EPA workers gradual to report well being dangers from lead-tainted Benton Harbor water, report states

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Health dangers on account of excessive lead ranges in consuming water in a majority Black and impoverished Michigan metropolis weren’t taken rapidly to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency management, in keeping with a report launched Thursday.

The EPA Office of Inspector General mentioned workers monitoring the state’s response to steer ranges and compliance in Benton Harbor did not “elevate” the difficulty of well being dangers to town’s residents, per an EPA coverage that encourages workers to take action. The points met a number of EPA elevation coverage standards, together with the looks of a considerable risk to public well being and that ordinary enforcement and compliance instruments appeared unlikely to achieve the quick time period, the report mentioned.

In October 2018, the state notified the Benton Harbor water system it had exceeded 15 components per billion in water samples – the federal threshold for taking motion.

Those ranges stayed excessive. In 2021, activists ramped up strain for extra motion, and state leaders responded because the lead challenge attracted nationwide consideration. State officers promised to quickly take away town’s lead pipes and instructed residents to modify to bottled water for primary wants like cooking and consuming.

Lead, which might leach from getting old pipes into residential consuming water by faucets, is a potent toxin that may harm the cardiovascular and reproductive programs. It is especially dangerous to youngsters, inflicting decrease IQ and behavioral issues.

The EPA’s 2016 Policy on Elevation of Critical Public Health Issues adopted the lead-contaminated water disaster in Flint, Michigan. Flint, which was beneath state-appointed managers, used the Flint River for water in 2014 and 2015, however the water wasn’t handled the identical as water beforehand provided by a Detroit-area supplier. As a consequence, lead leached all through the pipe system.

Benton Harbor is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Chicago. Federal auditors introduced an investigation in February 2022 into how the federal government handled lead contamination of Benton Harbor consuming water. The probe adopted a petition for federal assist from teams that accused native and state governments of dragging their ft.

“Because the elevation policy was not used, the Office of the Administrator’s senior-level team did not have an opportunity to assess and recommend steps for resolving elevated lead levels in the Benton Harbor water system,” the report acknowledged.

The EPA has disagreed with a suggestion that it decide how the coverage could be simpler however did conform to develop and implement a method to assist workers perceive when and how one can use the coverage.

Cyndi Roper, senior coverage advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council, known as the response in Benton Harbor “another abject failure of the EPA to protect an environmental justice community.”

“The EPA must do better to end the public health disaster linked to lead-contaminated drinking water, starting with issuing and enforcing a new federal lead and copper rule that will finally tackle the lead crisis, so no other community is poisoned by leaded tap water,” Roper mentioned Thursday in a launch.

About 87% of Benton Harbor’s roughly 9,100 residents are Black. The metropolis’s median family revenue was about $24,000 in 2021, in keeping with the U.S. Census.

Much of town’s water distribution community is round 100 years previous. The metropolis’s water system has added corrosion management chemical substances to forestall lead from leaching into the consuming water.