Water community comes together to manage Jackson, Mississippi, emergency

This article includes excerpts and information from an emergency preparedness column by Justin Barkey, maintenance supervisor at Greater Cincinnati Water Works, published in the July/August 2023 issue of Opflow.

When torrential rains hit Jackson, Mississippi, in August 2022, localized flooding prompted a combination of challenges that led to a drinking water crisis for tens of thousands of people in the region. In the midst of boil water advisories and national headlines, the water community came forward to assist with recovery efforts to restore service to about 150,000 consumers.

Among the many water professionals deployed to Jackson through the Ohio Emergency Management Agency and the interstate Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) were five staff members from Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW), including Justin Barkey, a maintenance supervisor with 20 years of water sector experience.  

“Our crew spent the next few weeks assisting some of the hardest-working water utility professionals our industry has to offer to restore water to Jackson’s residents,” Barkey said. “The experience provided us with real-world adversity, something that would be challenging to recreate in a simulated training or emergency response exercise.”

Some operational and maintenance processes are unique to each utility, so entering an unfamiliar water treatment plant environment presented challenges. For example, the city of Jackson treated surface water using conventional and membrane filtration.

“The participation of EMAC personnel with expertise in these processes was instrumental,” Barkey said.

Conversely, there are other process and mechanical maintenance skills fundamental to water treatment that are applied across utilities, such as those involving pumps, monitoring equipment and disinfection systems. GCWW staff was familiar with these types of equipment and processes at the Jackson water treatment plants.

“We found ourselves relating Jackson’s equipment and processes to those with which we were familiar,” Barkey said. “This allowed us to quickly develop an understanding of the various treatment processes and prioritize equipment restoration.”

The GCWW team set about aligning their knowledge and skills to assist with the immediate needs in Jackson while working with staff from various emergency response agencies and utilities. 

“Communication became key, and effectively relaying the information gathered, including condition assessments and repair plans to all parties was instrumental to each group’s success,” Barkey noted.

The days the GWCC team spent in Jackson reinforced the value of hours spent training for emergency preparedness, and how those skills can be applied across utilities during a mutual aid project.

“Coming from a well-funded, large utility in Cincinnati, I hadn’t fully realized the types of challenges smaller utilities face,” Barkey said. “I gained an increased appreciation for where I work, the resources available, and the variety of skilled tradespeople on staff. Our society is better off because of dedicated and compassionate people choosing careers in water and coming together to help during emergencies like the one in Jackson.”

Another mutual aid agency is the Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network (WARN), which provides a standardized system for water and wastewater utilities to deploy intrastate and through EMAC.