- Troubled water system in predominantly African American Jackson, Mississippi is set to receive $600 million from the federal government. Despite these funds, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been investigating allegations of environmental discrimination against the state.
- EPA offered to enter into settlement talks to resolve the allegations in December 2022 but the state refused.
- The NAACP, which filed the complaint against Mississippi, claims the state disinvestment in the city’s water system leading to massive water system failures for the EJ community in Jackson.
- The federal government set to release preliminary findings in April 2023.
By: WLBT (NBC) | January 20, 2023
Officials with one state agency under federal investigation for discriminating against the city of Jackson have refused to enter into discussions to resolve it, maintaining the claims that sparked the investigation are false.
Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency Office of External Civil Rights Compliance opened a civil rights inquiry into whether the state violated the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to fund water and wastewater projects in the capital city.
“We believe the allegations in the complaint are false,” MDEQ Communications Director Jan Schaefer said in a statement.
Abre’ Conner, director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice with NAACP, said MDEQ’s decision not to sit down with EPA “tracks and is on par with how the state has responded to the city of Jackson in a number of different ways… Refusing to listen to the residents prior to this complaint being filed, refusing to listen to the leadership of the city of Jackson when they’ve asked for additional funding.”
Read more from WLBT (NBC).
