Racial bias did not shape Mississippi’s water funding decisions for capital city, EPA says
JACKSON, ma’am. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it has found “insufficient evidence” that racial discrimination influenced two Mississippi agencies’ decisions on funding water systems for Jackson, the state’s predominantly Black capital.
The EPA’s Office of External Civil Rights Compliance this week released its findings on the investigation it launched in October 2022 into the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi State Department of Health.
The EPA announced its investigation weeks after the national and state chapters of the NAACP and nine Jackson residents filed a complaint alleging the state had a “practice of systematically depriving Jackson of the resources he needs to maintain his water facilities.” operate and maintain in a safe and reliable manner’. way.”
Jackson’s water system nearly collapsed in late August 2022 after heavy rains and flooding exacerbated long-standing problems. Many people in the city of 150,000 inhabitants had no water to drink, flush or bathe for weeks. A federally appointed administrator has been in charge of Jackson water since late 2022, and the federal government has approved $600 million for improvements to the city system.
The EPA wrote in its findings Monday that it investigated specific questions, including whether the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s funding of water infrastructure and treatment programs is discriminatory.
The department’s executive director, Chris Wells, said Wednesday that his agency was already following federal regulations.
“The evidence overwhelmingly shows that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality did everything right,” Wells said. “These allegations were completely false and have distracted from our agency’s mission.”
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that it is “committed to equal opportunity for all provinces, municipalities, districts and other water organizations” to access a loan program for water system improvements.
Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, lives in Jackson.
“The NAACP is outraged by the inadequate findings presented by the EPA this week,” Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “Since day one of this crisis, we have been on the ground and speaking with residents and community leaders. One thing remains clear: racial discrimination and neglect have plunged a Black capital into crisis.”
Johnson said the NAACP hopes Mississippi government leaders will implement the EPA’s recommendations, including that the Department of Health review loan terms to ensure communities with the greatest needs have access to water financing.
“The NAACP remains committed to using every tool at our disposal to ensure that all Black Americans have access to clean drinking water,” Johnson said.
The EPA examined state water fund loans to communities in Mississippi between 1989 and 2021 and evaluated them based on the percentage of Black residents. According to the Census Bureau, Jackson’s population in 1990 was approximately 56% black and 44% white, and the city’s current population is approximately 82% black and 15% white.
The EPA wrote that “funding for Jackson did not decrease as Jackson’s racial composition changed during the period analyzed” and the analysis found “no statistically significant relationship between loan amount and state race over time. “
The Department of Environmental Quality has made water loans to Jackson 13 times since 1990 – each time the city has applied.
“Although Jackson falls at the low end of per capita financing … there was no significant relationship between per-person loan amounts and race over time,” the EPA said.
The EPA also wrote that “the impacts of the water crisis fell disproportionately on the majority of Jackson’s black community,” but “there is insufficient evidence to establish a link between the amount of funding MDEQ provided over the course of time paid to Jackson and the racial makeup of the population.” the community.”
Jackson received three loans from a water improvement fund administered by the Department of Health between 1997 and 2022, and the department told the EPA it never failed to approve completed applications from the capital.
“In the years that Jackson received loans, it received a large portion of the total available funding for those years,” the EPA wrote.