Editor’s Note: Sandy Reid of the People’s Tribune interviewed Rev. Edward Pinkney, President of the Benton Harbor Community Water Council that is leading the fight for clean water in Benton Harbor, MI, a majority African-American and majority poor town.
Photo / Valerie Jean
People’s Tribune: Rev. Pinkney, the People’s Tribune has been reporting on your town’s dangerous lead water crisis for several years and nothing was done. Why the national coverage now?
Rev. Edward Pinkney: Because we filed a petition with the EPA. Because they know what’s going to happen next. They know they are getting ready to be hit with a class action suit — the state, local and federal. They failed to tell the people the water was bad. Lead is a neurotoxin. There’s no safe level. Exposure to lead as a child can alter their life. Mohammed, [Benton Harbor mayor,] was going around telling people the water was good, knowing it was bad. And there is no excuse for taking three years. You could say maybe the first year you’re trying to figure out what to do. And maybe the same for the second. But now it’s the third year . . . we zoomed into action.
It’s VERY important to not allow another city in this country to have contaminated water, and nobody says a word. If it was a white woman who lived here, and the city was majority white, and she had a baby in her arms, and she started crying, saying this water is contaminated and my baby can’t drink the water, they would be out here. They would send the Army out here, the Pentagon. FEMA would be out here. And they’d fix it in six months or less.
But since this is a black city — without the petition we filed — most of the people wouldn’t even be talking to us. The petition is devastating. In Virginia they called for a state of emergency because of their water, but had no documentation or evidence to support it. That was an almost all-white neighborhood. That made the difference between us and them.
But it comes down to this: without this petition being filed, there would be no movement in the city of Benton Harbor in reference to the people at all. Once you file that petition, they know what is coming next. They are trying to head off the class action suit. The key now is what are they going to do to make the city of Benton Harbor whole?
Photo / Valerie Jean
People’s Tribune: What is federal, state and local government doing?
Rev. Pinkney: We requested bottled water and the governor said she would supply 30,000 cases of water every week. So we will see about that. The federal government is pressuring them to do it. But everyone is coming here to get free water, and it’s a disaster. Even people from the wealthy St. Joseph Township, from Benton Township, and surrounding cities are coming, and they’re giving it to them. We don’t give them free water. We go door to door. If the problem is in Benton Harbor, it should go to Benton Harbor.
Local government is doing nothing – they don’t even know what to do. The mayor at first said the problem was not as serious as people say. When he found out that what he said was not favorable, he switched and made a statement that no one has died from the water. Now he’s switching tunes again because the governor told him that message wasn’t good. Now he’s saying something entirely different, but he’s still dancing around the real issue: they won’t say the water is unsafe to drink. The governor won’t either. She says because of an “abundance of caution,” we don’t want you to drink the water.
People’s Tribune: And Whirlpool, the global corporation, with its home in Benton Harbor? What is it doing?
Rev. Pinkney: It is silent because it reflects on them. A multibillion dollar corporation and they got bad water in the community? What you going to do now, Mr. Whirlpool?
People’s Tribune: What is the community saying?
Rev. Pinkney: They say they were not aware because they were never told. They don’t trust the mayor. They don’t trust government. Gov. Whitmer said she was going to forgive the $18 million debt that the city of Benton Harbor had, but she didn’t.
We need to get more people to care. Most people would say ‘I don’t drink water anyway.’ They brush their teeth with it, bathe in it, make baby formula with it, and use it for other things, and that’s the problem. Young people say they can’t believe that they never told them that the water is bad, and that they would conceal that information. People from Flint, Detroit, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek came down and can’t believe it. They say, “This is Flint.”
People’s Tribune: What is the next step?
Rev. Pinkney: The next step is to hold the Gov. Whitmer’s feet to the fire to make sure she does what she says. And that she understands we’re serious about this. She said they would complete the pipes in 18 months. We were talking 6-12 months. But I’m satisfied with 18 months. Hold her accountable for her action and inaction. We have to stay focused on this. They know black people run fast, but don’t run long. So they are counting on people running out of energy. But what they don’t know is that I don’t run out of energy. And others here feel the same.
It costs money to wage this fight. Help insure the community’s success. Please donate at https://www.bhbanco.org/ — The Editors
Read the Emergency Petition asking the EPA to order safe water for Benton Harbor due to the shocking lead contamination: https://www.nrdc.org/media/2021/210909-1
Read the letter and list of demands sent to Michigan Governor Whitmer demanding the governor resolve lead in water crisis at http://www.peoplestribune.org/latest-news/black-town-demands-mich-governor-resolve-lead-water-crisis/
