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Genesee County Health Office Mark Valacak defends his agency's handling of the Flint water crisis during a meeting of Michigan's special Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at the Northbank Center in downtown Flint.

(Flint Journal file photo)

(This story has been updated with additional comment from the state Department of Health and Human Services.)

FLINT, MI -- Public health officials from Genesee County, the state of Michigan and the federal government all worked on a notice that would have told the public about a massive Legionella outbreak in in the Flint area in 2015, but the plan was shelved before the warning was ever delivered.

Recently released documents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show the county Health Department developed a draft news release in late 2015, more than a year after the outbreak began and as suspicions mounted that the city of Flint's use of the Flint River as its source of drinking water could be to blame.

The documents were released by EPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and include emails among employees involved in discussions about the best way to tell people here about what's been called the largest healthcare-associated Legionnaires' outbreak known in the U.S.

Neither the county, the state nor the federal agencies ever told the public about the Legionnaires' outbreak, a message that was left to Gov. Rick Snyder to deliver in January 2016.

Dozens of people contracted Legionnaire's disease during parts of 2014 and 2015 in Genesee County -- about four times the number of cases in a typical year -- and 12 people died of the disease while the city used Flint River water.

County Health Officer Mark Valacak said work on press release about the outbreak was put on ice after he received a phone call from two "very upset" DHHS executives who did not want to announce the Legionella issue until a report on the outbreak was completed.

"By the time they finalized the report, the information had gotten to the Governor's Office," Valacak said.

A DHHS spokeswoman said in an email that Valacak's account is "not in line with our recollection of events" and said officials with the agency attempted to help with the public notification on Legionnaires' -- not stop it.

Documents released by the EPA don't make it clear how much information might have been given to the public through a news release or if the suspected connection to Flint water would even have been mentioned.

The county's draft press release doesn't mention the river and says, "There is no specific geographic pattern identified among the cases," and "there has not been a single source of exposure identified in common among the cases."

Worry about the river's possible role as a source of Legionnaires' dates back to at least Oct. 17, 2014, when representatives of the county Health Department and the city's water treatment plant met, discussing the county's concerns regarding a spike in Legionella cases and possible association with Flint water.

The EPA documents show:

Engineer Darren Lytle told EPA colleagues in a Dec. 1, 2015, email that the county needed to report the rise in Legionella to the public but "are obviously very concerned with how the public will react given all that has happened in Flint."

One day later in a separate email, Lytle reported that the county dropped plans to issue a news release after DHHS learned of the plan.

Jennifer Eisner, a spokeswoman for DHHS, said in an email that her department "provided edits to Genesee County Health Department on (its) draft press release with the understanding that the release was going to be issued.

"MDHHS did not 'halt' the issuance of any press release. Questions about why GCHD decided not to issue the release will need to be addressed by GCHD," Eisner's email says.

Before the Legionnaires' disclosure plan was dropped, EPA Science Advisor Thomas A. Burke was among those who called the plan to tell citizens what was happening "a very important first step."

The director of EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water said in an email that the Legionnaire's outbreak and its possible connection to the river had "the potential ... to become a significant story."

"Following the switch from Detroit water to the Flint River, the city of Flint had difficulty maintaining a safe level of disinfectant residual -- raising broader concerns for the growth of biofilms and associated pathogens in the system," the email from Peter Grevatt says.

Miguel A. Del Toral, the EPA whistleblower whose draft report first warned of high levels of lead in Flint water earlier in 2015, forwarded parts of a report by Virginia Tech professor Mark Edwards when asked to comment on the county's draft news release.

Although testing by Virginia Tech showed no evidence of Legionella in Flint water, researchers hypothesized that chronically low levels of chlorine in the city's water distribution system "are likely to increase the risk of opportunistic pathogen colonization."

Del Toral also suggested in his email that the city conduct more extensive chlorine and bacteriological testing as soon as possible, noting Flint residents could be at increased risk of Legionella from showering in areas with low chlorine residuals and hydrant flushing because of the potential for disturbing biofilm containing Legionella within water mains.

The EPA documents showing efforts to inform the public of the Legionnaires' outbreak late in 2015 were released this month as well as records showing the EPA offered to do Legionella sampling and analysis in Flint 18 months ago.

An email from Jennifer Crooks, an EPA program manager, to Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, water quality regulators for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, in March 2015 says EPA had labs "set-up now and ready for Legionella sampling and analysis," once the "state goes public with the issue of Legionella."

The email says the federal agency would wait to help because the "state is currently figuring out a communication-with-the-public plan."

There has never been a definitive finding whether the city's use of the Flint River played a role in the Legionella outbreak despite documented suspicions of a connection dating back two full years.

Representatives of the county Health Department and Flint's water treatment plant met in October 2014 and discussed the county's "concerns regarding the increase in Legionella cases and possible association with the municipal water system," a county email says.

Valacak said if the county could have established that tie between the outbreak and city water, the county would have had a duty to report those findings to the public.

The health officer said he asked for a press release to be prepared in late 2015 to tamp down untrue rumors about Legionnaires'.

"Based upon what some of the experts have told me ... There was a possible (connection)," Valacak said. "I wish I could have gotten better cooperation from some of our partners to test our hypothesis."

The county Health Department, city of Flint and DHHS officials have clashed at different times during the Legionella outbreak.

A county official resorted to using a FOIA request to get information from the city about its water and county health workers have criticized DHHS for not requesting assistance sooner from the CDC for the Legionnaires' investigation.