Water crisis in Mississippi capital developed during failures in oversight, watchdog says

A watchdog group says “layers of inadequate oversight and enforcement” by state and federal agencies contributed to a water crisis in Mississippi’s capital city. Tens of thousands of people in Jackson went without safe drinking water for weeks in 2021 and 2022. The EPA Office of Inspector General issued its report Monday. It says the Mississippi State Department of Health did not consistently document deficiencies or notify Jackson officials of big problems after sanitary surveys and annual inspections of the water system from 2015 through 2021. The report says the EPA did not know the extent of the problems until the federal agency inspected the system in 2020.