Emails Show A Top Snyder Aide Knew About Legionnaires' In Flint Nearly A Year Ago
FLINT (CBS Detroit) In the latest shoe to drop in the Flint water crisis, internal emails show high-ranking officials in Gov. Rick Snyder's administration were aware of a surge in Legionnaires' disease potentially linked to Flint's water long before Snyder reported the increase to the public.
When he disclosed the spike last month, Snyder said he had learned about it just a couple of days earlier.
But emails obtained by Progress Michigan show the governor's office was aware of the outbreak since last March.
"The increase of the illnesses closely corresponds with the time frame of the switch to the Flint River water. The majority of the cases reside or have an association with the city," Jim Henry, Genesee County's environmental health supervisor, wrote in March 10 to Flint leaders, the city's state-appointed emergency financial manager and the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"This situation has been explicitly explained to MDEQ and many of the city's officials," Henry said in the email that was forwarded by the DEQ to a Snyder aide three days later. "I want to make sure in writing that there are no misunderstandings regarding this significant and urgent public health issue."
Hugh Madden of Progress Michigan says the people of Flint deserve full accountability.
"What the people deserve is a full accounting of what went wrong, especially now, we need to see everyone's emails so we can truly hold people accountable," said Madden.
Governor Snyder's office issued a statement saying he was not briefed on this issue until January of this year....and took action promptly and released the information publicly.
Madden says they've been calling for the release of all documents related to Flint from the governor's office. "The governor released just his emails, but there are so many other people who were and now are working on this Flint water crisis," he says.
Nine people died from the disease in a 17 month period across Genesee County.
This revelation is the latest in a string of embarrassing news for Snyder to come out of the Flint water crisis. Most recently, emails showed the state trucked in bottled drinking water for its own staff while residents were still being told the tainted water was safe for them to drink.
The issue started when Flint officials voted to save money by getting their water supply from the Flint River. Residents started showing up at meetings with bottles full of murky-looking water and complaining of rashes and other health ailments.
Elevated levels of lead were discovered in the blood of kids, and a local pediatrician, and others, loudly demanded action. After repeatedly assuring residents the water was safe, the state had to back pedal and concede the tests they were using on the water was faulty and it was in fact unsafe.
In other Flint news, the city's former emergency manager is expected to testify before Congress before the end of the month concerning the Flint water crisis. A subpoena was served today at Darnell Earley's Detroit Public Schools office, a day after lawmakers called on U.S. Marshalls to hunt him down. Earley was the emergency manager of Flint in 2014 when the city switched to the Flint River for its drinking water, triggering the lead problem.
Earley didn't show up at a congressional committee hearing yesterday in Washington D.C. His attorney says they didn't give Earley enough time to fly there from Michigan.
Bolden says he and his client will accept the service and will appear before the committee to testify. That hearing is reportedly scheduled for February 25th.
