top | item 32650596

Jackson, Mississippi, to go without reliable drinking water indefinitely

54 points| makerofspoons | 3 years ago |reuters.com

71 comments

order
[+] toss1|3 years ago|reply
They've got no water in one of the largest cities, but those state officials are definitely on top of making sure that those uppity females have no access to reproductive healthcare, and that city is mostly not white people -- they've got their priorities to take care of!

</sarc>

Meanwhile, it looks like some federal intervention, e.g., Army Corp of Engineers is likely needed.

More seriously, this is what we get when politicians chase "culture issues" and don't actually govern, and people care more about revenge on groups they don't like than electing people who will actually govern.

Seriously broken

[+] ars|3 years ago|reply
Are you seriously saying that people in Jackson are not capable to taking care of themselves? And they need the state to do it for them?
[+] ParksNet|3 years ago|reply
Even regular tap water in many US cities is contaminated with PFAS and other pollutants.

When water does reach a house, only about 5-20% is used for cooking or drinking - the rest for watering plants, showers, toilet flushing, washing.

Is it better to just outfit each home with an under-sink reverse osmosis machine and pipe in raw reservoir water?

[+] kurupt213|3 years ago|reply
under sink would be too inconvenient

and all the RO membrane cartridges, or millipore filter cartridges are contaminated with PFAS, anyhow. it's literally everywhere. We have to run ours for 30 minutes before taking the ultra-pure water at the lab to drop the levels down to 'baseline'. Otherwise, the built up levels blow out the instruments.

[+] autoexec|3 years ago|reply
Does anyone have a map of US cities without safe drinking water? I can't keep track at this point. Why isn't the EPA on this? They should have a dashboard or something by now.
[+] gepardi|3 years ago|reply
Every house could have its own treatment system…
[+] syntaxing|3 years ago|reply
Shouldn’t the army corp step it at some point? Shouldn’t the military be able to fly in some pumps if really needed?
[+] Noumenon72|3 years ago|reply
"Should" implies it's their responsibility, making them the National Bureau in Charge of Municipal Water Supply. It would be nice if they could, but they can't do it for everyone.
[+] JohnFen|3 years ago|reply
The governor has to request it.
[+] sidewndr46|3 years ago|reply
From the article:

> The city and state were both distributing bottled drinking water and non-potable water for toilets

Is there a risk to using untreated water from the river & reservoir to flush your toilets? Why would the city need to distribute toilet water?

[+] mikestew|3 years ago|reply
It’s not a risk of contamination, it is that the treatment plant pumps can’t keep the water pressure up right now. Otherwise, river water is hopefully cleaner than what you’re trying to flush. Though in Jackson, MS, I wouldn’t take that as a given.
[+] LinuxBender|3 years ago|reply
Over time, yes. Not so much a risk to humans but a risk to plumbing. As an example I have water risers on my fields that are fed by a lake. The horses also drink from this. Their water trough gets full of algae and moss. All the fittings I use have to be large enough to not get plugged up by the growth. I've tried using filters in the past but they plug up almost instantly.
[+] pmyteh|3 years ago|reply
There's currently no/low water pressure, so supply of even non-drinkable water is difficult.
[+] mech987|3 years ago|reply
There should be no risk to using untreated water to flush the toilet.

Presumably they are shipping two types of water- potable and non-potable. The non-potable is less difficult to produce and ship.

You can flush a toilet by dumping a bucket of water into the bowl.

[+] captaincaveman|3 years ago|reply
Sounds like a nightmare cluster-duck, a whole city without water!
[+] numtel|3 years ago|reply
Imagine being in Monterrey, Mexico, a city more than ten times bigger without water.
[+] ArekDymalski|3 years ago|reply
Woah, Paolo Bacigalupi wrote "Water knife" only 7 years ago and I thought it depicts a scenario our grandkids will face. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Knife
[+] lotsofpulp|3 years ago|reply
Mississippi is not in drought. At least not drought of water.
[+] aaroninsf|3 years ago|reply
Its future is already becoming reality in the watershed of the over-subscribed Colorado.

2022 is a remarkable year, one of a striking tipping point: in which a large number of climate change cautionary tales moved from speculative to the front page.

As with the rapid evolution of AI txt2image tools, the notable stories, milestones, data points, are coming too quickly to keep up with.

Jackson has its own specific problems, and they aren't drought-specific as others noted ITT;

but the story is nonetheless a useful addition to the growing list of examples of where our institutional and structural response to ecological and climatological challengs is grotesquely inadequate.

As in Kim Stanley Robinson's fantasies, hope seems to lie in something which today seems as unlikely as our current headlines did a few years ago: an intervention of some kind which puts actual decision-making power in the hands of policy makers and scientists who understand what is happening and the scale of response required to ride it out as a civilization.

[+] matt_s|3 years ago|reply
Its kinda bonkers that golf courses and grass lawns are things allowed to thrive in areas of the US where they are not naturally occurring.

I also think its kinda crazy that humans have brought agriculture to a desert via irrigation and think that's sustainable. This is the type of thing where Federal laws/rulings are needed because there are like 4 states over consuming the water.

[+] stodor89|3 years ago|reply
2022, USA, 100k+ town with no drinking water. Indefinitely. We've truly peaked as a civilization.
[+] jgrowl|3 years ago|reply
Every civilization starts building a tower.

Those at the bottom bring supplies to the top and maintain it.

Those at the top are tasked with seeing what is coming and making Wise decisions.

Those at the top forget about the needs of the bottom and instead focus only on vertical expansion.

Eventually the summit grows taller than what the base can sustain.

Then the workers at the bottom abandon the base.

The tower left unmaintained, collapses.

[+] kurupt213|3 years ago|reply
indefinitely is a bit extreme. it should say "until pumps are fixed and service is restored"