Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration will release e-mails dating back to 2011 that deal with the Flint water crisis.

He released his e-mails in January and his executive branch, covering the Michigan departments of Environmental Quality, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Agriculture released more than 20,000 pages of e-mails 10 days ago.

Those e-mails revealed a bureaucracy that downplayed and ignored Flint residents’ and researchers' complaints about the quality and content of the water in Flint, which had become contaminated with lead when the city, which was under the authority of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which draws water from Lake Huron, to the Flint River. The more corrosive river water wasn’t treated properly and corroded thousands of lead pipes leading into Flint homes and businesses.

New Flint tap testing: 10.9% of homes exceed lead limit

The three years’ worth of e-mail are much more voluminous than the more recent dump of e-mails, said Bill Nowling, an adviser to the governor on the Flint water issues, after Snyder met with the Free Press editorial board Monday.

“They’re going through them now,” Nowling said, adding that the e-mails should be ready to release “soon.”

Snyder said during his State of the State speech in January that he would release his e-mails, but initially resisted releasing e-mails from members of his executive cabinet dealing with the Flint water situation because the executive branch and the Legislature are exempt from public disclosure of documents under the state’s Freedom of Information law.

That stance changed on Feb. 12, when Snyder said that all levels of government failed the city of Flint and that being more transparent could help find the solutions to Flint’s water problems.

“By making the information easily accessible, everyone can review it and take what they need, and then we can all focus and work together on solutions, healing and moving Flint forward," he said in a statement at the time.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal