Rick Snyder’s advisers suggested to stop using corrosive river and buy residents bottled water before contamination ‘gets too far out of control’, emails reveal

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Despite concerns among advisers to Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan regarding water quality in Flint, state officials for months rebuffed suggestions to switch the city back to its previous water supply, citing cost as a primary factor, emails released by Snyder’s office on Friday showed.

Advisers advocated moving Flint back to its prior drinking water source only months after the city made a fateful April 2014 switch from Lake Huron water to a local river. Following the switch, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did not require Flint to treat the river water with anti-corrosion agents, allowing lead to leach off pipes and flow into households.

Residents began to complain about the city’s water quality. As early as October 2014, concerned about the noticeable water issues, Snyder’s top legal counsel proposed moving Flint back to Detroit’s water utility until a new system was in operation.

Michael Gadola, Snyder’s legal counsel, wrote that the use of the Flint river as a water supply was “downright scary” and said the city “should try to get back on the Detroit system as a stopgap ASAP before this thing gets too far out of control”.

But an assessment by advisers in the governor’s office determined it would be too expensive for cash-strapped Flint to assume the estimated $1m monthly cost to return to Detroit, according to Snyder’s chief of staff at the time, Dennis Muchmore.

“The assessment was you couldn’t do it because it was a cost that should have been borne by the system,” Muchmore told the Detroit News on Friday.

The state has since appropriated upwards of $70m to address the Flint water crisis.

In response to a 5 February 2015 request from a reporter for comment about calls from Flint residents’ to return the city’s water supply to Detroit, state treasurer spokesman Terry Stanton said: “The city’s [emergency managers] have been unequivocal that doing so would cost at least $1m per month … per the [Detroit water system’s] ‘offer’ … and the city simply can’t afford that.”

Nearly an hour later, Muchmore wrote that switching Flint back to Detroit would “probably be a good use of money as opposed to people refusing to use city water”.

“After all, if [General Motors] refuses to use the water in their plant and our own agencies are warning people not to drink it … we look pretty stupid hiding behind some financial statement,” he wrote.

Flint would not return to Detroit’s system until October 2015, when Snyder conceded publicly that the water crisis was far worse than he initially realized, and several studies revealed the city’s lead levels had increased.

But even in the weeks leading up to Snyder’s announcement, high-ranking state officials appeared to be opposed to the $12m plan to switch Flint back to Lake Huron water.

In a 3 September 2015 email, the state deputy treasurer, Thomas Saxton, sent an outline of the cost to return Flint to Detroit’s water system in an email to Muchmore and two other state officials.

“I assume/hope no one is still seriously considering that option,” he wrote, “but if you need anything more give us a call.”

In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for the governor’s office said: “The issue with Flint’s drinking water is that DEQ and [the Environmental Protection Agency] processes failed the people of Flint.

“The water source is not the issue. The water did not contain lead. The lack of treatment caused lead to leach from pipes due to lack of corrosion control.

“The governor is focused on Flint’s recovery, and influencing change at DEQ and the EPA so a crisis of this nature never occurs again.”

Those were some of the revelations in a batch of 2,500 emails newly released by Snyder’s office, a slice of 8,000 to 10,000 emails that were expected to be released on Friday.

In a statement, Snyder said: “Michigan residents have a right to get answers to any questions they still have. With the release of these emails, anyone will have access to this information.”



The release of emails was portrayed by the governor as a move of transparency, as Michigan is one of only two states that exempts the legislature and governor from the Freedom of Information Act.

Despite thousands of emails being released to date through multiple public records requests, the emails were not unearthed until Snyder released them on Friday, partly because Valerie Brader, deputy legal counsel and senior policy adviser, it appears specifically took steps to circumvent Michigan’s Foia law.

“PS Note: I have not copied DEQ on this message for FOIA reasons,” she wrote of the state department of environmental quality, which is subject to public records requests.

Muchmore, told the Detroit News several advisers advocated for switching Flint back to Lake Huron water because “people didn’t have any faith in the water system at the time”.

But such a move – later pegged at $12m when Snyder authorized the switch back – was deemed too costly at the time, he said.

Muchmore drew criticism on Friday for the new disclosure that he proposed purchasing bottled water for Flint residents in March 2015, nearly seven months before Snyder has said he became aware of how grave the problem had become.



“How about cutting a deal with Ice Mountain [water company] or [Absopure Water board member] Bill Young and buying some water for the people for a time,” Muchmore wrote on 3 March 2015.

The Detroit Free Press reported that Muchmore’s wife, Deborah, is a lobbyist and public relations consultant for Nestlé, which bottles Ice Mountain water. Muchmore denied there was a conflict in potentially using Nestlé as a bottled water supplier.

“Do you mean that I shouldn’t go to the two biggest bottled water producers that I know?” he told the Free Press. “Who else would you go to? You go to the big ones.”

Muchmore told the Free Press he recommended the purchase of water after meeting several Flint ministers about water quality issues. The bottled water would serve as a “plan B” if Flint’s water quality issues “get out of hand”, he wrote in another email reported by the newspaper. (Muchmore could not immediately be reached for comment.)

Additional emails released on Friday reveal that Snyder’s then communications director, Jarrod Agen, was told of a sharp increase in legionnaires’ disease in and around the Flint area as early as March 2015.

Bug Agen, now Snyder’s chief of staff, told the newspapers he never saw the email, “nor did I open it”. Agen told the News it was a “disservice” to not tell Snyder about the legionnaires’ increase sooner.

“I look at all this and say I’m mad there wasn’t urgency,” he said. “Personally, I’m mad I didn’t open up that legionnaires’ email and do something about it. I’m mad that the communications shop didn’t do something about it.”

A definitive link between the water source switch and the uptick in legionnaires’ has not been determined by state officials. Snyder has said he did not become aware of the increase until last month.

Critics of Snyder called for the governor to resign in wake of the email disclosures.

“There’s no reasonable person who can believe at this point that every adviser to Rick Snyder knew that there was an issue [in Flint], but Snyder knew nothing,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan, in a statement.

“At worst, he’s been lying all along and at best he’s the worst manager on the planet. Under either scenario he’s clearly unfit to lead our state and should resign immediately.”