(This story has been updated to indicate that the state of Michigan has shifted from working with Wayne State University to working with KWR Watercycle Research Institute on Legionnaires' disease issues in the city of Flint.)

FLINT, MI -- Wayne State University, which the state paid to search for a possible connection between Flint River water and Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in 2014 and 2015, has been replaced by the company that criticized its work earlier this month.

A spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said state government has shifted to working with KWR Watercycle Research Institute of the Netherlands.

A contract with the company estimates the value of the one-year deal at $737,000.

The shift to KWR comes after Wayne State ended its work here on Dec. 31 rather than allow KWR to oversee it's work on Legionnaires' issues.

Known as the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership, the Wayne State team announced just last week that it had published two scientific, peer-reviewed reports, concluding that 80 percent of Legionnaires' cases during outbreaks in Flint in 2014 and 2015 can be linked to the city's drinking water at the time.

From April 2014 until October 2015, the city used the Flint River as its water source, but the state never required the water be treated to make it less corrosive.

DHHS, which has not recognized a connection between Flint water and the Legionnaires' outbreaks, immediately questioned the Wayne State research, calling it inaccurate and incomplete.

DHHS also released an October 2017 report by KWR last week that said the relationship between the state and FACHEP had deteriorated to a point that it was impossible to develop "a climate where sound, unbiased and responsible research is promoted."

Some of that distrust has been detailed in Genesee District Court, where Shawn McElmurry, the lead researcher at FACEHP, has testified that DHHS Director Nick Lyon didn't appear interested in research that would find Legionella bacteria in Flint water.

State records show DHHS officials were among those who knew of suspicions that the surge in Legionnaires' was connected to the use of river water as early as 2014, but the agency never informed the public.

KWR's contract with the state includes a statement of work requiring it to identify promising FACHEP research that needs strengthening with additional data collection and performing an evaluation of the current FACHEP research data against objectives in its last contract.

The $3.35-million contract between the FACHEP and the MDHHS started June 1, 2016, and expired Dec. 31.