Filter delivery to Flint casts doubt on what Snyder knew Paul Egan, Detroit
Free Press Lansing Bureau LANSING Gov. Rick Snyder's statement Monday that he
wasn't aware of a problem with lead in Flint's drinking water until about Oct.
1 has prompted new questions about the role of Snyder's office in quietly
delivering 1,500 water filters to the city in August. Snyder's statement also
raises questions about the speed and scope of the state's response since
Oct. 1 and why state officials did not immediately instruct Flint residents on
Oct. 1 not to drink the water without a filter. A 10-point plan for Flint
water that Snyder released on Oct. 2 said the state was making water filters
available to Flint residents but did not include a warning not to drink the
water without a filter. Today, more than three months later, the Michigan State
Police and other state officials have just begun delivering bottled water
and water filters door to door in Flint. Snyder declared a state of emergency
in Flint and Genesee County over the water issue on Jan. 5. The drinking
water became contaminated after Flint, while under the control of a
state-appointed emergency manager engaged in cost-cutting, switched from Lake
Huron
drinking water treated by the Detroit Sewerage Company to Flint River water
treated by a city treatment plant. The state Department of Environmental Quality
has acknowledged it failed to require Flint to add needed corrosion control
chemicals to the water, causing lead to leach into the drinking water from
pipes and fixtures. The Rev. Allen Overton, chairman of the Coalition for Clean
Water in Flint, who along with other pastors had pushed for state action
since shortly after Flint began drawing its water from the polluted and
corrosive Flint River in April of 2014, said Tuesday he "can't say (Snyder) was
telling the truth or he was lying" about not finding out about the problem
until Oct. 1. But Overton told the Free Press Snyder should have known much
sooner, because he and other pastors and citizens had been meeting with
Snyder's chief of staff, his director of urban affairs, and his department
heads,
raising concerns about the water, for months prior to Oct. 1. "This is hard for
me, because the governor has a lot of culpability in this entire problem,"
Overton said. "At the same time, I know for sure they were getting bad
information from the City of Flint and (former Flint mayor) Dayne Walling. At
the
same time, "I'm not going to give him a raincoat and say he didn't know,"
Overton said about Snyder. "I think he knew. I think they made a bad mistake
in not responding. During the late spring or early summer, "I asked the DEQ to
come to the City of Flint to do the testing themselves and they refused,"
Overton said. Snyder was touring the North American International Auto Show
Tuesday morning. His spokesman Dave Murray on Tuesday pointed to the fact that
after Dennis Muchmore, Snyder's then chief of staff raised concerns in a July
e-mail that Flint residents' concerns about the safety of the drinking water
were being "blown off" by the administration, officials at both the DEQ and the
Department of Health and Human Services maintained there was not a problem.
Snyder said at Monday's news conference that after the Muchmore e-mail, state
officials "came back and re-affirmed they didn't believe there was an issue.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be incorrect, Snyder said. Overton said it
was he who arranged for the delivery of 1,500 water filters to Flint last
August, working with Snyder's Director of Urban Affairs Harvey Hollins and an
anonymous donor who paid for the filters. The filters were not so much aimed
specifically at getting lead out of the water as improving the quality of the
water generally, since residents had been complaining about the taste, smell
and appearance of the water since the switch to the Flint River, Overton said.
By facilitating the delivery of the filters, Snyder's office was not so
much acknowledging a problem as trying to pacify Overton and others, who had
been "raising so much hell" about the water, Overton said. Asked if he and
other pastors were asked to keep quiet about the role of the governor's office
in delivering the filters, Overton said that Hollins told him: "Listen,
the donor did not want to be announced. Overton said he replied: "I'm not going
to tell anybody. Snyder spokesman Dave Murray confirmed on Sept. 29 that
about two months earlier, Snyder and his office worked with a corporate donor
who wanted to remain anonymous to provide 1,500 faucet filters to a Flint-area
group of pastors, who helped distribute them. "The administration has worked
closely with the Concerned Pastors group on the water issue, and the members
are passionate about supporting their parishioners and the Flint community as a
whole," Murray said at the time. "We certainly share their concern that
everyone in Flint should have safe, clean water. Flint water does meet state
and federal safety standards. People have complained about the color and the
odor, and faucet filters will help with those challenges as well as improving
water quality overall. Also on Sept. 29, Snyder was asked by the Free Press
if he thought lead in the drinking water was behind an apparent spike in blood
levels in Flint children, and he declined to give a direct answer. "During
the course of the week or early next week we hopefully will be coming out with
more public action steps," some of which are already under way, and others
to be implemented, Snyder said. "I take it as a serious issue; the Flint water
situation," Snyder said in Lansing. "Lead is a serious issue, so again,
we're spending a lot of time and effort looking at this and trying to partner
with the people in Flint on that issue. Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or
pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
