It’s a fear his father agrees with. At home in Jackson, Mississippi, Charles Wilson III — who lost his first son when he was just a baby — gets bottled water for his family to drink and boils water for everything else. “We’ve been crying for our water for a long time,” said the elder Wilson. Nearly a year before the curfew, Wilson and hundreds of other residents sued the city saying lead in the water was silently poisoning their children. The city’s water system in early 2020 failed an Environmental Protection Agency inspection, which found the drinking water had the potential to harbor harmful bacteria or parasites. Residents were without water for a month when pipes froze and burst during a 2021 winter storm. And the boil water advisory remains in effect. Wilson blames the infection for some of his son’s academic and developmental issues. “We’ve been told there’s small amounts of lead. We’ve been told it’s not a problem. It’s no big deal,” he said, although the federal standard is that there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. So even when the city says the water coming from its tap is safe to drink, it won’t take that chance. And he’s right to mistrust, say residents of Flint, Michigan, where a cost-saving supply switch in 2014 led to a water crisis that’s still ongoing. “I will never drink water again,” said Audra Bell. “The problem especially with children is that they are developing and growing. You don’t know the effects that the lead poison they experienced today will have on them in five years, 10 years, 20 years,” he said. “It’s all like having a potential ticking time bomb. Bell and her husband Floyd have been raising their grandson, Matthew, since his mother died when he was young. High levels of lead were found in him when he was just a baby. Lead consumption can affect the heart, kidneys and nerves. For children, health effects can include reduced cognitive function, behavioral disorders, and even hearing problems. Now seven years old, the Bells see Matthew struggle in 2nd grade, mirroring some of the same themes of little Charles in Jackson. Matthew, like Charles, is kind, curious and energetic. But keeping his focus can seem impossible at times, as well as being able to understand things that come easily to other students. The Bells know you can’t just flush lead out of your system with clean water, but they do their best to make it no worse. Even with new pipes and a different water source, the Bells don’t trust what comes out of their tap and buy about 10 cases of bottled water a week for cooking, brushing teeth, making coffee and for them and their dogs to drink. Neighbor LeeAnne Walters says she does the same. “I don’t drink that water. We don’t brush our teeth with that water. We don’t cook with that water. We never will because they didn’t do anything to show us that everything is okay,” he said. She and her kids still have the rashes that first appeared when the water broke, she says, and more besides. “My children had gone through extensive therapy for hand-eye coordination problems and speech disorders because of what happened,” she said. “They have panic attacks if they go to the dentist and the dentist tries to give them tap water — everything has to be bottled.” Walters rallied her community and testified to Congress about Flint’s problems. And he doesn’t believe there has been justice or restitution yet. Audra Bell echoes this with her advice to Jackson residents: “Just do the best you can and keep your family safe.” Legal action was taken in Flint, and attorney Corey Stern helped win a $626 million settlement for Flint’s children from the city, state and private water companies for their role in the crisis. And that penalty could push politicians to do the right thing, he suggests. “There are 626 million reasons why Jackson should do the right thing,” he said. But he accepts that the lack of money to start was also key. “Like Flint, Jackson is a poor community, mostly minority, not a ton of local government infrastructure investment through nobody’s fault,” he said. “And just like Flint, if you can’t afford the front end to do things right, you’ll never be able to afford the back end.” He called on federal, state and local politicians not to focus on what was easy or popular, but to ask themselves what they would do if their own children lived in the hardest, poorest parts of their community and left. Michael Regan, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, acknowledges the long history of sudden crises. “There’s been a disparity in the lack of investment in water infrastructure in this country for decades, but especially in Black and Brown communities. It’s imperative that we fix this longstanding problem,” he told CNN while in Jackson this week. He also wants to look ahead. “We didn’t get into this situation overnight,” he said of Jackson, adding there was no quick fix. “But we are working around the clock as quickly as possible to provide some stability to the system.” He pointed to the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and hoped the investments would rebuild confidence as well as pipes and pumps. Maura Allaire, an assistant professor of water economics and policy at the University of California, Irvine, said the new federal money was much needed but could not fill the full investment gap. And more people are at risk than residents of Flint and Jackson, he said. “The good news is that the vast majority of water systems provide safe drinking water, so the majority of the U.S. population receives a reliable water supply,” he said. “The problem is that about 7 percent or 8 percent of water utilities each year fall short of national EPA standards, and that equates to 21 million Americans who are not getting water that meets the standards.” And if water — essential to life — becomes contaminated, the effects spread far and fast. “It makes us sick, my kids,” said Mirambi Ford, a mother of five, in Jackson. “My one-year-old, I don’t even know what to do because he can’t even talk. So all he does is cry and there’s nothing I can do.” Ford grew up in Jackson, has family all over the place and wants to stay. But this may not be possible. “I will never abandon my children,” she said. “I’m trying not to give up on Jackson, but it seems to the point where it’s becoming unbearable.” Charles Wilson has no intention of abandoning his child. When he was a baby, Wilson says he walked the halls thinking of ways to protect his namesake. He is determined to help this son live his best life even if the government officials have let them down. “What if it was your child, your family that didn’t have safe water?” he wants to ask the chiefs. But it is his child and he will take care of it. With schools back open in Jackson, he sends his boy to learn. With bottled water in his book bag. CNN’s Theresa Waldrop contributed to this story.
