MI0000600
City of Benton Harbor
Benton Harbor, MI · 9,800 served · Lake Michigan
grrNotice late
Notice record
Lead exceeded 15 ppb from 2018. EPA OIG found staff failed to elevate the health risk. Residents were told to stop using tap water for drinking and cooking after 2021 public pressure. Most lead lines were later replaced.
4.1
Seeded official P90 (ppb)
2
Certified household tests
5.1
Household median (ppb)
6.8
Household max (ppb)
Seeded official 90th-percentile — replace with SDWIS ingest
How to get a test here
Open the funding waterfall| Program | Pays for a kit? | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|
| LCRI consumer-requested tap sampling | Yes | Anyone served by a lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement, or unknown service line |
| Local or state health department testing | Yes | Households, often with priority for children or pregnant people |
| WIIN school and child-care lead testing | Yes | Schools and licensed child-care programs, via the state |
| DWSRF set-asides (non-routine sampling) | No | State programs and public water systems — not individual residents |
| HUD Lead Hazard Reduction / Healthy Homes | Yes | Low-income pre-1978 housing treated by a city, county, or tribal grantee |
| CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention | Yes | Health departments and bona fide agents; families of children at high risk or with an elevated blood-lead level |
| Medicaid EPSDT environmental follow-up | Yes | Medicaid-enrolled children; blood-lead tests at 12 and 24 months |
| Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant | Yes | State MCH programs; pregnant people, infants, and children, especially low-income |
| Head Start / Early Head Start lead-in-water duty | Yes | Head Start facilities; every fixture used for drinking, cooking, or formula |
| Certified lab kit (resident or sponsor) | Yes | Anyone, including renters the utility never samples |
Household and official lead samples
| Date | Source | Block group | Lead (ppb) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-06-01 | official | MI0000600 | 22 |
| 2020-06-01 | official | MI0000600 | 19.4 |
| 2021-06-01 | official | MI0000600 | 16.8 |
| 2022-06-01 | official | MI0000600 | 8.1 |
| 2023-06-01 | official | MI0000600 | 5.2 |
| 2026-05-12 | lab | 26021000700 | 3.4 |
| 2026-06-03 | lab | 26021000700 | 6.8 |