Michigan's Gov. Snyder: 'Career bureaucrats' with no common sense misled me on Flint water

DETROIT, April 12 (UPI) -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder again took the blame for the water crisis in the city of Flint but said he was misled by staff members.

He told a Detroit audience Monday he received a briefing "telling me that there isn't a problem in Flint, that these outside experts aren't correct." The following day, Sept. 28, 2015, he said, he was told of the problem on a conference call with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"That's the kind of thing you never want to see, and talk about being upset, I was upset," Snyder added.

The discovery of high concentrations of lead in Flint's drinking water, after the city switched its water source from Detroit to the Flint River, led to the water officially being considered unsafe for human consumption.

Taking questions at the Detroit Athletic Club breakfast, Snyder blamed "career bureaucrats" with "an absolute lack of common sense" for the crisis. Instead of immediately adding chemicals costing $150 per day to the water supply to protect lead pipes from corrosive water, state employees chose instead to perform two six-month studies, he said.

He took responsibility for the government's actions, but repeated that he won't resign, as some have suggested he do.

You take your shots; you deserve them. You deserve the people in Flint being angry at you, but you don't back away," he said.