Mississippi governor responds to probe of Jackson water woes

JACKSON, Miss (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves Monday released his response to a congressional investigation of the crisis that left 150,000 people in the state's capital city without running water for several days in late summer.

Reeves said Jackson has received a disproportionate amount of funding for its water system based on the city's size. He also said local officials only have themselves to blame for the water woes.

“(M)y administration is deeply committed to ensuring that all federal funds received by Mississippi for drinking water systems upgrades have been in the past and will continue to be in the future made available and distributed among Mississippi’s more than 1,100 water systems on an objective and race-neutral basis,” Republican Reeves said in a letter dated Oct. 31 and addressed to Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Carolyn Maloney of New York.

The two Democrats sent Reeves an Oct. 17 letter requesting details of where Mississippi sent money from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including “the racial demographics and population sizes of each” community that received aid. They also requested information on whether Jackson, which is 80% Black, has faced “burdensome hurdles” to receive additional federal funds.

Comparing census data against the recipients of state water loans, Reeves wrote “there is no factual basis whatsoever to suggest that there has been an ‘underinvestment’ in the city or that it has received disproportionately less than any other area of the state.” In 2021, Jackson accounted for 68% of all loans dispersed, Reeves wrote.

Mississippi received about $1.8 billion in ARPA money, and the Legislature put $750 million of that toward competitive grants for Mississippi’s water systems. Officials...