FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Sipping filtered city water to show it’s again drinkable, President Barack Obama promised Wednesday to ride herd on leaders at all levels of government until every drop of water flowing into homes in Flint, Michigan, is safe to use.
He promised residents that the aging pipes that contaminated the water with lead will be replaced, but cautioned that the project will take time.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but we have to get it started,” Obama told hundreds of people gathered at a high school. Obama spoke after he was briefed on the federal response to the water contamination and had met privately with nine residents.
Obama said he understands why people are scared and angry and feel let down. He said what happened in Flint was a manmade disaster that didn’t have to happen. But he said it did happen and everyone must now work together to fix it.
“I’ve got your back,” Obama said. “I will not rest and I will make sure the leaders at every level of government don’t rest until every drop of water that flows to your homes is safe to drink, to cook with, to bathe in.”
He called providing safe drinking water a basic responsibility of government.
After coughing several times during his remarks, Obama asked for and drank from a glass of water. He also drank city water after getting a lengthy briefing on the crisis, which forced residents to spend months drinking, cooking and bathing with bottled water.
Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint in mid-January and ordered federal aid to supplement the state and local response. By then, however, the crisis was in full bloom.
It took several months for the nation to focus on the beaten-down city’s plight, raising questions about how race and poverty influenced decisions that led to the tainted water supply and the sluggish response. More than 40 percent of Flint residents live in poverty and more than half are black.
In an effort to save money, the city, while under state management, began drawing its water from the Flint River in April 2014. Despite complaints from residents about the smell and taste and health problems, city leaders insisted the water was safe. However, doctors reported last September that the blood of Flint children contained high levels of lead.
The source of the city’s water has been switched back to Detroit, but the lead problem still is not fully solved, and most people are drinking filtered or bottled water.
The political and legal fallout is ongoing. An independent commission appointed by Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder determined the state was primarily responsible for the water contamination in Flint, and he issued an apology. The Obama administration’s response, through the Environmental Protection Agency, has also come under criticism from Snyder and some in Congress who say the EPA didn’t move with necessary urgency.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told Congress that, while staff repeatedly urged the state to address the lack of corrosion controls, “we missed the opportunity late last summer to quickly get EPA’s concerns on the public’s radar screen.” An inspector general is investigating the EPA’s response.
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On Twitter, reach Kevin Freking at https://twitter.com/APkfreking
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I don’t want a new president. I’ll keep this one for 4 more years happily.
Ahhhh… Democracy in action.
I agree. You are taking the high road here. As for me, I was relishing the clip of Governor Snyder getting booed and heckled.
If anyone hasn’t heard it yet, I suggest you watch the President’s speech at Flint.
Besides promising federal help and listing the various ways his administration, volunteer groups and religious organizations – even some prisoners incarcerated in Michigan – are helping, he outlines the needs going forward:
The state has to kick in and help;
Congress has to kick in and help with funding;
We need testing, a massive pipe replacement program, apprenticeship and community college programs to train people, a preference for local residents to get these jobs, etc.
Also, he made a full-throated defense of the core mission of our system of government: to provide services of vital importance that we, as individuals, are incapable of providing for ourselves.
This will be an all-hands-on-deck approach, using the urgency of this crisis to marshal a bipartisan effort and reinforce the importance of government action.
More than just a publicity stunt to feed the news cycle, or win political expediency, this will be part of a long-term effort, just like prior Obama initiatives:
The 2009 Recovery Act, which not only injected a massive stimulus to jump-start our collapsing economy, but also planted seeds for crucial investments into renewable energy and other R and D;
The 2010 ACA, which not only extended healthcare coverage to millions, but also began the complex task of reining in healthcare costs and reforming healthcare delivery on a rational basis.
In his speech, he spoke out against the “culture of neglect” and “the pipeline of neglect” which arises from the notion that government that does next to nothing is the highest we can aspire to, and that, particularly when it comes to the poor and those without resources or political clout, we are all on our own.
As the President said, “We are all in this together.”
And In his speech, he also spoke out against the spirit of hopelessness, despair and cynicism that argues that an entire generation of Flint children have been irreversibly ruined, their futures forfeit. Noting that resources are coming in, and that Medicaid is available to them, he said, “These kids will be fine – if we look out for them,” and that, “My hope is that this begins a national conversation about what we need to do to invest in future generations.”
Never let a crisis go to waste: “There is a sermon about a phoenix rising from these ashes; and there is the opportunity, out of this complete screw-up, this painful tragedy, this neglect, this disappointment, to actually pull together and make for a better future. Sometimes it takes a crisis for everybody to focus their attention.”
And another takeaway: “So, Flint, I’m not just here to say, ‘I’ve got your back,” not just to say that you will get help, I’m also here to say you’ve got power, I’m also here to say you count, I’m also here to say that you can make a difference and rebuild this city better than ever – and you’ll have a friend and partner in the President of the United States.”
Keep hope alive.
Game on.