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66% of City of Benton Harbor lead service lines replaced

LANSING, Mich. – The City of Benton Harbor this week announced that its campaign to accelerate the replacement of aging lead water service lines is ahead of schedule with 66% of the lead lines in the city having now been replaced with new copper lines. 

Crews have replaced more than 500 lead service lines with copper over the past 30 days and are currently averaging 17 lead service line replacements per day. Six contractors currently have 15 crews working throughout the city.

To date, more than 2,900 water service lines have been replaced or verified non-lead as of Wednesday morning, leaving roughly 1,500 to complete. Progress on the project is updated daily on the Benton Harbor project dashboard.

The funding in the Building Michigan Together Plan signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer late last month directs $45 million to the City of Benton Harbor for infrastructure improvements including replacement of all the city’s lead water service lines. The funding ensures the city will have resources to fully replace all lead service lines by the spring of 2023 as ordered by Governor Whitmer late last year.

Nearly 2,500 “Right of Access” Water Service Line Replacement Agreement forms have been completed by the 2,900 current water customers in Benton Harbor – a necessary step to allow the contractors to access private properties to perform the work. The Water Service Line Replacement Agreement may be accessed, filled out and submitted online. Forms may also be submitted to Abonmarche, 95 West Main Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 or emailed to Sandy Riehl at sriehl@abonmarche.com. For questions, call 269-926-4557.

 

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