Benton Harbor Water Crisis: free home lead inspections

The Benton Harbor Water Crisis is not over yet.

In fact, it simply moves on to another phase of removing the lead contamination from residents’ homes. The project to remove all old underground lead water pipes is now 99.4% complete and was completed on time and under budget.


Lead levels in drinking water, which peaked at 32 parts per billion in December 2019, more than double the EPA’s federal action level of 15 parts per billion, have declined steadily and have now fallen to 9 parts per billion this past December.

But the push to remove all toxic lead from people’s homes is not over.

That’s why Princella Tobias and Nicholas Gunn, part of a new nonprofit called Benton Harbor Team Solutions, are going door-to-door to update house by house on the next phase of the ongoing effort to end the city’s water crisis.

“The state of Michigan and the city of Benton Harbor, we inspect the inside of your home, your windows, your doors, your plumbing, and if they find lead in your home they will replace it free of charge,” Tobias told a homeowner after attending knocked on her front door.

More than 4,400 underground water supply lines have been excavated, inspected and replaced to reduce widespread lead contamination in the city’s drinking water, but the work doesn’t stop there. The state and city are also now targeting lead in people’s homes.

“Water is important, it’s imperative,” Tobias said, “to have a protrusion in your pipes that is making your water undrinkable and then to be able to find a solution. That’s what Benton Harbor Team Solutions is all about. It’s about finding solutions for this community.”

Cassandra Collins and her husband Darrell were stunned to find out they could get free lead inspections and then thousands of dollars worth of repairs from the state to remove all sources of lead from their home — at no cost to them.

“At first I thought it was too good to be true,” said Cassandra Collins, “They’re not going to come in and just fix everything for free, but it literally is just that!”

And the same thing is happening in homes across the city. Contractors replacing windows, siding and older interior plumbing that still contain lead — a known toxin that can cause brain damage, learning and behavioral problems — especially in children.

“Now we’ve moved on to the next phase where they’re doing the plumbing, so they’re coming in this Friday to replace all the plumbing in the house as well as new water heaters, faucets and everything, so we’re definitely blessed,” Kassandra Collins said.

The very grateful Collins family believes all of this work — inside and out — would have cost them well over $20,000.

“We had an estimate and at the time it was well over $15,000 for windows and they replaced all my windows including my side door and then painted something in the house where the house was painted with lead shavings,” and it didn’t cost them a penny .

“They’re completely free for owner-occupied properties! I know it seems too good to be true, but they are,” said Carin Speidel, lead services manager at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Speidel’s team put together a new roadmap – laying out the steps needed for people to register, be inspected and remove all leads from their homes. Even if you rent, you’re still entitled and it doesn’t cost you anything either.

Speidel says: “The landlord might have to pay a cost share again for the lead reduction part, that’s the windows, the doors, the things that we would actually do to the house, there might be a cost share there, but the plumbing is rentals and landlords 100% free”

Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad recently returned from a “Get the Lead Out” summit at the White House in Washington, DC, where the Biden administration announced $350 billion in America’s federal bailout plan funds that will can be used for similar lead reduction efforts in cities struggling with the same hidden danger across the country.

“Benton Harbor was there as an example of success and how that can be achieved at Godspeed where we completed 99.4% in less than a year and under budget,” Mayor Muhammad said, “If anyone looks at what’s going on in Benton Harbor happened, then it was people. Of all races, different political parties, different philosophies come together to say that there is a problem here and we will work together to solve it and when we are united there is nothing , Brian, what we can’t achieve.”

Right now, everyone in Benton Harbor is still being told to use bottled water to cook, drink and make baby food, and the free faucet filters distributed by the Berrien County Health Department have been found effective by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — but the next challenge is here to check every single house from the inside.

“Crucially, the effects of lead, as we know, are an enduring neurotoxin. It affects the rest of your life, so it’s worth taking the time to let someone come in and taking the time to sign out to allow access because the effects of lead are lifelong,” Muhammad said .

Princella Tobias of Benton Harbor Team Solutions vows to keep knocking on doors until crews have helped each local family have their homes inspected.

“I think of the hope, the hope that all of this gives to our residents, the hope that we will overcome, the hope that we will do something,” said Tobias, “we give hope back to this community because it’s always there has been tiger pride. This is a resilient community.”

All Benton Harbor residents can learn more about the free remediation program at an upcoming resource fair:

  • Benton Harbor Community Health & Environmental Resource Fair
    • Tuesday February 28th
    • 16:00-18:00
    • Virginia Edwards Community Center (721 Nate Wells Drive, Benton Harbor, MI 49022)

Click Here to Apply for Free Home Lead Inspection Services in Benton Harbor.

Click here to review the Lead Service Line Replacement Project at Benton Harbor.

Click here for more information from MDHHS.

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