Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)

Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)

Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)

Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)Benton Harbor Community Water Council (official website)
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  • Retrospective
    • One Year
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    • More Insight
  • BHCWC
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    • Write MDHHS
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Petition

Emergency Petition

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September 2021: Benton Harbor Petition Filed

High lead contamination levels in Benton Harbor’s drinking water dating back to 2018 led a group of 20 Michigan and national organizations to file an emergency petition on September 9, 2021 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to secure a free source of safe drinking water for Benton Harbor’s nearly 10,000 residents.  Test results released in August 2021 found lead levels above state and federal action levels, with results as high as nearly 60 times the federal action level.  The petition cited the “imminent and substantial endangerment” to health from drinking water significantly contaminated with lead and urged EPA to immediately order the City and Michigan officials to provide Benton Harbor residents with safe drinking water, among other requests, including full removal of the estimated 6,000 lead service lines delivering water to homes.  Under pressure from the Benton Harbor Community Water Council and its partners, Governor Whitmer eventually ordered an all-hands on deck response to the drinking water emergency. Through this action we secured:

 

  • Commitment and funding to replace all lead service lines in Benton Harbor at no cost to residents by May 2023
  • Bottled water for all residents until all lead service lines are replaced
  • All residents have access to a free home inspection for all lead sources through the Michigan Lead Safe Home Program 
  • Ready to feed baby formula for residents participating in the Michigan WIC program

Despite The Wins

 

However, despite these wins, no one at EGLE or anywhere else in state government has been held accountable for their failure to address this massive public health disaster in our community.

The People’s Water Board Coalition hosted a Facebook Live event in October, 2021 describing the water quality issues in Benton Harbor. 

A recording can be found here.

  November 2021: EPA Unilateral Administrative Order

 

On November 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its Unilateral Administrative Order that identified numerous violations at the drinking water treatment plant including many that could result in bacterial contamination of the water. It turns out that the water challenges in Benton Harbor are not limited to lead in the water. 

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its Unilateral Administrative Order

Why Does This Matter?

There are several reasons:

  • The water treatment plant is not meeting basic Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, which affects all residents, even those without lead service lines who may have thought the water did not present a risk in their home.
  • Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Benton Harbor is required to notify the public of these violations, some of which date back to 2010.  Benton Harbor residents finally received notice about these violations in their 2021 Water Quality Report that was mailed to homes in June of 2022. 

  • Many of these public notifications were years late. These public notifications were the first time residents were contacted about the many violations at the water treatment plant, but they still leave out important information. The Benton Harbor Community Water Council has written to EGLE to request revised and improved public notification be distributed to all Benton Harbor residents. 
  • The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has started providing free filters designed to remove lead in March 2022. These filters are effective for removing lead, but they are not designed to remove bacteria. In fact, the carbon filters can allow bacteria, when present in the water, to grow. 

With Our Fellow Petitioners

 

With our fellow petitioners, we have repeatedly requested that EGLE and EPA demonstrate how they have determined that the Benton Harbor water system has been able to adequately treat its water to achieve the treatment requirements provided in the Surface Water Treatment Rules given the ongoing and extensive violations. We have asked for evidence that the violations  they identified in November 2021 have been resolved. They finally presented additional data on June 3, 2021, linked here.  The good news is that this presentation doesn’t show any obvious information that the water treatment plant is not complying with the disinfection requirements of the Surface Water Treatment Plant. We still have additional questions for EGLE about the data presented. The Benton Harbor Community Water Council will  keep working to get answers from EGLE and EPA.

The following documents for requests to EGLE and MDHHS can be found at the bottom of this page:


  • April 11, 2022 Letter requesting evidence that the Benton Harbor Water Treatment Plant is meeting Surface Water Treatment Rule Requirements
  • July 28, 2022 Letter requesting EGLE and MDHHS support a program for filter education, installation, and maintenance for all residents of Benton Harbor. 
  • July 29, 2022 Letter requesting EGLE and MDHHS provide clarification on Benton Harbor Water Treatment Plant compliance and revise and resend public notifications. 
  • July 29, 2022 Mark-up of Benton Harbor’s 2021 Water Quality Report identifying contradictions, lack of clarity, and lack of compliance with requirements. 


 

These news reports from Michigan Radio explore these issues:

  • https://www.michiganradio.org/podcast/stateside/2022-03-16/stateside-podcast-murky-messaging-on-benton-harbor-water
  • https://twitter.com/lzsmitty/status/1503734488706306060

 February 2022: EPA Inspection Raises Even More Questions About Compliance at the Water Treatment Plant

EGLE and EPA attended an inspection of the Benton Harbor Water Treatment Plant in February 2022. Both EPA and EGLE have been stating that the water treatment plant is meeting all requirements but have provided no evidence. EPA issued an inspection report on March 29, 2022. This report finds that a primary chlorine treatment point is located in a different place than previously thought. As a result, “the existing continuous chlorine analyzers are not an accurate representation of the residual disinfectant levels throughout the treatment process.”  In other words, the treatment EGLE thought was happening at the water treatment plant was based on wrong assumptions. In addition to providing evidence that all treatment issues have been resolved, EGLE needs to explain how this new finding affects all their previous conclusions that the Benton Harbor Water Treatment Plant meets all Safe Drinking Water Act requirements. 

  • EGLE’s webpage of publicly available data is available here. 

Petitioners Requests for discussion

Download PDF

POINT OF USE filters

Download PDF

Clarifications Requested

Download PDF

Water quality report (MARK UP)

Download PDF

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Official Benton Harbor Community Water Council

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