environmental injustice and we have been ignored. Jacksonians and people around the area have been ignored by state leadership and now they want to swoop in–all hands on deck, fixing the problem–but we’ve been asking for help for years, not even just from this administration,” Brown, the Jackson community organizer, says.
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It's two completely separate issues. The water crisis is an infrastructure issue. It isn't a result of lack of welfare funding. The national media has covered the water situation.

I don't know why it hasn't covered the welfare scandal

Invisible Fan · Sep 18, 2022

I was wondering why Fox News didn't gleefully swoop in like vultures 24/7 on the failures of government just as they did with Michigan's water crisis.

Op/Ed about Mississippi's race to the bottom, and I don't mean what happens when you drink their water!
https://www.latimes.com/business/st...issippi-water-crisis-democracy-infrastructure

The travails of residents of Jackson, the state capital, due to the utter collapse of the municipal water system, have been claiming the most public attention lately, what with advice to residents to shower with their mouths closed and to take other steps due to the health hazards of ingesting the water.

But the mad scientist tone of Mississippi policymaking goes much deeper. The state has been experimenting with the social and economic welfare of its citizens — especially its poor and Black citizens — for decades, and not to their advantage.

...

In recent years, the most aggressive state-level initiatives have been crafted by conservative statehouses, often in ways that conflict with popular sentiment. They’ve undermined anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and narrowed voting rights. They’ve diminished access to healthcare for women and low-income and minority communities, but expanded access to guns.

Mississippi is a standard-carrier for this approach. Its legislators and governors have made choices that have kept the state mired at the bottom of nationwide rankings in healthcare and economic opportunity.

Mississippi (designated “MS” in this chart) has the worst healthcare system of any state in the nation. Should we be tied to its policy on abortion?

The state’s median household income of $44,966 in 2020 (according to the Federal Reserve) was the worst in the nation, 11% lower than the second-worst, Arkansas, and more than 33% lower than the U.S. average of $67,521.

In terms of the quality of its healthcare system, Mississippi ranks at the very bottom nationally, in the estimation of the Commonwealth Fund. That’s especially true in the category of reproductive health. Mississippi’s rate of pregnancy-related mortality is the worst in the nation and almost twice the national average. The mortality rate for Black women there is three times the rate for white women. The state has recently ranked among the worst in per capita COVID cases, and its share of fully vaccinated residents, 53%, is the third-worst in the U.S.

A blue-ribbon committee convened by the state Health Department to examine the state’s record recommended that it accept a federal offer to extend Medicaid eligibility to one year after delivery, up from 60 days, an extension accepted by 34 states. Earlier this year, the Mississippi Legislature refused.

It should come as no surprise that Mississippi is one of the 12 states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The three dissenters from the Dobbs decision, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen G. Breyer, were scathing about the real-world context of abortion bans. “States with the most restrictive abortion policies also continue to invest the least in women’s and children’s health,” they observed.

“Perhaps unsurprisingly,” they noted, “health outcomes in Mississippi are abysmal for both women and children.” The state’s infant mortality rate is the highest in the country, they noted, amid “some of the highest rates for preterm birth, low birthweight, cesarean section, and maternal death.”

After the Dobbs decision was handed down, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves paid lip service to these concerns. “The next phase of the pro-life movementis focusing on helping those moms that maybe have an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy ... [and] making sure that those babies, once born, have a productive life.”

History provides no grounds for confidence that Reeves is serious. As the Dobbs dissent observed, Mississippi “has strict eligibility requirements for Medicaid and nutrition assistance, leaving many women and families without basic medical care or enough food.”

Last month, Reeves returned $130 million to the federal government that had been earmarked for temporary rental assistance, calling the program a “socialist experiment.”

Meanwhile, evidence is emerging that some $70 million in state welfare funds for poor families was diverted to recipients including Mississippi native and star NFL quarterback Brett Favre, allegedly for speeches he never delivered. (Favre denies the no-show allegations, has repaid at least some of the fees, and hasn’t been charged with a crime.)

That brings us full circle to the Jackson water crisis. The city is more than 80% Black, an artifact of white flight that began in the 1980s, after its public schools were integrated. The water system has suffered from decades of deferred maintenance and understaffing, resulting in consistent violations of federal water quality standards.

In 2021, when a winter storm left 40,000 residents without drinking water for weeks, the city asked the state Legislature for $47 million for emergency repairs. The Legislature approved $3 million. The Legislature also refused to allow the city to impose a 1-cent sales tax to pay for water and sewerage improvements.

With a full-scale repair of the water system expected to cost about $1 billion, Reeves said this week that he’s open to “privatization” of the system. Often, privatizing public utilities means higher prices and poorer customer service. As it happens, Jackson has experience with the process, and it hasn’t been pretty.

In 2013, the city entered into a $90-million contract with the multinational engineering firm Siemens for water system repairs and the installation of new, ostensibly more accurate, water meters.

According to a 2019 lawsuit the city filed against Siemens, the company guaranteed that the contract would produce $120 million in revenue for the city, effectively paying for itself. (Hat tip to Judd Legum of the online news site Popular Information for pinpointing the episode.)

The city alleged that Siemens had pulled a bait-and-switch, gulling the city into signing a contract lacking that hard-and-fast guarantee. The deal was a disaster, the city said. The water meters were faulty and couldn’t communicate with the data system that generated bills. Some residents received incorrect, sky-high bills; others received no bills for months, followed by bills for multiple months they couldn’t afford.

“The Siemens water system continues to be a disaster for the City of Jackson and its citizens,” the lawsuit stated. “Siemens ultimately guaranteed nothing but financial ruin for the city.” The city sought more than $450 million in damages, but said the ultimate losses over time might come to $700 million.

In 2021, the city and Siemens reached a $90-million settlement — essentially the original price of the contract.

Asked for comment, Siemens sent me the statement it issued at the time of the settlement: “Following a meaningful dialogue between both parties, the City of Jackson and Siemens have reached a mutual and final agreement to settle this issue,” read the statement, which acknowledged that “the project did not end as either party hoped.”

Only a fraction of the $90 million was available for Jackson to fix what was broken: About $30 million was paid to its lawyers, and tens of millions moreto cover obligations on the bonds the city floated to pay for the contract and other expenses.

If Reeves or anyone else thinks that turning the municipal water system over to private operators will solve its problems, they should read the lawsuit.
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These bumpkin states should band together and hire real corporate lawyers on retainer. None of this "Uncle Billy lost the check" bumpkin bullshit when you're negotiating half billion to billions dollar contracts with a 90M upfront.

Dairy Ashford · Sep 18, 2022

LondonCalling said: ↑

AP FACT CHECK: Blue high-tax states fund red low-tax states

https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-payments-portal/

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Rich taxpayers and productive businesses fund grant and aid recipients in all states that are pragmatic and honest enough to take them. Worse still the conformist, hypertraditionalist and exploitative white business and property owners in blue and red states, regardless of what box they check after Halloween in Olympic years, create and preserve housing, education, healthcare and employment inequities in local, county and state politics and day-to-day social customs and business practices that make federal aid necessary in the first place.

Nook · Sep 18, 2022

Dairy Ashford said: ↑

Rich taxpayers and productive businesses fund grant and aid recipients in all states that are pragmatic and honest enough to take them. Worse still the conformist, hypertraditionalist and exploitative white business and property owners in blue and red states, regardless of what box they check after Halloween in Olympic years, create and preserve housing, education, healthcare and employment inequities in local, county and state politics and day-to-day social customs and business practices that make federal aid necessary in the first place.
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This.
It is a massive problem and one not discussed. It cuts across political and state lines. It is primarily white property owners because they own the property and have the resources to exert their will. Look at San Francisco as an example, the local white property owners have ensured there is a lack of affordable housing through many tactics.

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