Benton Harbor City Commissioners have heard from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy about the city’s water system and its needs.
At a meeting this week, EGLE’s Mike Bolf told commissioners the city’s water is safe to drink now that lead service lines have been replaced throughout.
Bolf was asked why EGLE didn’t accept a recent city study on the long-term future of its water system.
“The study that was done and submitted to EGLE had identified some pretty substantial financial gaps, two to three million dollars a year or something, and that study did not have a viable plan to address those gaps,” Bolf said.
Bolf also said the city continues to maintain a connection to the water system in St. Joseph so that when repairs are done at the Benton Harbor Water Plant and it has to be shut down, residents can continue getting water.
Mayor Marcus Muhammad warned any effort to switch Benton Harbor to St. Joe long-term would be met with resistance.
“Try and nudge us to find some agreement with St. Joseph, which is going to be very interesting, very interesting,” Muhammad said. “Very similar to the shutdown of the school district.”
That’s when the state briefly considered closing Benton Harbor High School in 2019. That was met with stiff resistance quickly, forcing the governor to backpedal.
The city’s water study was submitted to EGLE in March of last year. Commissioners in November rejected a redo of the study after EGLe declined to accept it.
