The Michigan Department of Environment Quality tested 135 locations including homes throughout Benton Harbor.What we found want very disturbing nobody really care about the condition of the water in Benton Harbor, only because over 90% of the residents are Black.
The city district opted to using test voluntary water standard recommendation of 5 ppb, which is the bottled water standard.
A total of 60 tested above 5ppb. 5 more tested above 15 per billion.One tested location in the school system MLK Stem Academy on Britain Ave tested 642 ppb, more than 40 times higher than the EPA action level. The sad thing about the water condition. The authority do not water the resident of Benton Harbor to know about ,how bad the water really is. We need more testing .
The next highest locations tested was at 31ppb. This is ridiculously insane.
Amy Nichols said this water fixture was a prep sink in the school kitchen where food is being served to students. We need more of the water tested.We must start at Lake Michigan and go thru the whole process. The process is water come from Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan water flows through an intake structure and pipeline off shore to a shore well pump station where the water screened to remove the large Particles , but not the small particles. Pumps at the shores well station transfer the untreated water to the treatment plant.At the treatment plant the raw water is filtered through membrane micro filtration units and sodium hypochlorite, which contain chlorine, is applied for disinfection. Fluoride is also added for dental protection. After the filtration, is treated water enters the storage reservoir after which another set of pumps transmits the finished tap water through the distribution system and to the community.
Benton Harbor overall has a major water problem, that need to be addressed immediately. The Water should be tested from Lake Michigan all the way to the treatment plant to your home, as soon as possible. Let confront this system and start testing the water.
