Country Club of Jackson wants to get off city’s water system

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The Country Club of Jackson wants to cut ties with Jackson’s water system because of the capital city’s water crisis.

The Senate recently approved a bill that would give the Country Club of Jackson permission to transition back to the well system installed when the neighborhood was built in the 1960s. The 192 homes came off the well system in the 1970s, but the country club itself still uses the supply.

“The homeowner association came to me and asked us to draw this legislation,” said Senator Walter Michel. “So it was drafted quite tightly for the Country Club of Jackson. But it’s possible that some of the subdivisions maybe in South Jackson or West Jackson, that had their own well systems would qualify as well.”

Senator Michel of District 25 wrote the bill that would give neighborhoods with existing well water infrastructure the ability to switch back to their well systems without being regulated by the Public Utilities Act.

During the debate on the Senate floor on February 8, Michel was challenged by two members of the Jackson delegation, Senators John Horhn and David Blount. Horhn questioned whether the system would be subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Here’s how Michel responded to Horhn’s question.

“So there’s thousands and thousands of wells throughout the state of Mississippi, and this will be the same situation where water is very safe, be under the Department of Health to make sure that they are drinking safe water,” said Senator Michel.

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