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Governor Snyder's office releases last batch of emails related to handling of Flint water crisis

Posted at 5:05 PM, Jun 21, 2016
and last updated 2021-01-14 15:59:27-05

More than a 100,000 pages of emails and internal memos related to the Flint water crisis were released Tuesday by the Governor's office.

It is the final document dump - as its called - the last time Governor Snyder will share how his office responded to the crisis on paper.

The communications include everyone from Snyder's staff, to local and federal agencies who played a role in responding to the discovery of lead in the water.

An early analysis by the 7 Investigators found the following:

In October of 2015 as the crisis hit a peak, a top aide to the governor told staff, the city of Flint was throwing the governor's office under the bus.

Another top aide responds, "ah..come on..just throw them under the bus one time."

Its a revealing look into the squabble between leaders looking to point the blame elsewhere.

Other time-stamped emails show the governor's top aides meeting to discuss the crisis in February of 2015 - a full 8 months before the governor publicly admitted the danger.

In another memo it was made clear state agencies were recklessly spending in response to the crisis this past January. The budget director saying, "it's a bit of a mess".

A review of environmental memos also confirm what we already knew: there was a major failure and lack of urgency when it came to getting corrosion control chemicals into the water and fast.