(The Center Square) – An Office of the Inspector General report found U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff didn’t elevate “significant issues” in the water system in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s report said the EPA didn’t follow its 2016 Policy on Elevation of Critical Public Health Issues when responding to evidence of drinking water lead contamination in the community’s water system.
The audit follows a lawsuit claiming local and state government officials lied to residents about whether the water was safe to drink since 2018 for the roughly 9,000-person, majority-Black town.
“For example, despite having clear information that there were increasing levels of lead in Benton Harbor’s municipal water, state and city Defendants lied to residents that the tap water was safe and recommended remediation measures that they knew were ineffective,” the lawsuit says.
The audit determined, in addition to lead level exceedances, the state cited the community’s water system for additional drinking water violations, including a significant deficiency violation notice regarding water system managerial oversight, insufficient revenue, treatment, distribution, monitoring and reporting issues.
Michigan officials didn’t recommend Benton Harbor residents drink bottled water until 2021.
Michigan issued an Administrative Consent Order to address these deficiencies.
Although EPA Region 5 staff monitored the state and local response to these issues, it didn’t alert the EPA’s Office of the Administrator to potential health risks to Benton Harbor’s residents of lead in drinking water above the 15 parts per billion action level.
“The conditions in Benton Harbor met four of the policy’s five criteria for elevation,” EPA Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said in a statement. “That this situation was not raised for higher levels of attention led us to question what circumstances would be elevated under this policy.”
EPA says staff should elevate public health and environmental risks that require higher levels of attention than the agency’s usual processes could address, such as when normal enforcement and compliance tools are not appropriate or unlikely to succeed in the near term.
An EPA staff member involved with monitoring Michigan’s response to Benton Harbor told auditors the state was addressing the lead levels promptly.
To protect public health, the audit recommends making the reporting system more effective.
