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Jackson, Miss. (AP) – A day after Mississippi health officials told residents of the state capital that their tap water may contain dangerous bacteria, the state health department said Friday that the city’s water is safe to drink.
Mississippi health officials lifted their health advisory after a new round of testing results found no E. coli in Jackson’s supplies. The announcement reverses the Mississippi Department of Health’s Thursday directive to Jackson residents to boil water before drinking it.
The move came hours after Jackson’s interim water manager Ted Henifin said re-samples from the city’s water system tested negative for E. coli. The new round of results, which were collected from the same locations where state officials reported positive results a day earlier, indicate that the previous test was likely a false positive due to lab contamination, Henifin said.
In a statement on Friday, the health department stood by preliminary test results and rejected the idea that its laboratory had been contaminated. The department said officials have detected E. coli in Jackson’s water system 29 times since 2003 and have detected E. coli in the nearby suburb of Flowood three times during the same period.
State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said, “Clean drinking water and its availability to the public is fundamental to protecting the health, well-being and safety of everyone, without exception.”
Earlier Friday, Henifin did not expect the boil water notice to be lifted after a day because state rules require officials to receive clean results for two consecutive days before lifting it.
State health department spokesman Greg Flynn said federal law allows samples from a single site to be collected within 24 hours, and if negative, the boil water notice can be lifted. The state has more stringent requirements that require an additional day of clean tests. The state rule was waived in this case after pressing for additional requirements.
Jackson’s water meets federal standards and the health department is satisfied with the results, Flynn said. “That’s a nice, political way of saying it,” he said.
At press conferences Thursday and Friday, Henifin said state officials refused to validate lab results before issuing a boil water notice.
“I still don’t understand why the Mississippi Department of Health issued a city-wide boil-water notice before confirming the preliminary results,” Henifin said. The loss of confidence in our water system and the economic impact on businesses across our region is huge. ,
State health officials placed boil water notices in Jackson and Flowood on Thursday after positive results were reported in both cities. The department initially said the presence of the bacteria indicated the water may be contaminated by human or animal waste.
Flynn said a boil water notice is still in effect in Flowood, pending further testing.
Henifin said it is unlikely that the Jackson and Flowood samples would be contaminated at the same time because the cities’ water systems are not connected and do not come from the same source.
In November 2022, a federal judge appointed Henifin to oversee improvements to Jackson’s long-troubled water system, after infrastructure breakdowns during the summer of that year left many of the city’s residents without safe running water. Many days and weeks had to be spent.
The E. coli outbreak comes just days before the expected arrival of cold weather that could further disrupt local water infrastructure. Cold waves in 2021 and 2022 caused pipes to freeze and water pressure to drop throughout Jackson.
The positive tests and boil water notices sent laboratory technicians to test samples from 120 locations ahead of the winter season.
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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. follow him @mickergoldberg,
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