Flint water crisis: emails reveal governor Snyder informed of problems a year ago

RSS Feed

Flint water crisis: emails reveal governor Snyder informed of problems a year ago

January 21st, 2016

Awake Goy

Michigan governor Rick Snyder was informed of water quality issues in the city of Flint’s supply as early as February 2015, according to emails released to the public on Wednesday, but his administration struck a dismissive tone, saying the problems would eventually “fade in the rearview”.

A background memo sent to the governor on 1 February dismissed the pleas of Flint’s then mayor Dayne Walling for state assistance, saying that the mayor had “seized on public panic … to ask the state for loan forgiveness and more money for infrastructure improvement”.

Flint’s water supply was contaminated by lead, poisoning thousands of residents, after the source of the city’s drinking water was switched from Detroit to the Flint river in April 2014. Water from the Flint River had for months corroded lead from the inside of water pipes in thousands of households across the city.

The memo, which was among 274 pages of emails related to the city’s crisis, also said that it was “clear that folks in Flint are concerned about other aspects of their water – taste, smell and color being among the top complaints”, but said that the Safe Drinking Water Act “does not regulate aesthetic values of water”. The words “does not” were underlined.