City water outages happen too often

I never did write about Jackson, Mississippi's water crisis a few years, when the water treatment plant failed leaving the city's 150,000 residents high and dry (Jackson Water Crisis, NRDC).  The city is predominately black and the predominately white State Legislature stepped in in what could be considered racist ways ("The Jackson Water Crisis, the Complexity of Environmental Racism," NonProfit Quarterly). From the first citation:

The drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi, has suffered from serious safety and reliability problems for decades. Residents have endured discolored water, low pressure, oily water, and water with floating particles. Jackson’s water previously had elevated lead levels, and its treatment plants have struggled to properly and consistently filter and disinfect the water. Despite recent attention from federal officials, including a lawsuit filed against the city of Jackson in late 2022, the water system’s problems have not been fully resolved. 

Aging infrastructure and climate change are partial causes, partly an issue of environmental justice ("Jackson water crisis: A legacy of environmental racism?," BBC).

There's no question that many water systems across the country have state of good repair needs far beyond their ability to raise funds to do the improvements.

Richmond, Virginia recently had problems with a flooded water treatment center, leading to supply problems and boil advisories ("Could city workers have stopped flooding at Richmond water treatment plant sooner? State health officials say yes," WRIC TV).

In shades of Flint Michigan, which ended up leaching lead into water after switching water suppliers without updating their chemical treatment formula, Richmond's water department hadn't replaced the part that led to the failure, for many years ("For 8 years, city put off replacement of part that caused water outage," "Read the documents: Problems with Richmond’s waterworks well-known before system collapse," Richmond Times-Dispatch).  From the first article:

Mayor Danny Avula on Thursday afternoon said that, during Monday’s power outage, the switchgear failed to automatically transfer the plant to its primary backup power source. Instead, Avula said, the plant diverted to a secondary, battery-powered source that lasted for only 45 minutes.

Officials also wanted to “replace … the existing controls in the … switchgear,” the records show.

That battery source died before power was restored to the facility, leaving valves stuck open and causing catastrophic flooding. Avula on Thursday said that the switchgear had functioned properly through many previous blackouts, but at the time he could not say, precisely, when the component had last been replaced. The solicitation issued by the city in October 2016, obtained by The Times-Dispatch, shows that officials sought “modification of the existing switchgear” to ensure it could "automatically operate” the facility.

And Prince George's and Montgomery Counties recently had water boil advisories because of an excess of broken water mains and other problems ("Water-use request lifted for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties," Washington Post).

In 2021, the Texas electricity blackouts led to water system failures too, because most didn't have backup power generators ("Texans now face a water crisis after enduring days without power," Texas Tribune).

Conclusions.  (1) a failure to plan; (2) lack of money to replace seriously aged infrastructure; (3) lack of a sense of urgency. (4) climate change.