Benton Harbor, MI event: ‘Learn the Dangers of Lead in Your Water’

Editor’s note: Below Sandy Reid of the People’s Tribune interviews Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, MI, a small largely African American town, about a recent community gathering at his church. People learned about the toxic lead water their families have unknowingly been living with for years. The theme of the event was, “Learn the Dangers of Lead in Your Water.”

People’s Tribune: Reverend, tell us about the successful event you held on lead in the water in your community.

Rev. Edward Pinkney: One hundred twenty people came. I wasn’t anticipating that many because of the pandemic. But they came. Some heard about the lead in their water for the first time. The event was so good and important to people’s lives that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after the event, people called, said how good it was, and wanted to know how to join the fight for safe water.

The event started out with local resident Michael Tymes talking about racism, how it developed, about the capitalist system and how it became a tool for capitalists to make money. He is only 19 and did a magnificent job explaining what capitalism is. His father, Dr. Tymes, is a rebel doctor in our community. Dr. Tymes got up and talked about racism and medicine, the lead problem, how lead is mostly in the Black communities, not only in Flint, but also in Detroit and Benton Harbor. He told the story about Benton Harbor and that the people would never have known there was a lead problem without myself and Emma Kinnard. We brought two tubs of water out of her facet; she had the water tested for lead and discovered it had over 500 parts per billion in it. At that time, the city of Benton Harbor had not had water tested for years. Emma found out that the water was out of compliance, and never fined by the city, although this was known by city officials. At that time, Whirlpool, the giant corporation that dominates and runs this area, was trying to sell homes around a new golf course and didn’t want potential buyers to know the water was bad. Lots of people didn’t know the water hadn’t been tested, so this was huge.

I got up and told people from the community about the roundtable we had with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA). I explained to the EPA how the city operates here in Benton Harbor. I demanded that it shouldn’t take 20 years to put in new pipes in the city of Benton Harbor, a city with only 4 square miles. It makes no sense. Elected officials here signed a contract and were given 20 years to put in new pipes when it could have been done in five. We told community people that we allowed them to come in and milk us like this. We also told them that the EPA action level is 15, which is too high; there should be zero lead in the water. If you have 15, it will eat up your brain, and it would do that even if 4 or 5.

Then we talked about the water filters. The city is supposed to distribute filters to everyone, but there was water filter suppression of the need for the city to get a water filter into every single household. They said you needed identification and if you have no I.D., you don’t get one. We helped the city distribute the filters people needed, also so more people could get involved. But the city didn’t want our group to be involved.

PT: Did others in Michigan communities attend?

Rev. Pinkney: Yes.We did a panel on Flint which was outstanding.  Claire McClinton told stories of the water lawsuit [to supposedly redress people’s grievances from the water poisoning]. She told how the people of Flint will probably get less than $1000 if they take the water deal. And some families won’t get anything because they didn’t have a doctor’s statement, and it’s almost too late now. This is the most unheard of thing. Money is available for the people but they won’t be able to get it. The lawyers are getting 1/3 of it. The lesson is don’t allow yourself to get picked down by these cities.  They say, “I’ve been drinking this water all my life, and nothing wrong with it…” Nayyirah Shariff, of Flint, then talked about what you need to do. She also talked about affordable water, how elected official get theirs, but people in the community don’t get theirs, and that it’s shameful and disgraceful but that’s the way it is. Water warriors Mellissa Mayes of Flint, Sylvia Orduño of Detroit and Marian Kramer of Highland Park, MI got a chance to talk and share experiences and lessons in this fight too.

The message was that, now,  with all of the Covid-19 monies coming into the cities from the federal government, we need to tell our officials, “It’s my money and we want it now. You don’t have to be begging for them to pay the bill. Demand that money be spent where you want it!”

We had people in the hallway, we served food, it was really remarkable. We trained on how to put water filters on since some people didn’t know; and then we gave out a couple of cases of water to every single person. We did bullet points on what tainted water does and how to deal with the poisoning. Important people were listening. The event was powerful, crucial, and we will make it happen again.

The Federal EPA has said they want to understand the water problem in the city of Benton harbor because some of the stuff didn’t make sense. The guy that was over at the water department before works for Eagles now, and said he don’t care a rats butt about water in Benton Harbor.

Twice a month we pass out water to everybody. Couple of cases. Not a whole lot, but free. Reach me at 269-925-0001 anytime! Let’s get busy stopping the lies and insure that everyone has safe, clean water. Water is a human right.