EPA closes discrimination probes into Jackson water crisis, finding ‘insufficient evidence’

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) closed its into the water crisis in Jackson, Miss., saying there was “insufficient evidence” to say that the state discriminated against residents on the basis of race. This week, the in letters that received federal drinking water funding that it found “insufficient evidence between the amount of funding disbursed .

.. to Jackson and the racial composition of the community over time.



” It also said that it found “insufficient evidence of a relationship between the racial composition of communities receiving funds versus those not receiving funds.” The probes were opened in 2022 after flooding , leaving many residents without drinking water. The incident came on top of other including leaks and breaks, broken monitoring equipment and lead contamination, which can damage children’s brains and nervous systems.

Following the flood incident, the NAACP lodged , alleging that the state discriminated against the people of Jackson, a majority-Black city, by not giving it a fair share of federal water infrastructure funding. The complaint said that the state was “aware of Jackson’s severe needs, but distributed to the city only a small fraction and disproportionately low amount” of the federal funds it received. “Despite Jackson’s status as the most populous city in Mississippi, State agencies awarded federal funds from the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) just three times in the twenty-five years that thi.