Michigan city on edge as lead water crisis persists
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. • Shortly after sunrise on a recent Saturday in Benton Harbor, Mich., residents began lining up for free bottled water so they could drink and cook without fear of the high levels of lead in the city’s tap water.
Free water distribution sites are a fixture of life in the majority Black city in the southwestern corner of Michigan, where almost half of the nearly 10,000 residents live below the poverty line. For three years, tests of its public water system revealed elevated levels of lead.
Waiting for free bottled water is time consuming and some residents wonder why, in a state that recently dealt with the Flint water crisis, the problem wasn’t fixed sooner.
“It’s tiresome,” said Rhonda Nelson, waiting in line at a site run by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton Harbor.
“I understand what Flint was going through, I really do,” she said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has promised to spend millions of dollars to replace the city’s lead service lines within 18 months — a blistering pace for a process that often takes decades.
For now, residents have been warned not to cook, drink or make baby formula with tap water.
Residents worry what the elevated lead levels mean for their families’ health. The problem is also inconvenient and stressful. Drivers line up at water distribution sites early, pulling people away from jobs and family. Bottled water must be used carefully so it doesn’t run out. Even waiting in line has consequences – idling uses gas that drivers have to pay to replenish more often.
Waiting in line, LaKeena Crawford worried about the consequences for her 8-year-old daughter, who she has seen try to turn on the water.
“I’m like, ‘No!’” Crawford said, adding that she wants her daughter to understand that lead in water is dangerous. But, “I don’t want to frighten her too much.”
Lead exposure can slow cognitive development, especially in young children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and federal officials say no amount of lead in drinking water is considered safe for their consumption. In recent months, activists have pushed for more immediate, aggressive action, and the state has ramped up its response.
Some wonder whether the problem would have been handled more quickly if Benton Harbor’s residents looked more like those in neighboring St. Joseph, who are predominantly white.
“Sometimes you just have to call out racism, and that’s what it feels like,” said Ambie Bell, helping distribute water to residents.
Volunteers prepare bottled water to be distributed to residents at the local high school parking lot Thursday in Benton Harbor, Mich. The water system in Benton Harbor has tested for elevated levels of lead for three consecutive years. In response, residents have been told to drink and cook with bottled water.