The move comes as Snyder signed a 30 million dollar bill Friday offering credits to help off-set Flint residents hit by the water crisis.
Advertisement
The emails, released after public pressure for transparency, provide insight into what happened behind the scenes as the crisis unfolded.
Valerie Brader, deputy legal counsel and senior policy adviser to Snyder, raised problems with Flint River water in an e-mail to the governor’s Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore and other top aides on October 14, 2014. She also argued that it was an “urgent matter to fix”. Gadola, who grew up in Flint, said the notion that “I would be getting my drinking water from the Flint River is downright scary”.
“Too bad the (emergency manager) didn’t ask me what I thought, though I’m sure he heard it from plenty of others”, Gadola wrote. “My Mom is a City resident”. The tainted water has left children with elevated lead levels, which have been linked to learning disabilities and other problems.
Fecal coliform is usually harmless, but can cause diarrhea, dysentery and hepatitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The warnings and concerns were not addressed, however, and in January 2015, Earley rejected returning Flint’s water source to the Detroit system.
Separately, Stoken asked whether a form letter being sent to people who write to Snyder should be revised to respond to Maddow’s pointed coverage. The Governor’s chief legal counsel was recorded as telling the chief of staff switching to the Flint water system would have negative impact-all unbeknownst to Snyder.
The DEQ failed to require river water be treated with anti-corrosion chemicals, which allowed lead from plumbing and pipes to leach into the water supply. For almost two years, the city’s residents consumed the highly corrosive water from the river.
He has apologized for how the situation was handled.
The holiday season was no respite for the administration due to the release of a critical auditor’s report and a letter from a Snyder-appointed task force investigating the crisis that laid responsibility at the door of the state Department of Environmental Quality. There are few people who know the story better than I do. “I take responsibility for that”.
Muchmore called Wyant “one of the most exceptional directors in state history”, and while “obviously there are people out to get him”, said the administration should be focused on solving Flint’s water issues, not assessing blame.
“P.S. Note: I have not copied (Department of Environmental Quality) on this message for FOIA reasons”, she wrote.
Holland will be special projects manager in the governor’s office, while Murray will serve as communications director for the Michigan Department of Talent and Economic Development.
“This is a public relations crisis – because of a real or perceived problem is irrelevant – waiting to explode nationally”, said Adler’s e-mail, one of thousands the governor’s office released Friday.
Advertisement
“We shared them”, he said.
