In a photo from Jan. 2, 2016, Sherri Miller and her son, Jameer, 7, a first-grader, are seen at Freeman Elementary School in Flint, Mich., where Jameer was getting his finger-prick blood sample tested... (Associated Press) 
 
 FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The longest line at Freeman Elementary School's Family Fun Night was not for face painting or food. It was for lead testing. 
 
 For three months, families in the former auto manufacturing hub of Flint have taken their children for blood tests and lived on bottled water after doctors found high levels of lead in the bodies of the community's youngest people. 
 
 "It really is a scary situation to know that we can't get clean drinking water," said Sherri Miller, who brought her first-grade son, Jameer, to have a finger-prick blood sample tested. "It really is scary to think someone knew about this" and did nothing. 
 
 Nearly two years have passed since safe drinking water flowed from Flint faucets. The financially troubled city began drawing its water from the Flint River in 2014 to save money. Officials failed to treat the corrosive water properly to prevent metal leaching from old pipes. Worse, residents didn't learn they were drinking tainted water until the state issued warnings a year and a half after the switch was made. 
 
 For the city's 100,000 residents, daily life is now all about lead. 
 
 Before the crisis, Flint, about an hour's drive north of Detroit, had become a symbol of the decline of the U.S. auto industry, having suffered waves of auto plant layoffs and the loss of half its population. Forty-one percent of the population falls below the poverty line. 
 
 These days, it's a place where parents fear for the health of young children, who can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure. 
 
 "It has such damning, lifelong and generational consequences," said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, director of pediatric residency at Hurley Children's Hospital, where more than 2,000 children have been tested. She is credited with bringing the problem to the public's attention after state agencies initially dismissed her concerns. 
 
 "It was frustrating that it went on for so long," Hanna-Attisha said, complaining that even since the state began taking action, "everything has been slow." 
 
 Gov. Rick Snyder finally acknowledged in late September that the water was unsafe, saying the consequences of switching to Flint River water were not "fully understood." The decision to use the river was made while a Snyder-appointed emergency manager was running city government. 
 
 The city, which had been under state supervision since 2011, returned to local control last April. 
 
 Flint went back to Detroit water in October, but some fear the old pipes were so damaged that they must be replaced, at costs estimated as high as $1.5 billion. 
 
 On Monday, Snyder apologized to Flint and pledged that officials would contact every household to ensure families have bottled water and a filter and to check whether they want to be tested for lead exposure. 
 
 He also promised to seek a long-term solution. 
 
 "This is a crisis," the governor said. "So we're responding appropriately. There's more work to be done." 
 
 Snyder's many critics got louder at midweek, when the governor announced that two spikes in Legionnaires' disease had occurred in the county that includes Flint during the time Flint River water was used. Ten people died. Michigan health officials said they cannot conclude that the outbreak stemmed from Flint's water, but others argued it probably had. 
 
 Late Thursday, Snyder asked President Barack Obama to issue a federal disaster declaration in an effort to get federal aid, a move critics countered should have been taken sooner. The president signed an emergency declaration on Saturday and ordered federal aid for the city. 
 
 After Snyder declared a state of emergency Jan. 5, residents could go to fire stations to pick up a daily ration of one case of bottled water per household and a water filter. But even that effort fell short. 
 
 The following Monday, a pile of empty filter boxes was stacked against the wall at one station. One woman came back three times in the hope of getting one. Hours later, even the water was gone after volunteers had given out almost 900 cases. And the fire station had not received any of the lead test kits that had been promised. 
 
 Volunteers also began going door-to-door to distribute water. Snyder called on the National Guard to help. 
 
 For angry residents, it's still not enough. 
 
 "The state was telling everybody, 'It's fine, relax. ... It's safe,'" even as people complained that the water looked cloudy and tasted bad, said community activist Melissa Mays. "They lied." 
 
 Mays, her husband and three sons ages 11, 12 and 17 are taking medication to reduce high lead and other heavy metal levels in their blood. 
 
 "Like everybody else, we drank and cooked with it because they told us it was safe," she said. 
 
 Rabecka Cordell said she learned from her doctor that both she and her 5-year-old son, Dayne, have lead poisoning. She said she also has leukemia, and her son has learning and speech disabilities. 
 
 She won't even bathe in the water and won't wash her son in it. 
 
 "It's ridiculous," Cordell said. 
 
 At the elementary school's lead testing on Tuesday, more than 50 kids lined up. One was fifth-grader Maleah Gill. 
 
 "You wonder how long has it been in her system?" said her father, Matt Gill. "How much has she taken in? What's the effects? 
 
 Hurley Children's Hospital is distributing 10,000 booklets on mitigating the effects of lead on children, including recipes high in iron, calcium and vitamin C. Adding to the challenge is that there are few grocers with fresh produce within Flint city limits. At a local farmers market, the hospital offers weekly recipe and cooking demonstrations with lead in mind. The first one was hearty egg burritos. 
 
 Nutrition "has a huge mitigating role," Hanna-Attisha said. 
 
 She urged parents to consult early and often with a pediatrician. 
 
 In consultations, the doctor said, "we need to give families hope that with secondary prevention interventions, not every kid is going to have problems." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Roger Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rogschneider. ||||| Buy Photo The federal agency FEMA has sent two officials to Michigan to monitor the Flint drinking water crisis. (Photo: Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo 
 
 LANSING President Barack Obama on Saturday declared a federal emergency in Flint, freeing up to $5 million in federal aid to immediately assist with the public health crisis, but he denied Gov. Rick Snyder's request for a disaster declaration. 
 
 A disaster declaration would have made larger amounts of federal funding available more quickly to help Flint residents whose drinking water is contaminated with lead. But under federal law, only natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods are eligible for disaster declarations, federal and state officials said. The lead contamination of Flint's drinking water is a manmade catastrophe. 
 
 The president's actions authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate responses and cover 75% of the costs for much-needed water, filters, filter cartridges and other items for residents, capped initially at $5 million. The president also offered assistance in finding other available federal assistance, a news release Saturday from the White House said. 
 
 Snyder, who on Thursday night asked Obama for federal financial aid in the crisis through declarations of both a federal emergency and a federal disaster, said in a news release Saturday he appreciates Obama granting the emergency request "and supporting Flint during this critical situation." 
 
 "I have pledged to use all state resources possible to help heal Flint, and these additional resources will greatly assist in efforts under way to ensure every resident has access to clean water resources," he said. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, welcomed the emergency declaration and issued a statement: 
 
 “I welcome the president’s quick action in support of the people of Flint after months of inaction by the governor," Kildee said. "The residents and children of Flint deserve every resource available to make sure that they have safe water and are able to recover from this terrible manmade disaster created by the state.” 
 
 On Friday, Kildee led a bipartisan effort in support of the request for federal assistance. Kildee had long called for Snyder to request federal aid. 
 
 Typically, federal aid for an emergency is capped at $5 million, though the president can commit more if he goes through Congress. 
 
 Snyder's application said as much as $55 million is needed in the near term to repair damaged lead service lines and as much as $41 million to pay for several months of water distribution and providing residents with testing, water filters and cartridges. 
 
 In what's become a huge government scandal, garnering headlines across the country and around the world, Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead after the city temporarily switched its supply source in 2014 from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to more corrosive and polluted Flint River water, treated at the Flint water treatment plant. 
 
 The switch was made as a cost-cutting move while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. The state Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged a mistake in failing to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals to the water. That caused lead, which causes brain damage and other health problems in children, to leach into the water from pipes and fixtures. 
 
 Resident complaints about the taste, odor and appearance of the water, which began immediately after the switch, were largely ignored by state officials. The state also dismissed reports of elevated lead levels in the blood of Flint children from pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha before for the first time publicly acknowledging a problem in October 2015. 
 
 Snyder declared a state of emergency Jan. 5 and mobilized the National Guard Jan. 12 but has been widely and strongly criticized for not moving more quickly. 
 
 State Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said federal assistance makes him "more confident ... Flint families will begin receiving the help they deserve." 
 
 "We need to remain committed and ensure the state fully accepts responsibility in this crisis and does everything they can to correct the long-term impact on our community," Ananich said in a news release Saturday. 
 
 U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said in a news release Saturday she appreciates "the president's quick action in responding to the urgent needs of families in Flint." 
 
 "I will continue to push for federal resources to address this crisis, and for a commitment of resources from the state to meet the immediate needs of the community and to set aside a future fund to address the long-term needs of children and families," Stabenow said. 
 
 U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, also welcomed the announcement and said he will work to support further federal support for Flint residents. However, "the State of Michigan and Gov. Snyder must step up and provide the necessary resources to deal with the long-term effect of water contamination," Peters said in a statement. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, praised Obama for moving "with unprecedented speed to respond, within 36 hours of receiving the request." 
 
 Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1RsCM1X ||||| As National Guard troops patrol Flint handing out bottled water, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder defended his handling of the crisis and defied calls for him to resign. 
 
 “As soon as I became aware of elevated lead levels in blood,” Snyder said on Jan. 14 in an exclusive interview with TIME at his office in Lansing, “we took action.” 
 
 The crisis in the struggling industrial city of 100,000 dates to April 2014, when Flint switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in order to save money. The river water turned out to be highly corrosive to the city’s pipes, leaching toxic levels of lead into water being used for drinking, cooking and bathing. Shortly after the switch, residents began complaining of discoloration in the water, bad odors and health effects like headaches and rashes. Last summer, researchers at Virginia Tech found that the water in some homes contained enough lead to be considered toxic waste. On Jan. 5, months after testing revealed the city’s water supply was unsafe, Snyder declared a state of emergency. Nine days later, the governor announced that he had asked the Obama administration to designate the county surrounding Flint as a federal emergency area. 
 
 What the state and its governor, a Republican who was re-elected in 2014 after helping Detroit emerge from bankruptcy, knew and when they knew it have emerged as critical questions as the crisis stretches into its 19th month. Residents and a growing number of local and national officials have accused Snyder of ignoring a public health emergency, with some calling for him to step down as a result. 
 
 In an interview with TIME shortly before he announced the federal emergency request, Snyder says he first knew about potentially serious problems with the water supply on Oct. 1, 2015, when testing by state environmental officials confirmed elevated levels of lead. Pressed on whether that was the first time he became aware of any concern with Flint’s water, Snyder says, “Obviously, I knew there were water issues in Flint. But did I know there were unsafe blood levels? No.” 
 
 Read more: Michigan Governor Sends Bottled Water to Flint 
 
 In a recently-released email from July 2015, Snyder’s former chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, wrote to a state health department official that he was concerned that Flint residents believed they were getting “blown off” by state officials. Snyder says the email shows that his office was not neglecting the city, and Muchmore was “concerned that we were getting straight answers so he asked tough questions and he got answers.” 
 
 Asked if he waited too long to declare a state of emergency, Snyder defended the state’s response. “There was some time period where we were offering filters, we were working hard to get water. All these kind of things. But not enough of it was being accepted. Now we’re to the point now where hopefully we’re fully engaged and have everyone working hard to make sure everyone in Flint has access to a water filter.” 
 
 Snyder did fault the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which repeatedly told Flint residents the water was safe to drink despite reports within the department that some Flint homes showed extremely high lead levels, for “being probably too technical in their interpretation of things or following a traditional pattern of doing things rather than stepping back to look at what else you might see in data.” 
 
 “There were issues in terms of getting appropriate answers,” Snyder tells TIME. “That was unfortunate. It would’ve been good to have that information sooner. And I am responsible for those people. I don’t deny that.” 
 
 Read more: Toxic Water Isn’t Just in Michigan 
 
 Flint has since stopped using the river for its water, but concern remains that the system’s pipes will continue to release lead. State officials are now focused on providing water filters and drinking water to Flint residents. But protesters, who marched onto the Michigan Capitol Building Thursday, say they’re going to keep the pressure on the governor, who admits that it will be a challenge to regain residents’ support. 
 
 “We are working hard to earn their trust back,” Snyder says. “I can appreciate the concerns that they have and we’re trying to work hard to show them that we really do care.” ||||| (CNN) Flint, Michigan, lies about 70 miles from the shores of the largest group of fresh water bodies in the world: the Great Lakes. Yet its residents can't get clean water from their taps. 
 
 Nearly two years ago, the state decided to save money by switching Flint's water supply from Lake Huron (which they were paying the city of Detroit for), to the Flint River, a notorious tributary that runs through town known to locals for its filth. 
 
 "We thought it was a joke," said Rhonda Kelso, a long-time Flint resident. "People my age and older, thought 'They're not going to do that.' " 
 
 The switch was made during a financial state of emergency for the ever-struggling industrial town. It was supposed to be temporary while a new state-run supply line to Lake Huron was ready for connection. The project was estimated to take about two years. 
 
 What's in the water? 
 
 Soon after the switch, the water started to look, smell and taste funny. Residents said it often looked dirty. 
 
 Rhonda Kelso and her daughter 
 
 "The water would come in brown and my daughter was like 'Mom ... why is the water brown?' " 
 
 Kelso thought it was sewage, but it was actually iron. The Flint River is highly corrosive: 19 times more so than the Lake Huron supply, according to researchers from Virginia Tech 
 
 According to a class-action lawsuit , the state Department of Environmental Quality wasn't treating the Flint River water with an anti-corrosive agent, in violation of federal law. Therefore, the water was eroding the iron water mains, turning water brown. 
 
 But what residents couldn't see was far worse. About half of the service lines to homes in Flint are made of lead and because the water wasn't properly treated, lead began leaching into the water supply, in addition to the iron. 
 
 This had been the status quo for nearly two years, and until September, city and state officials told worried residents that everything was fine. Former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling even drank it on local TV to make the point. 
 
 The city is now issuing bottled water to Flint residents. 
 
 But in August, a group of skeptical researchers from Virginia Tech came up and did in-home testing and found elevated levels of lead in the drinking water and made those findings public. State officials insisted their own research was more accurate. 
 
 "You're paying for poison. I'm paying for water that's a toxic waste," Kelso said. She and her daughter and four other families are now part of a class-action lawsuit that alleges not only lead poisoning but several medical conditions resulting from contaminated water after the switch. CNN sought responses from all the defendants, and many did not respond. 
 
 Later it became publicly known that federal law had not been followed. A 2011 study on the Flint River found it would have to be treated with an anti-corrosive agent for it to be considered as a safe source for drinking water. 
 
 Adding that agent would have cost about $100 a day, and experts say 90% of the problems with Flint's water would have been avoided. 
 
 But Flint residents say they were kept in the dark for 18 months until a local doctor took things into her own hands. 
 
 The hero doctor 
 
 Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha 
 
 In the pediatric ward of Flint's Hurley Medical Center, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was seeing more and more worried parents fretting over rashes and hair loss. 
 
 No one believed state and local officials when they said that this icky brown water was safe. 
 
 Hanna-Attisha, an animated and passionate young pediatrician with horn-rimmed glasses who everyone calls Dr. Mona, realized there was a way to determine whether the water was affecting kids. Medicare requires states to keep records of blood lead levels in toddlers. The comparison was astonishing. Lead levels doubled and even tripled in some cases. 
 
 "When (my research team and I) saw that it was getting into children and when we knew the consequences, that's when I think we began not to sleep," Hanna-Attisha said. 
 
 At first, the state publicly denounced her work, saying she was causing near hysteria. They spent a week attacking her before reversing their narrative and admitting she was right. 
 
 Mayor Karen Weaver 
 
 "Their information wasn't flawed. They had the data, but they were being told by the DEQ that there wasn't a problem, they just dismissed it," said Hanna-Attisha and confirmed by the state-appointed task force. "There was almost like blinders on," she added. CNN contacted DEQ's former director, Dan Wyant, who made the decision and later resigned over the issue. He did not respond. 
 
 Just a few weeks later, in October, the city reverted to using Detroit's Lake Huron water supply, but the damage was done to the lead pipes. 
 
 Even with properly treated water flowing in, Virginia Tech researchers still detected lead levels -- albeit lower ones -- in water in Flint homes. 
 
 The state is now handing out filters and bottled water. 
 
 "You know, I never thought this was something that we would be begging for, crying for ... clean, affordable water," said Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. 
 
 Flint's woes began before the water, but it's all related 
 
 The past three decades have been rough for Flint. Like many blue-collar Michigan towns, it was fueled by the auto industry. General Motors plants kept it afloat for much of its prosperous history. But in the 1980s and 1990s, those plants began to close their doors, and when the jobs left, so did many of the people. 
 
 A steady decline in population has been matched by a steady rise in violent crime. It's consistently ranked among the most dangerous cities in America. 
 
 According to local officials, about 40% of residents are below the poverty rate. Fifteen percent of homes are boarded up and abandoned. Weaver says the city of 100,000 doesn't even have a grocery store. And now its residents don't have clean water either. 
 
 JUST WATCHED High levels of lead found in Flint water Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH High levels of lead found in Flint water 01:01 
 
 In 2011, Flint was declared to be in a financial state of emergency, and the state took budgetary control. Therefore, all the decisions made during the water crisis were at the state level, which state officials confirmed, not by the City Council or the mayor. 
 
 "When the governor appointed an emergency financial manager (in 2011), that person came here ... to simply do one thing and one thing only, and that's cut the budget, at any cost," said Michigan Congressman Dan Kildee. 
 
 Kildee said the water crisis is indicative of an attitude about industrial towns such as Flint that have seen hard times in the past 30 years. They're often just forgotten, he said. 
 
 "This case shows that you can't treat cities the way you treat some corporation that you might just sort of sell off," Kildee said. 
 
 Long-term health consequences 
 
 Lead poisoning is irreversible. Pediatricians such as Hanna-Attisha fear the Flint children who tested with elevated levels will suffer lifelong consequences. 
 
 "If you were to put something in a population to keep them down for generation and generations to come, it would be lead," Hanna-Attisha said. "It's a well-known, potent neurotoxin. There's tons of evidence on what lead does to a child, and it is one of the most damning things that you can do to a population. It drops your IQ, it affects your behavior, it's been linked to criminality, it has multigenerational impacts. There is no safe level of lead in a child." 
 
 There are environmental actions that can help mitigate exposure such as proper nutrition and early childhood education. But that's made more difficult in a city with inadequate resources and without a grocery store. 
 
 "We need some money for infrastructure," said Weaver, who took office in November. "We've got to get all of these kids and all of these families the services they deserve because of what's happened." 
 
 Who's to blame? 
 
 A state-appointed task force preliminarily found that fault lies with the state DEQ, and on December 29, Wyant stepped down. 
 
 Last week, three months after high lead levels were detected in Flint children, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency over the issue. 
 
 Dan Wyant, the former quality director at Michigan's Department of Enviromental Quality 
 
 The U.S. Attorney in Michigan and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are also investigating why the state chose to ignore federal law and go without the anti-corrosive agent, as the lawsuit contends . "Nobody has answered that question," Weaver said. 
 
 Friday evening, about 100 protesters in Flint marched from city hall, calling for Snyder's resignation over the issue. 
 
 Everyone CNN interviewed -- residents, the former mayor, the current mayor, Congressman Kildee, city workers -- they all blame the governor's office and the state Department of Environmental Quality for what happened to Flint. Snyder apologized on Thursday during a news conference. 
 
 Dayne Walling, the former mayor who so confidently went on TV and drank Flint River water to try to quell the early protests, lost his recent re-election bid in a campaign centered around the issue. 
 
 "In retrospect, I regret all of it," Walling said this weekend. 
 
 "All the way back to seeing the city move to a different drinking water source. You can't put a dollar amount of the devastation to our community, our kids, and it was completely avoidable." ||||| (CNN) Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vowed to do everything in his power to solve the Flint water crisis, asking legislators for $28 million to fund a series of immediate actions. 
 
 He also apologized for the crisis during his annual State of the State speech Tuesday night. 
 
 The Republican governor has become a lightning rod for criticism because the crisis unfolded under the state's watch. 
 
 "To begin, I'd like to address the people of Flint. Your families face a crisis, a crisis you did not create and could not have prevented," Snyder said. "I am sorry and I will fix it." 
 
 The additional money would go to help fund the following, the governor said: 
 
 Bottled water, filters, replacement filters; 
 
 Assistance to Flint to help with utility-related issues; 
 
 Testing and replacing fixtures in schools and other high-risk locations; 
 
 Treatment of children with high lead levels; 
 
 Services for the treatment of potential behavioral health issues; 
 
 Support for children and adolescent health centers; 
 
 An infrastructure integrity study for pipes and connections. 
 
 Snyder spoke about the long-term consequences of the crisis, saying the $28 million request won't be the last budget request for Flint. 
 
 He also released a detailed timeline of steps officials have taken already and announced he will be releasing his 2014 and 2015 emails related to the crisis. 
 
 "No citizen of this great state should endure this kind of catastrophe. Government failed you -- federal, state and local leaders -- by breaking the trust you placed in us," Snyder said. 
 
 "You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth." 
 
 The governor's address did little to quiet his critics. 
 
 "For those who think $28 million will begin to remedy the Flint water crisis, that is a fraction of the money city residents have paid for poisoned water that they cannot drink," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee. 
 
 Flint Mayor Karen Weaver has previously said the costs to undo the damage, both to infrastructure and residents' health, could be between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. 
 
 "Flint deserves an immediate response equal to the gravity of this ongoing public health emergency. A state-appointed emergency financial manager created this problem and the state must step up and do more to help Flint families and children right now," Kildee said. 
 
 Outside where the governor spoke in Lansing, protesters gathered and demanded that Snyder step down. 
 
 Tomeko Hornaday has been a resident of Flint for some 40 years. She said what's happened there is an embarrassment. 
 
 "Just to see the city of Flint just go down for the last decade, you know, with the crime, with no jobs, all the way down to us not having any water," Hornaday said. "We're angry. We want something done." 
 
 #FlintLivesMatter #flintwatercrisis #CNNiReport A video posted by Tamia (@miahunter1) on Jan 19, 2016 at 2:54pm PST 
 
 Easily averted? 
 
 In April 2014, the state, which had appointed an emergency manager to Flint amid a financial crisis, decided to temporarily switch Flint's water source to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure until a new supply line to Lake Huron was ready. 
 
 The Flint River had long had a reputation for nastiness when the state made the switch, and a 2011 study had found that before water from the Flint River could be considered potable, it would need to be treated with an anti-corrosion agent, a measure that would have cost the state about $100 a day. 
 
 Experts say that water treatment would have prevented 90% of the problems with Flint's water. 
 
 JUST WATCHED What is lead poisoning? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What is lead poisoning? 01:12 
 
 After the switch, residents complained their water looked, smelled and tasted funny. 
 
 Virginia Tech researchers found the water was highly corrosive. A class-action lawsuit filed last year alleges the state Department of Environmental Quality didn't treat the water for corrosion, in accordance with federal law, and because so many service lines in Flint are made of lead, the noxious element leached into the water of the city's homes. 
 
 The city swapped back to the Lake Huron water supply in October, but the damage was already done to the lead pipes. The state is now handing out filters and bottled water with the help of the National Guard. 
 
 'No-good water' 
 
 An attorney representing Flint residents who are suing Michigan officials over what his legal team calls the city's "lousy, no-good water" has a message for state officials targeted in the lawsuits: "Don't fight it." 
 
 The state is responsible for the water woes Flint residents have suffered and continue to suffer as a result, and the only responsible thing the state can do is own up to it, attorney Michael Pitt said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED High-level officials sued for tainted water in Flint Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH High-level officials sued for tainted water in Flint 02:19 
 
 "If you make the mess, you clean it up," he said. "I'm reminding our elected officials of what my kindergarten teacher told me." 
 
 The three lawsuits seek individual damages for Flint residents -- an estimated 500 and counting -- who have complained of health issues and worry about future ailments as a result of the state swapping the city's water source from Lake Huron to the notoriously filthy Flint River in 2014. 
 
 Bill Goodman, another member of the legal team, explained to reporters the purpose of the three lawsuits: The federal lawsuit filed in November addresses alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution; the suit filed last week in the Michigan Court of Claims targets alleged violations of the state constitution; and the suit filed in Genesee County Circuit Court deals with what he called "grossly negligent actions by government officials." 
 
 'Stuff is revealed' 
 
 During the discovery process, Goodman said, attorneys and their clients should receive within six weeks emails and other documents from various government officials, including Snyder, that could shed light on a critical yet heretofore unanswered question: How the heck did this occur? 
 
 "We finally find out what happened. Stuff is revealed that hasn't been revealed," he said. 
 
 Pitt added that the response to the federal lawsuit is due February 1, and that may provide some answers, but he encouraged state leaders to act promptly in providing money to residents who have been inconvenienced, sickened or worse by the water debacle. 
 
 "They need financial aid. Water's great. Filters are great," he said. "But our people need financial aid, and they need it now." 
 
 He further lambasted state officials who, he alleged, learned of elevated lead levels in children's blood in 2014 and did nothing. 
 
 "They were staring at a public health emergency, and they sat on it for over 10 months," he said, further criticizing leaders who assured residents the water was safe when they knew it wasn't true. 
 
 "I don't know how many kids were poisoned because of these false assurances, but we're going to find out." ||||| DETROIT (AP) — Officials in Michigan declared a public health emergency Thursday over the city of Flint's water, after months of resident complaints about its smell and taste, in response to tests that showed children with elevated levels of lead. 
 
 Mark Valacak, director of the Geneseee County Health Department, issues a public health state of emergency due to the lead in city water during a press conference at the Genesee County Administration... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mark Valacak, director of the Geneseee County Health Department, issues a public health state of emergency due to the lead in city water during a press conference at the Genesee County Administration... (Associated Press) 
 
 Genesee County Commissioner Jamie Curtis speaks during a press conference at the Genesee County Administration Building in Flint, Mich., on Thursday Oct. 1, 2015. (Christian Randolph/The Flint Journal-MLive.com... (Associated Press) 
 
 Senior Minister Nathan Dannison, left, and Deacon Tom Birkhold of the 1st Congregational United Church of Christ help deliver more than 4,000 bottles of water for kids in the Flint School District, Wednesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A day after Gov. Rick Snyder said the consequences of using the Flint River for the city's drinking water weren't "fully understood," Genesee County Commissioners recommended that people not use the water unless it first goes through an approved filter at taps. 
 
 A group of doctors called a news conference last week to report high levels of lead in blood samples from children, as the corrosive water is apparently releasing lead from old pipes in homes. It was among the most significant challenges to the quality of Flint water since the city decided last year to stop paying Detroit for its water service. 
 
 Mayor Dayne Walling said Thursday residents should follow the county commission's declaration on using filters certified for lead removal, having water tested and flushing cold water for five minutes before drinking it. 
 
 A coalition of local citizens and national groups petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to order Michigan and state environmental officials to reconnect Flint to Detroit water. 
 
 "As evidenced by the ongoing poisoning of the children of Flint, it's time for the EPA to take immediate action to provide us with a safe water source," said LeeAnne Walters, a Flint parent and member of the Water You Fighting For group. 
 
 Detroit's water system serves about 4 million people in communities across southeastern Michigan. 
 
 "This department is always willing to explore possibilities that may be beneficial ... for the residents of Flint and the other communities that we serve," William Wolfson of the Detroit Water Department told The Associated Press. 
 
 Flint is among a number of communities that have complained about the rising cost of Detroit's water and sewerage service. City officials estimated the cost of buying water from Detroit at $16 million. They turned off Flint's tap to Detroit water in April 2014 and opted for Flint River water until the city switches to a new pipeline from Lake Huron. The overall annual cost to be part of the Lake Huron system would be $12.5 million. 
 
 The decision to break away from the Detroit system was made while a Snyder-appointed emergency manager was running the long-struggling city, which had reached a financial crisis. 
 
 "In terms of a mistake, what I would say is we found there are probably things that weren't as fully understood when that switch was made," Snyder said Wednesday. 
 
 But residents have been unhappy with the taste and appearance of water from the Flint River. They also have raised health concerns, reporting rashes, hair loss and other problems. A General Motors plant stopped using the water, saying it was rusting its parts. 
 
 Despite the complaints, city officials had said state tests showed the water met federal safety guidelines. 
 
 More concerns surfaced after Virginia Tech researchers posted an online report in early September saying Flint's water is "creating a public health threat" in old homes that have lead pipes or pipes fused with lead solder. 
 
 Flint officials say they know which homes have risky pipes but the information is on about 45,000 index cards and difficult to retrieve. 
 
 The city is now telling residents to use only cold water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula, and recommending they use the certified filters. The General Motors Foundation, the local United Way and others have given at least $105,000 to buy filters for 5,000 residents. 
 
 But Kary Moss, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan — one of the group's filing the petition with the EPA — says the first step has to be removing the Flint River as the city's source of water. ||||| This post has been updated.* 
 
 Residents of Flint, Mich., complained of persistent problems with their water since the city switched the supply in April 2014. On Jan. 13, officials announced a spike in cases of Legionnaires' disease in the area. (AP) 
 
 For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their pediatricians’ offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their arms, they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned? 
 
 To find out, all it takes is a prick of the finger, a small letting of blood. If tests come back positive, the potentially severe consequences are far more difficult to discern. 
 
 That’s how lead works. It leaves its mark quietly, with a virtually invisible trail. But years later, when a child shows signs of a learning disability or behavioral issues, lead’s prior presence in the bloodstream suddenly becomes inescapable. 
 
 According to the World Health Organization, “lead affects children’s brain development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure also causes anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the reproductive organs. The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are believed to be irreversible.” 
 
 The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014. 
 
 The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency. 
 
 “The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster,” Weaver said in a declaratory statement. 
 
 1 of 37 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The controversial case over dangerous lead in water in a Michigan city View Photos Anger over high levels of lead in the water in Flint has led the mayor to declare a state of emergency. Caption Anger over high levels of lead in the water in Flint has led the mayor to declare a state of emergency. Jan. 25, 2016 Flint resident Angela Hickmon, 56, chants during a protest outside City Hall in downtown Flint. Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 The mayor — elected after her predecessor, Dayne Walling, experienced fallout from his administration’s handling of the water problems — said in the statement that she was seeking support from the federal government to deal with the “irreversible” effects of lead exposure on the city’s children. Weaver thinks that these health consequences will lead to a greater need for special education and mental health services, as well as developments in the juvenile justice system. 
 
 “Do we meet the criteria [for a disaster area]? I don’t know,” she told Michigan Live. But Weaver doesn’t think the city can receive the help it needs without alerting federal officials to the urgency of the matter. 
 
 [How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks] 
 
 To those living in Flint, the announcement may feel as if it has been a long time coming. 
 
 Almost immediately after the city started drawing from the Flint River in April 2014, residents began complaining about the water, which they said was cloudy in appearance and emitted a foul odor. 
 
 Since then, complications from the water coming from the Flint River have only piled up. Although city and state officials initially denied that the water was unsafe, the state issued a notice informing Flint residents that their water contained unlawful levels of trihalomethanes, a chlorine byproduct linked to cancer and other diseases. 
 
 
 
 Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, right, and City Administrator Natasha Henderson, address questions about adding supplemental phosphates to the city’s water during a news conference in December. (Jake May/Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) 
 
 Protesters marched to City Hall in the fierce Michigan cold, calling for officials to reconnect Flint’s water to the Detroit system. The use of the Flint River was supposed to be temporary, set to end in 2016 after a pipeline to Lake Huron’s Karegnondi Water Authority is finished. 
 
 A petition lobbying for the ending the city’s Flint River water supply garnered 26,000 signatures. 
 
 Through continued demonstrations by Flint residents and mounting scientific evidence of the water’s toxins, city and state officials offered various solutions — from asking residents to boil their water to providing them with water filters — in an attempt to work around the need to reconnect to the Detroit system. 
 
 That call was finally made by Snyder (R) on Oct. 8. He announced that he had a plan for coming up with the $12 million to switch Flint back to the Detroit system. On Oct. 16, water started flowing again from Detroit to Flint. 
 
 David Murray, press secretary for Michigan governor Rick Snyder’s office, told The Washington Post that the state has been working on improving the water quality in Flint and other cities for the past year. It has also offered more than $10 million in financial assistance to pay for a temporary switch into the Detroit system while the connection to Lake Huron is being prepared. 
 
 “Flint residents need to have access to safe, clean water,” Murray wrote in an email to The Post. “Gov. Snyder and the administration have been working closely with the city to focus on health issues affecting children and other city residents, and address water infrastructure challenges.” 
 
 He added that while the water leaving Flint’s drinking water system is safe to drink, “some families with lead plumbing in their homes or service connections could experience higher levels of lead in the water that comes out of their faucets.” An action plan created by Snyder in October includes free water testing, free water filters and the accelerating of corrosion controls in the drinking water system, according to Murray. 
 
 For the parents of children who may have been affected, such actions were accompanied by the sense that they had come too late. 
 
 These parents and other Flint residents filed a class-action federal lawsuit against Snyder, the state, the city and 13 other public officials in November for the damages they have suffered as a result of the lead-tainted water. The suit, which claims to represent “tens of thousands of residents,” alleges that the city and state officials “deliberately deprived” them of their 14th Amendment rights by replacing formerly safe drinking water with a cheaper alternative that was known to be highly toxic. 
 
 
 
 Lyla McCallun, 4, formerly of Flint, draws on a sheet of paper while sitting on the lap of her grandmother, Flint resident Jacqueline Pemberton, one of six others listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. (Jake May /Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) 
 
 “For more than 18 months, state and local government officials ignored irrefutable evidence that the water pumped from the Flint River exposed [residents] to extreme toxicity,” the complaint reads. “The deliberately false denials about the safety of the Flint River water was as deadly as it was arrogant.” 
 
 Calling officials’ conduct “so egregious and so outrageous that it shocks the conscience,” the complaint cites the specific experiences of a few plaintiffs and their families, all of whom allege they have been challenged by similar health ailments since high levels of lead and copper entered their bloodstreams. 
 
 These conditions include skin lesions, hair loss, chemical-induced hypertension, vision loss and depression. Of the four families described in the complaint, two had ceased to drink Flint water after a certain point — and used it only for washing and cooking — but still said they were exposed to many of the same ill effects. 
 
 Snyder’s press secretary, Murray, wrote in an email to The Post that the administration disagrees with points in the suit, but declined to discuss details of pending litigation. 
 
 As the Detroit Free Press reported in October, avoiding Flint water became a way of life for the city’s residents. 
 
 Those who could afford it opted for bottled water, buying it by the gallons. Those who couldn’t spare the money drank it straight from the tap all the same, knowing that they would be paying for it later. When it came to bathing, some slowly filled bathtubs with pots of boiled water for their children. 
 
 (The city issued a boil advisory in September 2014. This recommendation runs contrary to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines on lead in drinking water, which state that heating or boiling water will not remove lead. In fact, “because some of the water evaporates during the boiling process, the lead concentration of the water can actually increase slightly as the water is boiled,” according to the CDC.) 
 
 LeeAnn Walters, a Flint resident and mother of 4-year-old twins, took every precaution after blood tests revealed that the level of lead in one of her sons had soared after the switch to Flint River. 
 
 “I was hysterical,” Walters told the Free Press. “I cried when they gave me my first lead report.” 
 
 She had feared lead was the problem when her whole family developed rashes and her son stopped gaining weight. 
 
 Now, Walters said, when her children experience problems as they grow up, she will always wonder whether things would have been different — if their lives would have been better — if it weren’t for the water. 
 
 *This post has been updated with a response from the office of Gov. Rick Snyder. 
 
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– Flint, Michigan's water woes are officially a federal emergency—nearly two years after the city took the money-saving move of switching from using Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to water from the Flint River. That water was found to be highly corrosive to lead pipes still in use in the city, causing lead to leach into residents' drinking water. On Saturday President Obama declared a federal emergency in the city of 100,000, thereby unleashing federal funding and authorizing FEMA to provide water, filters, cartridges, and other items for 90 days, per the AP and Detroit Free Press. Gov. Rich Snyder puts the cost of the aforementioned water distribution and filtering items at $41 million. More: Sanders vs. Snyder: Speaking of Snyder, Bernie Sanders called for his resignation Saturday. "The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint's water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned." Timeline: The AP has a timelines of the crisis, which dates to the April 2014 switch. Notable: In October 2014, a GM engine plant stopped using Flint's water, stating that it was rusting parts. Visualized: The Washington Post has a jarring and informative series of graphics that illustrate "how toxic Flint's water really is." One family's water tested at a level that the EPA considers to be "toxic waste." Every kid: The state's chief medical executive, along with the doctor who publicly called for Flint to stop its use of Flint River water, this week said all 8,657 kids under age 6 in Flint should be considered exposed to lead and treated as such, reports USA Today. The residents' ordeal: The AP speaks with some locals. Rabecka Cordell and her 5-year-old son have lead poisoning; she also has leukemia, he has learning and speech disabilities. She refuses to even use the water to bathe.