(WVPE) The Benton Harbor City Commission declared a local state of emergency Monday night in response to high levels of lead in the city’s drinking water. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited the city Tuesday morning for a listening session with residents and local political leaders. During a Tuesday press conference, Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammed said the local state of emergency will sound a louder alarm to the public that this is a crisis.
“This gives the city of Benton Harbor another layer of action,” Muhammed said. “Removing, replacing all lead service lines is a Mount Everest of a job, and it’s going to take an all-hands-on-deck, whole government approach on a local level.”
Muhammed said the city will be forming a community response team and start conducting door-to-door lead education campaigns. The city will also work with state and federal officials to distribute free bottled water, provide free or low-cost lead testing and health care and coordinate any other actions needed to solve the crisis. In addition, Muhammed said the Benton Harbor City Manager and city staff will be in Lansing Thursday to speak about the water situation before the Michigan House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
In early September, a coalition of local and state groups submitted a petition calling for the federal Environmental Protection Agency to step in with emergency powers to provide bottled water to all Benton Harbor residents. The state began distributing bottled water, filters and lead testing kits to Benton Harbor residents in late September. (More from WVPE)
In an interview Monday on All Things Considered, Benton Harbor mayor Marcus Muhammad said his city's situation is different from Flint. He says Benton Harbor never switched its water source. He says it's an issue of infrastructure, old pipes that will be very expensive to replace.
