Paul Egan, Elisha Anderson, and Matthew Dolan

Detroit Free Press

LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder’s former chief of staff proposed spending $250,000 in March 2015 to buy bottled water for distribution at Flint churches, saying “if we procrastinate much longer in doing something direct, we’ll have real trouble.”

It's previously been reported that Dennis Muchmore was involved in a summer 2015 under-the-radar delivery of donated water filters to Flint ministers for distribution.

But e-mails released by the governor’s office Friday disclose for the first time that even before the delivery of water filters, Snyder’s top aide was exploring the purchase of water for Flint to respond to widespread and persistent water quality concerns after the city split with the Detroit water system and began taking its drinking water from the Flint River in April 2014.

Snyder, whose office is not subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, released 550 e-mails related to Flint water that are among an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Flint water e-mails sent and received by Snyder or officials in his executive office that the governor says he will release Friday. The e-mails date back as far as 2011.

Though Muchmore said Thursday he believes a quantity of water was secured by the state in the spring of 2015 and distributed by ministers, current Chief of Staff Jarrod Agen said it didn't happen, partly because of opposition from the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as officials in Flint, such as the emergency manager.

Those parties "were basically saying the water is fine," except for aesthetic issues, "and we shouldn't send a message that something is wrong with the water," Agen said.

The state has budgeted millions for bottled water since Oct. 1, when, after months of denials, officials acknowledged lead was leaching into Flint's drinking water because Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials failed to require the addition of corrosion-control chemicals to the Flint River water.

Muchmore suggested buying Ice Mountain water, bottled by Nestle, which his wife, Deborah, a lobbyist and public relations consultant, has represented for years as a spokeswoman. Muchmore also suggested the purchase could be made from a Nestle competitor.

“How about cutting a deal with Ice Mountain or (Absopure Water board member) Bill Young and buying some water for the people for a time?” Muchmore asked in a March 3, 2015, e-mail. He added: “$250,000 buys a lot of water and we could distribute it through the churches while we continue to make the water even safer."

Muchmore, who retired as Snyder's chief of staff Jan. 19 to become head of government relations for the Honigman law firm, told the Free Press in an interview for a Jan. 4 report that while in the governor's office he recused himself from any issues involving his wife and her clients. He said Thursday he didn't see a conflict in suggesting Nestle as a potential source for buying water.

"Do you mean that I shouldn't go to the two biggest bottled water producers that I know?" he asked. "Who else would you go to? You go to the big ones."

Deborah Muchmore, a partner at Kandler, Reed Khoury and Muchmore in Lansing, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. A Nestle official confirmed that she remains a consultant for the company's operations in Mecosta County.

Dennis Muchmore said he recommended the water purchases after a series of meetings with a group of Flint-area ministers who included the Rev. Allen Overton, the Rev. Alfred Harris Sr., and the Rev. Wallace Hill III. Muchmore described the ministers as "unsung heroes" in the Flint water crisis who worked tirelessly to draw attention to the water problems long before others were paying attention.

"I just think it is prudent to have a Plan B if it gets out of hand," Muchmore said in an e-mail about the state purchasing water.

"I just don't want it to get away from us so that when it turns warmer they create a crisis."

Muchmore said Thursday he didn't think Flint residents should have to drink discolored water, so "why not buy them some water?"

A Treasury Department official, Wayne Workman, said in response to Muchmore's e-mails that he was getting some prices and also talking to Meijer, the grocery firm where former state Treasurer Mark Murray is co-CEO.

But Workman cautioned that the City of Flint, which had been insisting the water was safe to drink, should not distribute the water because "it would undercut every point they are making." Also, any water distributed should probably "be reserved for people who can't afford to buy water," he said.

Muchmore said he wasn't sure but he thinks water was either purchased from or donated by Meijer.

"I think that there was some water distributed," he said.

Peggy Case of Traverse City, president of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, said her group fought Nestle in court and managed to reduce the maximum amount of spring water the company could mine from a well in Mecosta from 400 gallons per minute to 218 gallons per minute.

"This is public water; it should not be sold for profit," Case said.

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