After a drinking water contamination crisis made Flint, Michigan the face of America's aging infrastructure problems, Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) made clean drinking water a priority for her administration and even campaigned on a promise to provide clean drinking water for Michiganders.
Her public statements and legislative agenda suggested she was taking the problems caused by antiquated lead plumbing seriously, but the latest Michigan water crisis suggests Governor Whitmer and her administration have concealed at least one city's plight for years.
The town of Benton Harbor in southwest Michigan has become the "new Flint" with unsafe amounts of lead in its water supply. Residents are now "under orders not to drink, cook or even brush their teeth with tap water because of the high levels of lead from old pipes."
Benton Harbor's crisis didn't materialize overnight, though. And new reporting from The Detroit News suggests state leaders — including Governor Whitmer — failed to address the developing crisis for years, even acting to conceal the high levels of lead that were detected in the city's drinking water:
State and city officials treated Benton Harbor’s drinking water with a corrosion chemical blend that failed to control harmful levels of lead for more than two years and rejected federal requirements to fully study its effectiveness. As state officials waited to see if the treatment reduced lead to acceptable levels, they didn’t warn Benton Harbor residents that their water was unsafe or provide alternatives, such as bottled water, until late September.
For two years, Gretchen Whitmer and her administration failed to disclose to the people living in Benton Harbor that the water they drank and used every day was unsafe or issue any directives to use bottled water or take any precautions. The decision to not notify residents means one of two things: either Whitmer didn't take seriously the reports of how unsafe the drinking water in Benton Harbor was, or she did understand and chose to further endanger the citizens she'd promised to protect.
Local Benton Harbor community organizer Rev. Edward Pinkney told The Detroit News that Whitmer and her administration "could have come out and said, ‘Do not drink the water.’ But they failed to do so. They are in denial. You never hear them talk about how bad the water is," he added, going so far as to call the failure to notify residents "criminal."
Michigan Rising Action rang the alarm on Whitmer's apparent negligence, noting that "it took Governor Whitmer two years to acknowledge a public health crisis was unfolding in Benton Harbor and she still has not declared a public health emergency."
For two years, @GovWhitmer knew there was lead in Benton Harbor’s drinking water and made no reasonable attempt to notify the public.
— Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) October 14, 2021
“That was the No. 1 thing that they could have come out and said, ‘Do not drink the water.’ But they failed to do so.”https://t.co/OvYnnkdfCs
In response to the outcry over Whitmer's failure to adequately respond to the crisis in Benton Harbor, she's now scrambling to show urgency to fix the problem she ignored for years. Her latest promise is that she'll replace all the lead pipes in Benton Harbor in the next 18 months, but she's not done well keeping her word about safe drinking water so far.
Whitmer also says goal is to replace all lead pipes in Benton Harbor in 18 months. She had previously wanted to do so within five years. https://t.co/1fyvvgFOxQ
— David Eggert (@DavidEggert00) October 14, 2021
Even if she can meet that timeline, it won't change the fact that she apparently allowed Benton Harbor's residents to unwittingly drink and use dangerously contaminated water for years.
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