The United States Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the city of Jackson, Mississippi over their failure to restore clean and safe drinking water to residents.

Jackson's 150,000 residents have been under a boil water notice since July, when the Health Department discovered cloudy, brown water caused by old and damaged pipes. In August, the city's water crisis was made worse when heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding damaged the Jackson's largest water treatment plant.

U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement Tuesday that he is “taking action in federal court to address longstanding failures in the city of Jackson’s public drinking water system."

“The Department of Justice takes seriously its responsibility to keep the American people safe and to protect their civil rights," it reads. "Together with our partners at EPA, we will continue to seek justice for the residents of Jackson, Mississippi. And we will continue to prioritize cases in the communities most burdened by environmental harm.”

Of Jackson's residents, 80 percent are Black. Experts have referred to the city's failing infrastructure as a case of environmental racism, with professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University Robert Bullard referring to it as "infrastructure apartheid" that determines "which communities get left behind."

"When cities begin to transition, the demographic shift from predominantly white to predominantly Black or brown, you start to see problems occurring in terms of getting state funding to support infrastructure," he previously told PBS News Hour. "And you can see that direct line with not only infrastructure when it comes to water."

The lawsuit against Jackson also comes from the EPA's civil rights division, launched under the Biden Administration to take action in cases of environmental racism. The branch also recently issued citations to the Denka Performance Elastomer synthetic rubber plant in Louisiana for exposing Black residents to dangerous carcinogens.

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, who is the first Black person to hold the position, said in response to Jackson's water crisis that the agency will no longer allow the city to endanger the health of its residents.

“Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege to spend time with people on the ground in Jackson–many who’ve struggled with access to safe and reliable water for years," he said. "I pledged that EPA would do everything in its power to ensure the people of Jackson have clean and dependable water, now and into the future. While there is much more work ahead, the Justice Department’s action marks a critical moment on the path to securing clean, safe water for Jackson residents."