Gov. Snyder releases thousands more pages of Flint water emails

Two lawyers in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s office urged his top aides to switch Flint back to Detroit’s water system only months after the city began using the Flint River, with one calling the use of the river “downright scary” even before lead contamination concerns came to light, according to emails.

A top legal aid to Governor Snyder described the idea of switching Flint’s water supply from the Detroit system to the Flint River as “downright scary”. Flint switched to the river as a water source in April 2014 and eventually switched back to Detroit water in October 2015.

Snyder said partners will be working with the city of Flint during the next couple weeks to determine how to roll out the $30 million water bill relief plan. “Nice to know she’s drinking water with elevated chlorine levels and fecal coliform”. But he told reporters at an appearance in Flint, “I’m kicking myself every day”.

“Certainly Flint is an extreme example right now, but there are problems all over the country” with lead in aging pipes, Peters said. Snyder said Friday he can’t recall what conversations he might have had with Gadola, who was Snyder’s chief legal counsel and has since been appointed by Snyder to the Michigan Court of Appeals. “People help us, so we wanted to help them!” She alluded to problems with a carcinogenic disinfectant byproduct, known as trihalomethane. But Jarrod Agen, Snyder’s chief of staff, said the governor is planning to release all Flint e-mails from his office, with the exception of ones that are subject to attorney-client privilege. “This is a public relations crisis — because of a real or perceived problem is irrelevant — waiting to explode nationally”, Adler wrote. There is no advertising in the printed guide and no charge to anyone receiving the publication, called “CRISIS HELP: Flint Water Resource Guide”.

Holland was moved to special projects manager in the governor’s office. Some Republicans also question whether Flint is similar to natural disasters such floods or hurricanes, since the crisis was the result of a political decision.

“We have to maybe take a different approach here in Flint and actually encourage people to use more water – that’s going to part of the answer that we have to make happen”, said Dr. Mark Edwards, an expert from Virginia Tech who was instrumental in bringing the issue to light.

Brandon Dillon, Michigan Democratic Party chair, slammed Snyder for “prioritizing cost-cutting measures over the health and safety of actual human beings”.