Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

The Flint drinking water crisis didn't come up in the GOP presidential debate until the 33rd question, with a little more than 30 minutes left in the two-hour debate.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was asked what national plans for improving infrastructure Republicans had, with the questioner noting that both of the Democratic candidates for president had visited Flint.

"What happened in Flint was a terrible thing," Rubio said.

He called it a systemic failure at every level of government and said "the politicizing of it, I think, is really unfair.""

"I don't think someone woke up one morning and said, 'Let's ... poison someone,' " Rubio said.

Rubio then brought up Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, saying: "I give the governor credit. He took responsibility."

Flint mayor: GOP candidates were as dismissive of concerns as state was

Nobody else jumped in on the Flint question, as the debate quickly moved on to Detroit Public Schools.

Snyder has been under heavy criticism both for the public health disaster itself and for his administration's response to it, which many critics say has been far too slow.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager and temporarily switched its drinking water source, as a cost-cutting move, while it waited for a new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline to Lake Huron to be completed.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to require needed corrosion-control chemicals to be added to the water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into an unknown number of Flint households, causing a spike in the levels of toxic lead in the bloodstreams of Flint children. As of today, residents still are advised not to drink the water without using a lead filter, and Snyder and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver are tussling over how quickly lead service lines in Flint must be dug up and replaced.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.

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