Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

LANSING -- A March 2015 consultant's report recommended spending $50,000 to add corrosion control chemicals to Flint's drinking water because iron was leaching from the pipes and turning the water brown — a significant and relatively early red flag that city officials and regulators missed, experts said Thursday..

The report, commissioned by the City of Flint from the multinational environmental consulting firm Veolia, made no mention of lead leaching into the water and did not cite health concerns, only aesthetic ones. Its recommendation to add phosphates to soften the water would have cost a tiny fraction of today's mounting costs to address the Flint drinking water crisis, but it went unheeded by the city's state-appointed emergency manager.

"If you've got iron sloughing off (the pipes), you've got other metals sloughing off, including lead," said Joan Rose, a chair of water research in MSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and a former chairwoman of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water committee.

EPA blasts handling of Flint crisis, says risks remain

The March 12, 2015, Veolia report, addressed to former Flint emergency manager Gerald Ambrose, had earlier been posted on the Flint website. It resurfaced Wednesday when Snyder released hundreds of pages of e-mails related to Flint that he sent and received in 2014 and 2015.

It appears Snyder did not get the report when Ambrose did. An electronic version of the report was forwarded to the governor by his then-chief of Staff, Dennis Muchmore, on Oct. 13, after state officials acknowledged a health problem with Flint water following months of denials.

Ambrose could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Snyder and his administration are under intense criticism and media scrutiny over the poisoning with lead of a still undetermined number of Flint children while the city was under control of emergency managers the governor appointed. In April 2014, in what was to be a temporary cost-cutting move while it awaited construction of a new pipeline, the city switched its drinking water source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged a drastic mistake in failing to require Flint to add needed corrosion control chemicals to the water. After first scoffing at reports of a spike in blood lead levels in Flint children, the state acknowledged a problem in early October and helped Flint reconnect to the Detroit system. But officials say a danger persists because of damage to the water distribution system by the corrosive Flint River water and that residents still shouldn't drink the tap water without using a lead filter.

Snyder declared a state of emergency Jan. 5 and mobilized the Michigan National Guard to help with water and filter distribution on Jan. 12. On Saturday, President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Flint. He announced $80 million in financial aid for water infrastructure projects in Michigan on Thursday — and some of that money is likely to be used to help Flint.

A statement released Thursday by Veolia North America said Flint had asked the company to focus on taste, color and odor issues, as well as disinfection byproducts that had exceeded federal standards. "Flint had previously tested lead and copper levels and a review of that data was not part of our scope of work," the statement said.

Veolia spokesman Paul Whitmore said the report "focused on key aspects of water quality and included recommendations to change chemicals and dosing to minimize the risk of potentially high levels of lead associated with corrosion in the distribution system." But he conceded the report made no mention of lead.

The report, which made more than 20 recommendations, was presented at public meetings with Flint's technical advisory committee, which included public health officials, and was posted on the city website when it was made public, the company statement said.

Though the report was not e-mailed directly to Snyder until October, the governor had earlier been sent information about the corrosive nature of Flint drinking water, though again it did not come attached to any direct health warning.

A briefing paper on Flint water sent to Snyder on Feb. 1 referenced the fact the Flint River water was "harder" than the Lake Huron water Flint formerly received from the Detroit water system.

"It's why General Motors suspended use of Flint water," the briefing paper from the DEQ said. "It was rusting their parts."

GM's decision in October 2014 to switch off of City of Flint water in favor of Flint Township water, which came from Detroit, is now seen as another missed opportunity to investigate what was wrong with Flint's water. At the time, the company said it was concerned high chloride levels in the treated water would cause corrosion.

Muchmore, the former Snyder chief of staff, said on the public affairs program "Off the Record" on WKAR-TV last Friday that he and Snyder were aware of the GM move away from Flint water when it happened.

"So that was not a red flag?" Tim Skubick, the host of the program, asked Muchmore.

"Well, it was a flag," Muchmore replied. However, it appeared "the kind of water that they need has such a small tolerance that you can never guarantee that for every day public water."

The briefing paper sent to Snyder on Feb. 1 also said complaints about brown water coming out of Flint taps "may also be attributable to cast iron pipes in customers' service connections to the city lines."

Snyder could be asked to testify before Congress on Flint

The briefing paper said "discoloration is not an indicator of water quality or water safety."

But Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech researcher and drinking water expert who helped expose the Flint public health crisis, said if iron is leaching into the water from old pipes and connections, it follows that lead is also leaching.

He described the March report from Veolia as a significant red flag, though "not as bad (a red flag) as the red water pouring out of taps everywhere."

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