Flint residents pick up bottled water and water filters at a fire station in Flint, Michigan, Jan. 13, 2016.

While speaking at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, actor Matt Damon offered some blunt words for Governor Rick Snyder after residents of Flint complained for more than 18 months that their water was contaminated.

Ariana Hawk is the mother of 2-year-old, Sincere "Sunny" Smith. But he said the state has "legal and factual concerns" with an EPA order a day earlier taking state and city officials to task for their efforts so far and requiring them to take specific actions. "They would never do this to Farmington Hills", filmmaker and Flint native Michael Moore said, referring to much wealthier MI communities.

Rick Snyderannounced the suspensions of two Department of Environmental Quality officials Friday, but if the state determines those or other workers need to be fired for mishandling the Flint water crisis, it could take more than a year to make it final.

According to CBN, the water problem began in 2014 when Flint switched its water source from Lake Huron to Flint River to save money but ended up corroding aging pipes and contaminating water with lead. Now families fear for their health and especially for the future of their children, who can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure.

In January 2015, tests were done to Flint's drinking water, which showed that the corrosive Flint River water was leaching lead from the city's water pipes. Additionally, Flint residents were not informed about their tainted drinking water supply for a year and a half.

That Flint is a majority African American city where approximately 42 percent of its people live in poverty has raised questions over whether race played a factor in the city's slow response to the crisis.

A paediatrician in Flint later found high levels of lead in children's blood.

What is environmental racism, and what does it have to do with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan? "I came along at a time when this project was already underway and it fell to me to oversee implementation of it", he said of using the river.

Snyder spokesman Dave Murray didn't reveal how the new team will be paid.

The panel recommendations included working with the EPA staff on a comprehensive lead-sampling program and seeking help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in assessing an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and its cause.

Could this crisis have been averted had the city been more focused on the public welfare than on cutting costs? State-appointed emergency managers had been assigned to Flint to address its fiscal problems. However, he challenges the legality of the federal government's demands. In an appeal letter, Snyder called the decision a "narrow reading" of the law.

The unnamed DEQ employees who were suspended Friday pending investigations work in the agency's drinking water division, state spokesman Kurt Weiss said.

Paul Mohai, a professor at the University of MI in Ann Arbor, has studied environmental burdens and their disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities since the late 1990s. "Some DEQ actions lacked common sense and that resulted in this awful tragedy in Flint".

Some have faulted the EPA's Region 5 office for not acting more forcefully even though much of the blame over the crisis has been directed at Snyder and state officials, particularly the Department of Environmental Quality.

The governor's office was dismissive, and some state agencies tried to discredit the doctor's work.