Mississippi agency denies NAACP’s water discrimination claim

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi environmental regulator has denied claims that the state agency he leads discriminated against the capital city of Jackson in allocating federal funds. The regulator says he believes an ongoing civil rights investigation into the matter is politically motivated. Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Executive Director wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the NAACP has “failed to allege a single fact to support” its argument. The EPA announced in October that it was investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state’s majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements to the city’s water system.