The problems in Benton Harbor and Flint are extreme examples of a broader, national failure of water infrastructure that experts say requires massive and immediate investment to solve
Residents wait for a bottled water giveaway in Benton Harbor, Mich., Oct. 13, 2021.
. Across the country, in cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh and Clarksburg, West Virginia, Americans are drinking dangerous quantities of brain-damaging lead as agencies struggle to modernize water treatment plants and launch efforts to replace the lead service lines that connect buildings to the water system. Health officials say there is no safe level of lead exposure.
Many U.S. cities face severe water problems. In Newark, New Jersey, where lead problems were allowed to fester, a yearslong effort to replace lead pipes is nearly complete. But lead is only one of the growing issues in local water systems. In Wichita, Kansas, hundreds of thousands of people were placed under a boil water advisory this month after a decades-old pipe burst. In Jackson, Mississippi, a winter storm this year froze pipes and placed much of the city under a boil advisory for weeks.
“If I had a magic wand, I would solve every problem that’s plaguing the city of Benton Harbor as we speak,” Mayor Marcus Muhammad said. “However, government doesn’t work that way. The city of Benton Harbor is a creature of the state, and the state is a creature of the federal government.” Benton Harbor, which sits across Lake Michigan from Chicago, has a proud manufacturing history, a championship golf course and a downtown showing signs of revival. But the city has endured decades of disinvestment and hardship.
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