As water pressure is restored in Jackson, the mayor warns pipes may burst throughout the city

As water pressure output from the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant is restored to levels the plant has not seen "in years," Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba warned pipes may burst across the city, as the city grapples with an ongoing water crisis.

"As they're able to increase the pressure at the plant to levels that it has not seen in many years, the challenge then becomes whether we have pipes that rupture across the city. We know that we have brittle pipes, we have aged pipes, just as as our water treatment facilities are aged. And so that's a challenge that we're going to have to be on the ground and dealing with," Lumumba said while speaking with reporters Friday.

Once water pressure is restored to residents, the Health Department will allow testing of water samples to begin. There are about 120 sites that they begin to take samples from. There has to be two consecutive days of clear samples before the boil water notice in effect can be lifted, Lumumba said.

Lumumba said there have been two consecutive days of gains in repairs to the plant, but could not give a timeline of when the water pumps at Jackson's water treatment plant will be fixed.

Significant service interruptions at the plant began after the city experienced 72 hours of bad weather, Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference Wednesday.

"There is a tremendous amount of work to be done at the O.B. Curtis plant," he said. "There will be future interruptions; they are not avoidable at this point."

During a news conference Friday evening, Jim Craig, the senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi State Department of Health, said progress on getting the plant up and running is still ongoing as more assessments are made.

In the meantime, the city distributed more than 2.8 million bottles of water to residents as of Friday evening, according to the governor's office.

Five days into the city's water crisis, U.S. President Joe Biden said he has no plans to visit Jackson right now, but said he is in touch with the mayor and other elected officials. Biden said "the governor has to act" and that there is "money to deal with this problem."

"We've offered every single thing available to Mississippi," Biden said while speaking to reporters on the South Lawn Friday.

Six hundred Mississippi National Guard members were deployed to Jackson starting Thursday to help with water distribution, officials said Wednesday. They are now running seven water distribution sites across the city.

Jackson has been using backup pumps since the main pumps were damaged, Reeves said Monday.

Officials said there would be no reliable running water in Jackson, which will impact up to 180,000 people until the pump is fixed.

State officials also warned residents not to drink the water from the pipes if they could avoid it, adding that if they must use the water, then boil it first.

"Don't open your mouth in the shower and don't give your pets the water," Jim Craig, the senior deputy and director of the state's office of health protection, said at Wednesday's news conference.

The city has been under a boil water notice since July 29.

Reeves declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, allowing state officials to better help in Jackson.

The White House approved Reeves' request for federal assistance Tuesday night.

"An emergency exists in the State of Mississippi and ordered Federal assistance to supplement the state's response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a water crisis," the White House said in a press release.