"You have families here you want to be safe where you live, you can’t even do something as simple as drink water out of the faucet," said Flint-area native, Taleka Martin, responding to a water crisis, still underway, four years on. "It’s like where is the relief for the people?"
Today, lawmakers from Washington D.C. paid a visit to Flint, hoping to restore faith that positive change is underway.
House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, along with Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint, and nearly a dozen other lawmakers toured a Flint neighborhood where lead pipes were being replaced.
To date, 6,724 pipes have been changed out, but 7,000 more still need repair, many in the local community blaming the state for what they call a slow recovery.
But it all comes as a new report says the federal government also deserves some blame, with the EPA's Office of Inspector General criticizing the agency’s delayed reaction, saying an emergency order to help with the crisis didn't come until eleven months after an EPA official first expressed concern.
"I believe it was a failure at the EPA. They should be much more aggressive in oversight," said Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint.
"The city needs something, reassurance that we are cared about that someone is paying attention to us," said Martin of what she hopes for going forward.
This is the 5th congressional delegation to visit Flint. Rep. Kildee says it won't be the last.
