John Wisely

Detroit Free Press

State officials suspected in July that aging pipes were cause of lead problems.

State health official said lead-based paint in homes could have been part of the problem.

Gov. Rick Snyder's then-chief of staff Dennis Muchmore worried in a July e-mail that the state had "blown off' Flint residents concerned about lead in their drinking water.

"I'm frustrated by the water issue in Flint," Muchmore wrote in an e-mail last summer to health officials. "I really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt. These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight)."

Snyder spokesman Dave Murray told the Free Press Thursday that Muchmore had been meeting with Flint community officials throughout the year before expressing his concerns in the e-mail. Residents had complained for months about discolored and foul-smelling water coming out of their taps.

Muchmore could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Flint mayor: Cost of lead fix could hit $1.5 billion

Muchmore's e-mail foreshadowed a crisis that has led to elevated lead levels in the blood of Flint children, who now risk irreversible brain damage. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Thursday that fixing the city's lead-damaged infrastructure could cost as much as $1.5 billion.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit confirmed this week that it was working with the Environmental Protection Agency on an investigation in Flint.

The e-mails were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by researchers at Virginia Tech University who have been studying Flint's water crisis. Another email included in the FOIA request was one from Mark Miller, the local health services director for the Department of Health and Human Services, who appears to have suspected the source of the problem — aging pipes — months before the state acknowledged it.

"Sounds like the issue is old lead service lines," Miller wrote in a July 22 email to colleagues in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

As the crisis has drawn national attention, celebrities have attacked Snyder. Filmmaker Michael Moore, a Flint native, called for Snyder's arrest and actress Cher tweeted that Snyder should face a firing squad. The Agenda Project Action Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive policy group, featured Snyder in a YouTube ad titled "Republican cuts poison."

How you can help Flint residents during water crisis

In April 2014, Flint was being run by an emergency manager appointed by Snyder when it tapped the Flint River for its water supply until a new pipeline from Lake Huron is completed. Researchers later concluded that corrosive river water disturbed lead in Flint's aging water pipes, exposing the city's children to lead poisoning.

Snyder this week apologized for the state's mishandling of the crisis and declared an emergency in Flint, which could help bring federal money to fix the problem.

Muchmore's comments were included in an e-mail forwarded by Nancy Grijalva to others in the health department. Michigan law exempts the governor's office from the Freedom of Information Act so Muchmore's original e-mail was not included in those released to Virginia Tech.

In response to Muchmore's concerns, Nancy Peeler of the state Department of Community Health, wrote back that "there was a spike in elevated lead-level tests from July-Sept. 2014."

But Peeler characterized the increases as "not terribly different from what we saw in the previous three years" noting that lead levels in children often rise during the summer months when homes with lead-based paint open and close their windows, which can disturb lead-based paint.

"We suspect that the summer data spike may be related to this effect," Peeler wrote, concluding her response by writing: "We don't believe that our data demonstrates an increase in lead-poisoning rates that might be attributable to the change in water source for Flint."

Snyder declares emergency as feds probe Flint water

Murray said the response "reflects the thinking in one of the state agencies at the time," adding that the state is "now working very closely with local leaders and are reaching out to researchers who have been involved with the issue so we can work together on making sure Flint residents have access to safe, clean water."

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jwisely.