Debate Highlights: Hillary Clinton points to Flint water crisis

On Monday, the National Guard sent in more troops to hand out bottled water, filters and testing kits.

Cher is donating more than 180,000 bottles of water to help ease Flint’s crisis (which still has much work to go). On Saturday, President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint.

The civil rights leader told a crowd at a church Sunday in Flint that the full effect of the lead contamination of the city’s tap water is not yet known. Residents soon began complaining that the foul, cloudy water was making them vomit, break out in rashes and lose their hair. Tests later showed the river water lacked proper treatment, causing lead to leach from old pipes.

The problem is that after Flint switched its water source to the Flint River, highly corrosive water drew lead from the city’s aging pipes.

Clinton said during Sunday’s Democratic debate that Snyder has “acted as though he didn’t really care” about the crisis.

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. It wasn’t until early October – months after outgoing Snyder chief of staff Dennis Muchmore raised concerns in a July 2015 e-mail that the legitimate concerns of Flint residents were being “blown off” – that Snyder and other state officials acknowledged a major problem.

The EPA administer said they agency had established a task force of experts to conduct an audit of the state’s water program “to make sure whatever improvements need to be made get made and get done quickly”.

Gov. Snyder asked for $31 million assistance from the federal government, but this was obviously turned out and $5 million offered instead, since the $31 million request is only suitable for natural disasters of great proportion.

Flint is 57 percent black, and from 2009 to 2013 some 42 percent of its residents lived below the poverty line, according to United States census data. But not everyone can afford it. That’s why people such as Flint resident Marseille Allen have launched GoFundMe campaigns to buy bottled water for people with limited resources.

Snyder has apologized for the state’s handling of the crisis as calls for him to resign have grown over the last week, including from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. It could also reimburse local and state governmental units for money spent to address the crisis. NPR reported it will take about $760 million to fix the damage done to the city’s water infrastructure. She called Snyder’s response “bullcrap”.