How They Replaced Benton Harbor’s Lead Lines in 18 Months
June 23, 2025
Benton Harbor, Michigan is one of many majority-Black communities in the United States that has faced an uphill battle to address lead contamination from aging infrastructure. The city’s long-neglected water system became the center of an environmental justice crisis in 2018 when lead was first detected at unsafe levels in Benton Harbor’s drinking water. Ongoing exposure to lead-contaminated water poses serious health risks to humans, especially children.
After three years of activism led by concerned residents, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer demanded an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to remedying the city’s water crisis. Benton Harbor secured funding and faced a short 18-month timeline to replace water lines and improve water quality.
Abonmarche, an engineering, land surveying and architectural firm serving southwest Michigan and northern Indiana, took the lead in managing the replacement of almost 30 miles of water service lines.
In addition to an aggressive timeline, the project team faced additional challenges including securing capable contractors, regularly communicating its progress and maintaining public transparency across the duration of the project.
Prioritizing Local Talent, Driving Equity
As Benton Harbor’s engineering firm, Abonmarche provided comprehensive engineering and engagement support to help the city plan, track, monitor and replace all of its lead service lines citywide.
A time-sensitive project of this size and scope required a labor force of considerable size to make it happen. This meant hiring five installation contractors and assigning separate sections of the city to each.
“As much as possible, the city wanted the contractors to employ Benton Harbor residents,” explains Abonmarche Assistant Project Manager Joelle Regovich, “so we hosted three job fairs to give those interested the opportunity to speak directly with the contractors. It was hard work for those who eventually signed up, but it opened the door for local people to try out this kind of construction work.”
Ensuring Transparency at Every Step
In order to track progress across the city’s various neighborhoods and contractors as well as to assure public transparency, Abonmarche and Benton Harbor created an easy-to-understand online digital dashboard. The data available on the project site included a city map showing every residence and business, along with charts documenting each service line’s material composition on both the city and property sides.
The dashboard also displayed dates and addresses of all service lines replaced over the previous 30 days.
“All of the contractors had direct access to the dashboard to update their progress in real time,” Regovich says. “This kept the community informed with up-to-date information while eliminating paper updates and redundant data entry.”
Improved Water Quality On Time, Under Budget
By June 2023, 100% of the service lines causing lead exposure in the city had been replaced.
“We have had no further Action Level Exceedances since the lines were replaced,” Regovich says, “and the State of Michigan has started a program to help homeowners replace their interior water lines that have lead.”
In addition to improved quality levels and meeting the 18-month deadline, Abonmarche and the contractors were able to bring the entire project in at $33 million, or $3 million under the amount originally budgeted.
Regovich offered several takeaways from working on a municipal project of this scale, including:
- Find a high-level advocate. Michigan Governor Whitmer’s involvement definitely opened doors, but Regovich says having an ally within EGLE also helped in making essential connections across state agencies.
- Define your terms. Some technical jargon differed among the various participants, so it was important to establish a common language everyone could understand.
- Share updates widely using multiple channels. Abonmarche’s dashboard and other communication efforts kept all stakeholders in the loop.
“The City of Benton Harbor is continuing its efforts to provide safe drinking water through capital improvements at the water plant and water distribution system,” Regovich says.
The replacement of lead service lines in Benton Harbor marks significant progress on environmental justice, laying a foundation for the community to position itself as a leader in sustainable development for the region.