Yesterday, in a move for transparency, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder released emails from his office in relation to the Flint lead crisis. The emails, though redacted in some places and not generally containing content that is not already public information, do detail how the response at the state level failed the people of Flint. The full document is here, but here are some highlights in chronological order.
October 1, 2014: Briefing from MDEQ on Boil Water Advisories given in the wake of bacterial and fecal contamination. This was after three coliform bacteria violations in the Flint River.
The city has also experienced decades of a declining user base and water use associated with vacant homes, commercial businesses, and industrial property. Declining water use leads to excess residence time within the city's distribution pipes and water storage facilities, accelerating tuberculation, biofilm growth, and disinfectant residual degradation. While the city has recently seen an infusion of funding for blight removal, contractors completing this work have been improperly using fire hydrants, causing hydraulic disturbances that dislodged and suspended settled debris, which may have contributed to the bacterial contamination.
April 25, 2014: Release from City of Flint detailing decision to switch to Flint River as a temporary source. Includes several strong endorsements of the quality of the river’s drinking water, including one from the Flint River Watershed Coalition claiming it is “completely suitable as a drinking water source.”
Apart from the water plant's devotion to ensuring that our water is good, Flint is doubly blessed in having the Flint River Watershed Coalition as a separate organization dedicated to monitoring the overall welfare of local bodies of water, overseeing more than 30 different nearby locations.
Rebecca Fedewa has been director of the watershed coalition since 2008. By virtue of her passion for her work and her position on the board, she is very conversant with the condition of the Flint River. In her words, "The Flint River is increasingly healthy, and completely suitable as a drinking water source." Fedewa and FRWC are working closely with the city "to monitor flows and habitats between the intake and the waste water treatment plant to ensure there are minimal to no impacts to the overall health of the river."
February 1, 2015: Briefing regarding an event for a $2 million Distressed Cities grant to Flint in the wake of several water violations and boil water notices that led to community “unrest.”
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The quality of Flint water has been a high-profile concern in recent weeks, with residents complaining about the color, taste and smell of tap water since a switch to Flint River water as a temporary source as a pipeline is built to Lake Huron as a water source starting in 2016.
- Residents have attended meetings with jugs of brownish water.
- U.S. Kildee has worked with labor and community groups to distribute bottled water.
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Mayor Walling has issued a letter... calling for state and federal assistance for the city, including forgiveness of some $20 million in debt through the Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund and calling for the governor to come to Flint personally.
- Walling also submitted a guest column to the Flint Journal with similar requests.
- He said the loan forgiveness is needed for the city to upgrade· its water treatment process.
- Governor and Mayor Walling had a telephone conversation on Friday, and the mayor has pledged to work together on solutions.
- Rep. Sheldon Neeley also has sent the governor a letter, saying that his constituents are on the verge of civil unrest."
February 1, 2015: Backgrounder from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality detailing “hiccups” that led to increased chlorine treatment in water and further violations involving trihalomethanes.
This proposed shift was pitched primarily as a money saver. But it put the city in the business of water production, where they historically had been in the business of water transmission. DEQ approved the use of the river as a source, based on the treatment plant's past performance as a standby facility and the improvements we outlined prior to a switchover.
Several municipalities around the state use surface water supplies (rivers): Blissfield near Monroe, Manistique, and Alma to name a few.
The city completed the upgrades at the water plant the facility and DEQ approved it April 2014.
There were some initial hiccups. Last summer, there were a couple of 'boil water' notices issued. One for a water test that showed e. coli, one for a break in the water main.
The challenge to using the Flint River as a source is that the condition of the water Is variable and changes with season and weather. It has substantially more organic matter than deep lake sources like Lake Huron. This organic matter is mobilized by high water events, and warm weather also can account for more organic material in the water.
The treatment of the organic matter is done with chlorine. One might conclude that the continual answer is just to use more chlorine to achieve water safety. However, at some point on the continuum, the chlorine and organic matter create TTHM - total trihalomethanes- as a byproduct. When the standard for those is exceeded over several consecutive quarters of testing, the supply is required by law to issue public notice and submit an approved plan for addressing the situation.
In the backgrounder the DEQ also noted some of the very problems that led to the lead contamination:
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It's the Flint River. The water supplied by DWSD historically came from Lake Huron. It's softer. With hard water, you get a different flavor and feel. It's why General Motors suspended use of Flint Water- it was rusting their parts. Also, there's the 'organics' factor (discussed previously).
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The system is old. Flint has more than 500 miles of water pipes. More than half of those pipe miles are more than 75 years old. Much of it is cast iron. Hard water can react with cast iron and exacerbates the rusty factor, which creates that brown water that angry residents were holding up in jugs for the media cameras last week. Valve failure has also been a key challenge. The system has an estimated 7,500+ valves. When they stick open or stick shut, it affects the hydraulics ofthe system and increase areas of stagnation. The city has a backlog of valves that need to be addressed. They've done half a dozen or so since November.
- Flint is old. Many of the homes served by the system are old. Brown water complaints may also be attributable to cast Iron pipes in customers' service connection to the city lines. The DEQ has been encouraging people with water coloration concerns to contact the city and see whether it is the service line or the City's line causing the issue. Again, discoloration is not an indicator of water quality or water safety, but we recognize that nobody likes it.
September 25, 2015: Email from Snyder’s Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore to Snyder about the serious concerns about lead in the water in Flint and how state officials passed off local concerns as politics. To his credit, Muchmore is concerned, but still passes the issue as a local and county issue. Importantly, Muchmore admits then-State Treasurer Andy Dillon’s made the final decision to switch away from the Detroit water source.
The issue of Flint water and its quality continues to be a challenging topic. The switch over to use Flint river water has spurred most of the controversy and contention. The DEQ and DCH feel that some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children's exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football claiming the departments are underestimating the impacts on the populations and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state.
We have put an incredible amount of time and effort Into this issue because of the impacted neighbors and their children, and the KWA/DWSD controversy and Dillon’s involvement in the final decision. Kildee is asking for a call with you. That's tricky because he's sure to use it publicly, but if you don't talk with him it will just fan the narrative that the state is ducking responsibility. I can't figure out why the state is responsible except that Dillon did make the final decision so we're not able to avoid the subject.
The real responsibility rests with the County, city and KWA, but since the issue here is the health of citizens and their children we're taking a pro-active approach putting DHHS out there as an educator.
September 26, 2015: Muchmore, citing a Department of Community Health investigation, passes lead outrage off as fearmongering from the “anti everything group” and downplays local concerns as “distrust” in a memo to Snyder.
Now we have the anti everything group turning to the lead content which is a concern for everyone, but DEQ and DHHS and EPA can't find evidence of a major change per Geralyn's memo below. Of course, some of the Flint people respond by looking for someone to blame instead of working to reduce anxiety. We can't tolerate increased lead levels in any event, but it's really the city's water system that needs to deal with it. We're throwing as much assistance as possible at the lead problem as regardless of what the levels, explanations or proposed solutions, the residents and particularly the poor need help to deal with it.
It seems that continuing to find funds to buy local residents home filters is really a viable option and Harvey and all are pursuing more assistance in that work. Almost all the "experts" I've talked to are convinced the problem is in the old lines leading to homes and short of a massive replacement CSO type bond that wouldn't resolve the issue for a couple of years, nature {temp reductions), filters and a final connect seem to be the best courses of action.
The residents are caught in a swirl of misinformation and long term distrust of local government unlikely to be resolved.
September 26, 2015: DCH memo implied that data from Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha indicating lead poisoning were invalid, calling them “data” in quotes and noting that her findings contrasted with Michigan Health and Human Services findings.
MDHHS epidemiologists continue to review the "data" provided by a Hurley hospital physician that showed an increase in lead activity following the change in water supply. While we continue to review this data, we have stated publicly that Hurley conducted their analysis in a much different way than we do at the department. Hurley used two partial years of data, MDHHS looked at five comprehensive years and saw no increase outside the normal seasonal increases. The Hurley review was also a much smaller sample than MDHHS data as ours includes all hospital systems in Flint as well as outside laboratories.
We have also provided the attached data chart that outlines if the elevated blood lead levels were being driven by a change in water, we would have seen the elevated levels remain high after the change in water source.
Soon after this, the lead crisis became relatively public knowledge and MDHHS data confirms Hanna-Attisha’s findings.