Governor Snyder just released 21,403 pages of emails about the Flint water crisis.
The emails include documents the The Detroit Newsalready published Friday, in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discussed the Genesee County Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in late March 2015.
The public didn't find out about the outbreak until January 2016, when Governor Snyder announced it. At the time, Snyder said he'd just learned of the spike and its possible connections to the Flint River water.
But according to notes from Jennifer Crooks, the EPA’s Michigan drinking water program manager, the state was supposedly about to communicate the news to the public in back in March.
“(Ground and drinking water branch chief of EPA Region 5) Tom Poy said the State is currently figuring out a communication-with-the-public plan.”
The public first heard of the outbreak from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Jan. 13 — a full ten months after
More from The Detroit News:
A trove of more than 24,000 pages of Flint-related documents among local, state and federal officials released by Snyder’s administration reveals EPA Midwest water experts held the March 26 conference call to discuss the Flint-area Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. Among those contributing was Region 5 water expert Miguel Del Toral, who at the time expressed concerns about the lack of corrosion controls and the likely risk of lead contamination in Flint’s drinking water. Del Toral discussed the possibility that “extensive flushing” of Flint’s stagnant water by residents may have caused bacteria-fighting chlorine residual in the pipes to be washed away, leaving the pipes susceptible to Legionella bacterial growth, according to notes from the conference call.
Meanwhile, e-mails released last week from the Snyder administration revealed one of Snyder's top aides knew about the outbreak in March as well.
The documents released Friday also include correspondences with the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Treasury; the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget; and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
All of the newly released documents can be found here:
- The Department of Environmental Quality: 1, 2, 3, 4
- The Department of Technology, Management, and Budget
- The Department of Health and Human Services
- The Department of Treasury
- The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
