MI governor's advisors warned Flint water 'downright scary' a year before action

Feb 28, 2016, 03:47

Governor Rick Snyder is reacting to questions about the newly released batch of executive emails concerning the Flint water crisis.

Valerie Brader, deputy legal counsel and Snyder's senior policy adviser, addressed problems over the quality of Flint River water in an email to the governor's Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore and other top aides on October 14, 2014.

"I'm kicking myself every day", Mr. Snyder said.

Snyder accepted Wyant's resignation as head of the Department of Environmental Quality after a task force said that agency was largely to blame for allowing Flint's drinking water to become contaminated with lead.

The communications staff discussed in October 6 emails that Snyder should be more visible in Flint to show he cares.

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So far an increase in microcephaly cases and other neonatal malformations has only been reported in Brazil and French Polynesia. She traveled to some area in Central America, but outside of that, the department is not releasing any information about her.

Snyder, scheduled to testify to Congress on March 17, has repeatedly apologized for the state's poor handling of the crisis.

"The right people were raising the right issues, they were sounding the alarms", said John Truscott, a public relations strategist who was the spokesman for former GOP Gov. John Engler.

"This is a public relations crisis - because of a real or perceived problem is irrelevant - waiting to explode nationally", said Adler's e-mail, one of thousands the governor's office released Friday.

All along, Flint residents have been paying the highest water bills in the nation, according to a survey by an environmental nonprofit called Food & Water Watch.

The guide answers residents' key questions and directs them to agencies where they can get help.

Gov Snyder addresses plan to replace lead pipes in Flint
But not without attempts by Democrats to add money to forgive all of Flint residents' water bills, instead of just 65 percent. But long-term prospects are less certain , since the lion's share of Arizona's water supply comes from the Colorado River.

When a New York Times reporter requested an interview with Snyder, Murray sought advice from others on January 5 when he emailed asking: "Do you think there's benefit in giving the New York Times 10 minutes on this issue?"

The bill Snyder signed into law on Friday is created to give Flint ratepayers credit for 65% of the water portion of their bills since the switch to the Flint River occurred, while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager.

In early September, after Snyder's office quietly helped distribute filters to Flint pastors concerned about water quality, he wrote to a treasury official that it "makes no sense" to reconnect the city to Detroit's water system.

But Snyder said he's learned from the failure and that's why he's holding a daily call on Flint, designing forms himself for information he wants to get, and is spending time in the city with residents and leaders. As a result, lead began to leach out of pipes and fixtures, poisoning water users and creating a state of emergency that has brought global attention to Flint's troubles.

The credits will apply until the water is deemed by outside experts to be safe again, he said. Rather than refunds for past payments, residents will get credits on water bills going forward, until the total credit received equals the amount paid for water usage since April 2014.

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Also in the Ontario budget, the minimum price for a bottle of wine in Ontario will rise to $7.95 over the next three years. Ontario's Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced the provincial budget from Queens Park on Thursday afternoon.