The City's Director of Communications Shelia Byrd spends not a small amount of time fielding questions about Jackson's water challenges. Photo by Imani Khayyam.
Over the last two days, the City of Jackson has made a concerted effort to educate the public about the water and the lead warnings both state and local agencies sent out and posted in recent weeks of mixed messages.
This morning a group of "stakeholders" from the community met with the mayor's Director of Communications Shelia Byrd and Director of Public Works Kishia Powell on the first floor of the Hood building across the street from City Hall.
"What we can say is that the water has not been deemed unsafe, and that we have not violated the Safe Water Act," Powell said. "The results have shown that the situation is improving and will keep improving."
Meantime, Powell spelled out precautionary measures people can and, in some cases, should take.
Jackson Schools to Test Water for Lead, Elementary First
Jackson Schools to Test Water for Lead, Elementary First
"The first thing that we are encouraging people to do is flush the tap," Powell said. "Because the issue is that when the water is sitting in the plumbing for an hour, to allow the cold water to flush for one or two minutes, because that brings in fresh water from the distribution system. And if you are still concerned, get a filter, or obviously you have the option to drink bottled water."
"The advisory that has been issued, that has been sent to all the consumers, it has been asked that for pregnant women and small children you take special precaution," Powell added.
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Byrd, who is showing visible frustration with media coverage indicating that all water is unsafe in Jackson, wants people to know how to be sure. "One of the things that we wanted to make clear is that we have put precautions out there, and we want people to follow them," she said.
Jackson Public Schools Board President Beneta Burt asked the women whether the city's day-care centers would be testing the water that the children use. "I am concerned, of course, about the water for our children since we have them with us all day," Burt said. "Is the city using the water at their day care centers?
Powell said that the daycare centers are currently testing their water, the same way schools are. "They have the same advisories so they are going through the same systems that the public schools," she said.
"As far as having your children tested, you can call the state Department of Health," she added.
Jeff Good, managing partner for the Mangia Bene restaurant group, who announced last week that all his restaurants were installing filters, asked Powell if the water samples tested were concentrated in one area, instead of spread about the city.
"It was (concentrated) for the (original) 58 tests, and then we expanded that to 100 sites," Powell said. All but two were in the first were in the south Jackson area, two were in northeast Jackson. When we expanded, we expanded in the sample set."
Powell said the new set included different areas, including Byram.
"We know that going forward we want to make sure that we have a better distribution of sample sites across the city, no matter how many sites we are testing," Powell said. "Now, moving forward we will be testing 100 every six months as opposed to 50 sites every three years."
"The City was on the 50 tests every-three-years-plan because we had a good compliance record," Powell added.
Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at [email protected] See more local news at jfp.ms/localnews.
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