Two years after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive directive designed to coordinate the state’s response to the Benton Harbor drinking water crisis; the beleaguered city still faces significant water problems.
The 2021 issue was high levels of lead in the water, which, like Flint before it, led to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intervention and criticism of the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) for its handling of the crisis. The agency oversees municipal water systems.
The lead service lines have since been replaced, but Benton Harbor “stands at the edge of another crisis,” according to a group of advocates in a just-released report titled: Lessons from the Frontlines of the Benton Harbor Water Crisis.
This time, it’s a financial crisis that will lead to skyrocketing water bill increases for ratepayers.
Benton Harbor’s water rates are already above average, according to the report, “and will need to be raised 20% every year for the next nine years to eliminate an annual operating deficit of $2.5 million for the city’s water system,” the report said.
A monthly residential rate of $42 would increase to $242 in the majority-black city. Without the unaffordable increases, the viability of the city’s water system is threatened and Benton Harbor would face the task of looking for an alternative drinking water source.
The report was authored by Lawyers for Good Government and Detroit’s Great Lakes Environmental Law Center (GLELC).
The remedy, according to the report, is “federal and state governments must provide adequate funding to address Benton Harbor’s growing water affordability crisis.”
Newly introduced water affordability legislation in Michigan is designed to mitigate the high cost of drinking water, but would not be enough to address Benton Harbor’s issues, according to GLELC Executive Director Nick Leonard.
“Benton Harbor’s growing affordability crisis will likely be too severe to be addressed by the recently introduced bills,” Leonard said. The increases facing Benton Harbor “would mean water is unaffordable for almost its entire population.”
Report contributor and engineer Elin Betanzo drew the connection between a municipality’s financial viability and safe water.
“We often separate the financial from public health impacts,” as if they’re in different spheres, Betanzo said, but there’s a direct line between the two. “Financial issues become public health issues.”
Grievances
Separate from Benton Harbor’s financial crisis, the report listed deficiencies at the state and federal levels that still exist long after commitments to remedy them following the Flint water crisis.
In the report, advocates call on the U.S. EPA to strengthen its elevation policy to ensure leadership is aware of brewing problems. The EPA Inspector General recently said the elevation deficiency remains years after the Flint crisis.
The report also called for EGLE to proactively identify communities at risk for lead in drinking water to protect against the next lead crisis.
Transparency at EGLE was cited as an issue in the report, which calls for information to be publicly available sooner. Benton Harbor community activist Rev. Ed Pinkney commented that there’s difficulty in getting access to agency staff at EGLE to make recommendations. Meetings have been scheduled and are later canceled without being rescheduled, he said.
“We are still reviewing this report,” EGLE communications manager Hugh McDiarmid told Planet Detroit in a written response to an inquiry. “Our goal is to continue working directly with the people of Benton Harbor, as well as with local, state and federal partners to ensure continued access to quality drinking water and to ensure the city continues to meet Michigan’s strictest-in-the-nation Lead & Copper Rule and all other drinking water standards.”
On transparency, McDiarmid said EGLE has been accommodating throughout this process with myriad individuals and groups engaged in the issue.
The report called for the Michigan legislature to repeal the emergency manager law. That law contributed to the Flint water crisis as publicly elected officials were frozen out of decision-making roles.
GLELC’s Leonard said, “emergency management has been predominantly used in majority Black cities; it’s a law that not only serves to disenfranchise Black Michiganders, it also places their health at risk.” According to Leonard, there are better solutions to address the financial issues than to disenfranchise Black residents.
The legislature has not taken up repeal of the emergency manager law, and Gov. Whitmer has said it’s not something she’s pushing for.
Asked if the U.S. EPA has improved its oversight of Michigan’s water programs following the Flint and Benton Harbor crises, Leonard said, “the jury is still out,” noting that both federal and state governments failed Benton Harbor.
“It’s another chance for them to show they are up to the challenge of protecting Benton Harbor residents,” Leonard said.