The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified several deficiencies in Benton Harbor's water system in a Tuesday administrative order that criticized the city for a lack of records, insufficient public notice on elevated lead levels, and chlorine analyzing tools that had been "offline" for about two weeks.
The federal agency's 23-page order directed the city of Benton Harbor to improve its corrosion control formula and more strictly monitor residual disinfectants in its water.
The southwest Michigan city has had three straight years of lead levels in the drinking water that have exceeded the state and federal action standards of 15 parts per billion. The Detroit News reported two weeks ago that state environmental and city officials had been slow to deal with the crisis by not warning residents that the drinking water was unsafe and that its corrosion control measures did not work.
The federal environmental agency also directed the city to better inform its 9,615 residents of high lead levels in water, make filter repairs at its treatment plant and engage a third party to analyze "alternatives for the long-term operation and maintenance of the system."
The order follows a joint federal and state inspection that took place Sept. 21 and 22 and identified "violations and deficiencies" in the water system. The order came nearly two months after a Sept. 9 emergency petition was filed by community water advocates with the federal EPA, asking the agency to intervene because of three years of high lead levels.
Like other cities, Benton Harbor needs water infrastructure upgrades and investments to protect residents from lead exposure, said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“The people of Benton Harbor have suffered for too long," Regan said in a Tuesday statement. "EPA is fully engaged and working to support the community, and today, we are taking a critical next step to ensure that drinking water is safe and reliable."
“Exposure to lead in children can cause irreversible and life-long health effects, including decreasing IQ, focus and academic achievement," he added. "The water infrastructure in Benton Harbor, like many cities across the country, needs upgrades and investments to build resiliency and protect people from lead.”
The city of Benton Harbor has addressed or begun to address many of the items cited by the EPA in its Tuesday order, including the hiring of a third party to assess the city's corrosion control system, according to a separate state order issued Tuesday.
Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad called the EPA order “bittersweet medicine” that is necessary to improve his city’s water system.
“It’s bitter going in, but it’s sweet going down because, at the end of it, it’s going to help us and make us be better,” said Muhammad, who recently became the subject of a recall effort over the water crisis that was dismissed. “We know there’s been challenges with the water filtration plant. So as the mayor, I would never run from that.”
But the mayor said after speaking with EPA officials on Tuesday regarding its findings, “it was and is and always will be (about) funding at the end of the day because the doctor can diagnose you, but when he gets you the prescription, you’ve got to pay for it. And if you don’t have the money … then you remain sick.”
Muhammad said that he’s told the EPA and others in Congress that “we need funding.”
Nick Leonard, the executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and one of the petitioners, lauded the EPA’s action.
“It’s clear from the order that the issues with Benton Harbor’s water system extend beyond the lead contamination,” Leonard said. “We’re happy that the EPA is stepping in to require them to make changes to the water system that will improve its safety for residents.”
The reality is that “we shouldn’t have to have filed a petition to spur this action," he said. "And I think it begs the question, how many other instances of underinvestment in public water systems in environmental justice communities are creating similar issues where you have residents basically living with a water system that’s incapable of providing them with safe water?”
Benton Harbor problems
In its Tuesday order, the EPA noted a 90th percentile of water samples collected in Benton Harbor constituted lead action level exceedances between January 2016 and December 2018, January 2019 and June 2019, July 2019 and December 2019, January 2020 and June 2020, July 2020 and December 2020, and January 2021 and June 2021.
The order noted the city failed to comply with public education requirements because it did not contact the local health department about the continued high lead levels between August 2020 and August 2021. The city also failed to contact, as required by law, pediatricians, public and private hospitals, family planning clinics, community centers, obstetricians-gynecologists or adult foster care facilities to inform them of high lead water levels between August 2020 and August 2021, according to the report.
The city also failed to notify residents in their water bills of high lead levels between August 2020 and August 2021, the report said.
The city failed to show it had recalibrated its turbidity meters every three months as suggested by the manufacturer, nor could it demonstrate regular calibration of chlorine analyzers at the plant, the report said. In fact, inspectors found multiple chlorine analyzers had been "offline" for more than two weeks.
A system meant to monitor disinfection is in "an unknown and inadequate working condition" nor was it configured to issue alarms if water levels were low or there was a loss of positive pressure, the report said.
The city was required to develop disinfection benchmarks in 2017 when it changed its chlorine levels but failed to do so, the inspection found.
The city told the EPA in June 2021 that it had prepared an updated Emergency Response Plan but told the EPA during its September inspection that it had not prepared one and could not produce it, the report said.
The city was unable to produce disinfectant byproduct records between February 2018 and October 2020 and January and February 2021.
The city was unable to provide proof that it had distributed public education materials about high lead levels between June 2018 and June 2020.
The state’s assessment of the city’s water treatment system, meanwhile, found it lacked the technical, managerial and financial capacity needed to run a system, and that some of the city’s storage tanks lacked proper protection of openings. The state assessment also found several areas of concern in the monthly operation reports the city has been submitting, including verifications using outdated, inadequate or inaccurate information and samples.
Like the EPA, the state also found the city’s turbidity meters weren’t calibrated regularly, its chlorine analyzers were “inoperable,” public notification was inadequate, and a system meant to monitor disinfection was not functional.
The state survey also found some storage rooms contained barrels of unused polymer chemical that needed proper disposal, spills of alum and other chemicals that the report described as “prevalent,” and solid waste from lagoons remained on the water plant property and wasn’t removed properly.
State, federal action
The EPA has worked with the state to provide water and other resources to the city, including about $5.4 million for lead line replacement and a corrosion control study.
"EPA is working with Michigan’s state agencies, the City of Benton Harbor, and the drinking water system on medium- and long-term solutions, which are essential to ensuring the health and well-being of residents in the community," the statement from the federal agency said.
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy said in a statement announcing the report on the joint inspection that deficiencies in the city's water system were "part of a legacy of decades of disinvestment" and a shrinking population.
“This is not intended as a punitive exercise, but rather a transparent way of identifying the pressing needs of the Benton Harbor community so that federal, state, local and community partners can work together to prioritize them as we continue our work to ensure all Benton Harbor residents have access to safe drinking water,” EGLE Director Liesl Clark said in a statement Tuesday.
In the weeks following the Sept. 9 petition, the state started delivering on Sept. 30 free bottled water in Benton Harbor, a majority Black city whose drinking water has been found to have elevated lead levels for three consecutive years.
In an Oct. 6 statement, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the measures were being taken "out of an abundance of caution" and Benton Harbor residents were encouraged to use bottled water for cooking, drinking, brushing teeth, rinsing foods and mixing powdered infant formula.
On Oct. 14, Whitmer signed an executive directive implementing an "all-hands-on-deck" approach to replace 100% of the lead service lines in the city within 18 months. Her administration had previously committed to getting the lines out in five years.
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