Climate Point: A water crisis in Mississippi’s capital has left residents without water
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I’m Erin Rode in Palm Springs, California.
Jackson’s over 160,000 residents have already been under a boil-water notice since late July, but water issues worsened Monday, with residents experiencing low or nonexistent water pressure. The recent flooding of a river caused problems with treating water at the city’s water treatment plant.
The water crisis has caused local schools to turn to virtual learning and local restaurants and businesses to close temporarily. President Joe Biden declared the situation an emergency on Wednesday, authorizing federal resources to assist local and state officials, who have also declared their own states of emergencies.
This week is just the latest crisis caused by issues with the city’s water infrastructure. Jackson experienced a citywide water outage last November when pipes froze, and an investigation by the Clarion Ledger last year found that from June 2015 through May 2021, Jackson sampled its water for lead 1,352 times, and 66% of those samples contained lead.
While this week’s crisis was triggered floods, it was “compounded by racism,” Joseph Lee writes for Grist. Jackson is now 80% Black, after white people left the city by the thousands when schools were integrated in the 1960s, a demographic trend that has continued through the 2000s. This left Jackson without the tax revenue and institutional support to maintain its water infrastructure, Lee reports.
“This isn’t a new thing. It has been going on for me for like 20 years. Everybody is acting like this is a new situation. It’s not. It’s a ridiculous situation that should have been addressed 20 years ago,” local business owner Derek Emerson told the Clarion Ledger.
On the West Coast, California made headlines last week by announcing it will phase out sales of new gas cars by 2035. The ban allows 20% of sales to be plug-in hybrids that run on batteries and gas.
Other states are expected to follow California’s lead, and the move is expected to reshape the U.S. auto market and accelerate the production of zero-emission vehicles. But the move will also require at least 15 times more vehicle chargers in the state, an improved energy grid, and vehicles that everyone can afford, as the Associated Press reports.
Keep reading for more climate and environment news from this week.
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