Detroit Free Press staff

On Feb. 26, Gov. Rick Snyder's office released thousands of e-mails related to the Flint water crisis. Over the weekend, Free Press reporters combed through each page, compiling the most compelling entries into stories as part of our ongoing coverage -- which you can find at the bottom of this story. Here are some of the most troubling quotes we found. Compare some of these quotes to our Flint water crisis timeline of stories.

December 30, 2015, e-mail from then communications director Meegan Holland to Richard Baird:

“Can we deploy appropriate personnel from other county health agencies to help inspecting homes for possible other causes? In other words, it won’t do any good to invest more in water infrastructure if we’re finding window sills with teeth marks. I say this NOT to downplay the role that water lead levels may have played. But can we get Habitat for Humanity for example, to do a massive volunteer effort to eradicate lead paint in homes… or is that beyond their expertise.”

November 13, 2015 e-mail from Capt. Chris Kelenske of Michigan State Police to governor’s office:

“As you know the Governor can declare (an emergency) at any time for any reason.” This contradicts governor's office line that they waited until Jan. 5 to declare a state of emergency because the locals had to make the declaration first.

Explaining the consequences of an emergency declaration, Kelenske went on to say :

"The state will formally own the event if we put a Governor's declaration in place...This could be viewed as the state having owned up to how the water issue was caused." And admitting that "the triggering event" was caused by the state.

September 24, 2015 from Paul Joice of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Harvey Hollins to governor's office:

“As you’re probably aware, the situation has really deteriorated over the past couple weeks, even since we spoke. It’s becoming more and more clear that there’s a real lead problem in the City, even though the official City/MDEQ tests aren’t yet showing lead levels that exceed the EPA standard.”

September 3, 2015, Thomas Saxton, with Michigan Department of Treasury, writes attached is the description of the cost to reconnect to Detroit Water and Sewage Department.

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

March 3, 2015 e-mail from David Murray to Sara Wurful, both of the governor’s office, regarding the topic of a conference call that afternoon:

“Nutshell: Agitators claiming ‘environmental racism’ and comparing Flint water to the gas chambers at concentration camps. But Flint water still determined to be safe.”

March 3, 2015 e-mail from Dennis Muchmore, the governor's chief of staff

"I have become increasingly concerned about the situation in Flint and the lack of empathy for the residents. I'm not sure that buying water from Ice Mountain or Bill Young makes sense and I don't know about (redacted) since they buy it from Bill or local sources and repackage. But, it would seem to me that buying some and giving it to residents who are having discoloration or smell issues would be fair and prudent until it gets ironed out. Maybe this doesn't make sense to you and if not just chalk it up to the delirium I'm feeling fro the sun and drop the idea.... I worry that swooping in may reinforce the idea that there is something wrong with the water after all. But, it seems to me that that would be small issue compared to blowing off these ministers and their concerns. Of course, we can't supply the water forever so maybe working with Wayne (Workman in Treasury) something can be figured out.

Flint water guide

March 2, 2015 e-mail from Dennis Muchmore, the governor's chief of staff, to Wayne Workman in Treasury:

"It's in the city's long term interest to make the KWA work and we can make the river water safe, but we need to work with the ministers this week to help them out. It's tough for everyday people to listen to financial issues and water mumbo jumbo when all they see is problems. You can't expect the ministers to hold the tide on this problem. How about cutting a deal with Ice Mountain or Bill Young and buying some water for the people for a time? $250K buys a lot of drinking water and we could distribute it through the churches while we continue to make the water even safer. If we procrastinate much longer in doing something direct we'll have real trouble."

January 23, 2015 e-mail from Ari Adler, then the governor's special projects manager, now communications director, to then communications director Jarrod Agen, discussing this Detroit Free Press article.

"This is a public relations crisis -- because of a real or perceived problem is irrelevant -- waiting to explode nationally. If Flint had been hit with a natural disaster that affected its water system, the state would be stepping in to provide bottled water and other assistance. What can we do given the current circumstances?"

Headlines related to the governor's latest e-mail dump

Editor's note: This post was originally had 10 quotes, but one of the quotes was removed due to a lack of full context. We are uncertain if the specific segment was directly related to the Flint water crisis.