March 8, 2022

AI Helps Small City Pull Toxic Lead Water Service Lines from the Ground Faster

Benton Harbor, Mich., needs to exhume thousands of corroded lines, and a machine learning algorithm is helping to figure out where to dig first.

By Aaron Martin edited by Jeffery DelViscio

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

BENTON HARBOR, Mich.—This is a city in crisis.

“You can’t drink the water. You can’t brush your teeth with the water. You can’t cook with the water.... You can’t make baby formula with the water,” says Reverend Edward Pinkney, president of the Benton Harbor Community Water Council.

The community’s water is not safe to drink because it contains potentially toxic amounts of lead. Citizens must rely on bottled water for their daily needs.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Residents of Benton Harbor complained for years about the safety of the water, but few actions were taken. In September 2021 the Benton Harbor Community Water Council and others filed a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calling for it to secure a source of safe drinking water for the community. The petition also calls for the replacement of the lead service lines running into the city’s homes.

But first they have to be found. Enter BlueConduit, a company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that has developed an algorithm to help communities locate their lead service lines. The algorithm weighs variables such as a home’s age, location and proximity to water infrastructure to generate a prediction about whether that home has a lead service line. The more information the algorithm receives, the more accurate its predictions become.

“We're in a situation in Benton Harbor where there is a public health emergency. And so each additional day that residents are living with the risk of having a lead service line is increasing their risk of exposure to lead,” says Ian Robinson, BlueConduit’s president.

Michigan has set a spring 2023 deadline to replace all of the lead service lines in Benton Harbor. Pinkney thinks the work should go faster. “We only have 6,000 pipelines. We should be able to complete this in six months—if you are serious about getting Benton Harbor clean, safe water.”

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American