‘This shift, we’re not sure where it’s coming from’: Veolia officials speak about JXN Water’s plans to replace firm

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) — Officials with Veolia North America are speaking out, weeks after WLBT learned the company that has managed Jackson’s wastewater treatment facilities for years could soon be on its way out.

Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin recently confirmed he was planning to end the city’s long-term contract with Veolia and replace it with Jacobs Solutions.

Henifin argues the Boston-based firm had not really been paying attention to the city, and that Jacobs can offer a lower price.

However, Joseph Tackett, chief executive officer for Veolia Municipal Water Contract Operations, says that’s not the case, and Henifin initially wanted his group to take over water operations, not Jacobs.

“He did want us in the water plant. He did offer us to take over the collection system,” he said. “We ultimately declined because we wanted to focus on the wastewater treatment facility.”

“This shift, we’re just not sure where it’s coming from,” he said, referring to Henifin’s change in posture.

Veolia took over management of the city’s Savanna Street, Trahon, and Presidential Hills treatment facilities in 2016.

According to the contract, the firm would be paid $11 million a year for 10 years to manage the plants, conduct ordinary maintenance, and help ensure they complied with the city’s sewer consent decree.

Henifin, who took over Jackson’s sewer system in 2023 after the city for years had failed to follow decree mandates. He points to the large number of prohibited bypasses that occurred under Veolia’s watch.

Those bypasses occur when partially treated wastewater is only partially treated at the Savanna plant before it is discharged into the Pearl River.

In 2020 alone, six billion gallons of partially treated wastewater were released into the river, largely due to that year’s Pearl River Flood.

Tackett said the bypasses were not a result of Veolia, but rather the conditions of the sewer collection system, which does not fall under his company’s purview.

“We take on average 65 million gallons a day through the plant. When it rains, we take in an excess of 85 to 90 million,” he said. “That’s 25 million more than it’s designed to take… That flow and water has to go somewhere.”

That extra flow is the result of the city’s porous sewer collection system. During storms and floods, water infiltrates the multiple breaks and cracks in the system, increasing the amount of flow going into the facility.

The plant has several lagoons to store that excess, but when those are full, the water is partially treated and released into the Pearl.

“We try to do our best at the wastewater plant, [but] the plant’s only designed for 65 million gallons,” he said. “We’ve never been responsible for the collection system.”

Tackett backs up his point, saying bypasses have fallen off since Henifin took over, citing the work he’s done to clean and repair the sewer system.

According to JXN Water’s latest quarterly report, no prohibited bypasses were reported between June 2024 and March 2025, as a result.

“I got an update today that there were zero for the last month,” Tackett said. “So, I think it’s been great.”

Veolia’s leader also countered Henifin’s claims that the firm hasn’t paid attention to the city of Jackson, telling WLBT the company loaned the city $5 million to make repairs at the plant that the city wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do.

“Veolia chose to use its own money to help rebuild the facility,” he said. “So, when you say that we’ve not been part of the community, we’ve always been part of the community.”

Tackett said Jackson was put on a payment plan to recoup those costs. As of Thursday, the city still owed the firm about $1 million.

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