Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder could have declared a state of emergency in Flint months earlier than he did, according to an e-mail sent to the governor's office from a Michigan State Police emergency expert and released by the Snyder administration over the weekend.

Snyder acknowledged lead poisoning of Flint's drinking water around Oct. 1, but faced strong criticism for not declaring a state of emergency in Flint and Genesee County until more than three months later, on Jan. 5.

Snyder officials have repeatedly said Snyder couldn't take the action until local officials declared an emergency, and Genesee County did not take that action until Jan. 4.

But in a Nov. 13 e-mail, Capt. Chris Kelenske of the MSP, who is the deputy state director of emergency management and Homeland Security, told an official in Snyder's office: "As you know, the Governor can declare at any time for any reason."

See the email here: Scroll to page 76 of emails released by Gov. Rick Snyder's office

Kelenske, in the e-mail to Paul Smith of the governor's office, then went on to set out the pros and cons of Snyder declaring an emergency before the local officials did.

"The state will formally own the event if we put a Governor's Declaration in place," Kelenske said.

"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, he said.

Ari Adler, a spokesman for Snyder, said Sunday that legally the governor can declare an emergency at any time, but usually that only happens if there is a single dramatic event, such as a tornado, and it is immediately apparent that local resources won't be enough to handle it. That wasn't the case in Flint, because facts unfolded slowly and it was not immediately clear how significant the catastrophe was, Adler said.

Asked why Snyder officials repeatedly said the governor had to wait until the local officials acted, Adler said he can only assume that was the result of "a misunderstanding."

Read more coverage of the Flint water crisis

State Sen. Jim Ananich, D-Flint, told the Free Press on Sunday the e-mail is "further confirmation that there was much more concern about protecting the reputation of the governor and the state than there was protecting the citizens of Flint."

"It's infuriating," said Ananich, adding that he had asked for professional emergency staff to lead the response in September, but was told it couldn't happen until the locals acted. "This shows that was not the case."

In the e-mail, Kelenske pointed out that there had been no local emergency declaration or formal request for state assistance.

"A state declaration sets a precedent for issuing a state declaration for an infrastructure maintenance event," Kelenske said in the e-mail. "What if lead is found in other areas of the state's drinking water due to infrastructure issues? This action opens the door to any other jurisdiction with water quality issues."

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager in April 2014. The city, through its emergency manager, opted to temporarily switch its drinking water source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant, while it awaited completion of a new pipeline to Lake Huron, the Karegnondi Water Authority.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals to the Flint River water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into an unknown number of Flint households, causing a spike in the blood-lead level of Flint children. Lead causes permanent brain damage, as well as other health problems. The state acknowledged the problem only after months of denials and attempts to discredit outside experts who were raising alarms.

The Jan. 5 emergency declaration made all state resources available to help Flint and opened the door to federal funding. Snyder followed by calling out the Michigan National Guard one week later to help distribute bottled water, filters and filter cartridges in Flint.

Snyder, whose office is not subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, is voluntarily releasing thousands of executive office e-mails related to Flint drinking water, dating back to 2011.

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

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