Efforts to replace lead pipes in one Michigan city are ramping up following years of alleged neglect.

Meeks Contracting began replacing 100 of Benton Harbor, Mich.’s estimated 6,000 lead service lines on Nov. 8, and the city plans to go out to bid in December to replace the rest of the lead pipes starting in the spring of 2022.

The city’s lead pipes date back 120 years, and the installation of new lead pipes was outlawed in 1988. Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule requires communities to replace 5% of their lead service lines each year, though state records show Benton Harbor has likely fallen short of that number, replacing 17 lines in 2019 and 89 in 2020, though its exact number of lead service lines remains unknown.

In October, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) committed to fund the fast-tracked replacement of all Benton Harbor’s lead service lines within 18 months. The work is estimated to run $30 million, and the Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $5.6-million grant to Benton Harbor earlier this year to pay for some of the work. In the meantime, the state is providing free bottled water for residents.

“我无法想象本顿港口的妈妈和爸爸在大流行中出现，努力将食物放在桌子上，付款，付款并面临对孩子健康的威胁。”时间。

密歇根州环境部，大湖与能源部（EGLE）于11月3日发布了数千页与本顿港饮用水领先水平有关的文件，以下有关官员为什么不早就采取行动的问题。The records show that the lead 90th percentile value — the standard meaning 90% of samples were at or below a certain number — exceeded the EPA’s action level of 15 parts per billion at least as early as 2018, when the lead level was 22 ppb for the testing period from 2016-2018. Tests in 2019, 2020 and 2021 continued to show 90th percentile values past 15 ppb, reaching as high as 32 ppb.

However, while the situation in the city is urgent, it doesn't compare to the Flint water crisis, where samples tested as high as13,200 ppb.

前往法院

城市和州官员现在还面临着指控他们疏忽并违反联邦和州饮用水法的诉讼。根据最新的人口普查估计，该诉讼于11月10日在密歇根州的美国地方法院提起，代表本顿港的10,000名居民寻求集体诉讼状况，其中近85％是非裔美国人。

The complaint alleges residents didn’t learn of the lead problem until Whitmer’s Oct. 14 announcement, meaning they’d unknowingly been using the water to drink, cook and brush their teeth for three years with elevated amounts of lead.

After 2018 testing results showed actionable lead levels, officials “treated the evidence that the water running through lead service lines in the City of Benton Harbor was poisoned with high levels of lead with deliberate indifference,” the complaint states.

Neither Benton Harbor nor EGLE officials responded to inquiries from ENR. But in a Nov. 3 letter to State Sen. Ed McBroom (R), EGLE Director Liesl Eichler Clark acknowledged questions around the agency’s handling of Benton Harbor’s water and wrote that a review of its responses would help the agency’s effectiveness in the future.

“Public confidence in our oversight and enforcement underpins public confidence in the safety of community drinking water across the state, which is vital to protecting public health, our environment, and quality of life,” she wrote.

投诉称，其中一位原告Doretha Braziel今年对房屋的水进行了测试，据投诉显示，铅含量为886 ppb。其他原告，丽贝卡（Rebecca）和史黛西·布兰斯科姆（Stacey Branscumb）进行了测试，发现铅含量为496 ppb。他们认为水杀死了他们的宠物狗。

Another plaintiff, Emma Kinnard, has lived in her home since 1976 but says she stopped using her home’s water two years ago because of the smell and cloudiness. She’s suffering from ongoing medical conditions she believes are connected to the lead.

“在超过三年的时间里，[官员]知道，高潜在客户水平超过了州，国家的铅和铜制规则，两者都使本顿港居民的这种有毒铅紧急情况保持在场，并错误地向居民保证投诉说：“水都是安全的。”

克拉克在信中写道，多个实体试图告知本顿港居民有关水管水平的水平，但补充说，由于许多居民显然未达到，因此政府的通信方法应该有所改善。

The EPA alsoordered Benton Harborto better notify residents about lead levels on Nov. 2, as well as to make repairs to the city’s water treatment plant, following an inspection of the facility in September.

Emails released among the trove of EGLE documents show that city managers have struggled to keep up with its water issues. In one, the city’s former water plant superintendent complained to state workers about dealing with inexperienced staff, equipment not working as expected and extensive record-keeping.

他写道：“我没有时间来做到这一点，”促使Egle官员的提议协助抽样，记录保存和其他努力。

另一个火石？

While Clark acknowledged in her letter that Benton Harbor’s situation is “particularly urgent,” it doesn’t compare to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., says Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor who was instrumental inexposing the Flint situation正如ENR先前报道的那样新利luck，在居民与他联系后，Edwards参与了Flint，他的样本显示为13,200 ppb。

“The Flint water crisis was first and foremost a betrayal of the public trust,” Edwards says. “It was a failure of government at all levels. That hasn’t happened at Benton Harbor. The law has been followed. To my knowledge, no one has lied about the situation. It’s a completely routine problem with lead in water, it was discovered and is being dealt with. It’s elevated in the public consciousness because of the publicity of Flint and higher expectations in its aftermath in how you can deal with these problems.”

本顿港isn’t the only community dealing with lead pipes that need to be replaced. The基础设施投资和就业法，乔·拜登（Joe Biden）于11月15日签署的总统包括150亿美元的潜在客户更换。

“This will have a tremendous impact on reducing the danger of these lead pipes and starting to get them replaced, which in the aftermath of Flint, just has to happen,” Edwards says.