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Blood Testing for Adults in Flint Michigan

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The Flint water crisis was a 2010s public health crisis which involved the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, being contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria

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2010-KWA is incorporated

https://www.freep.com/pages/interactives/flint-water-crisis-timeline/

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Flint becomes the fourth city in the state brought under control of an emergency manger to oversee city operations and control finances after a review team shows accumulated deficits of $25.7 million. Gov. Rick Snyder appoints Michael Brown, the first of four emergency managers who have served during the city's financial crisis.

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The roots of Flint's water crisis go back to when the city decided to switch water authorities. Here's a look at how the crisis unfolded.

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Ben Porter - June 2012 - April 2013, Flint looks for new water supply (Lake Huron = undergoing project, pipeline = being built)

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Ben Porter - June 2012 - April 2013, Flint looks for new water supply (Lake Huron = undergoing project, pipeline = being built)

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Ben Porter - Flint water supply alternatives discussed (March 2013)

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Ben Porter - Flint water supply alternatives discussed (March 2013)

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The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department responds to Flint's decision, issuing a statement that Flint's plans will not save money. The statement also says Flint has "launched the greatest water war in Michigan's history" and that it will result in higher prices for the department's other customers.

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The roots of Flint's water crisis go back to when the city decided to switch water authorities. Here's a look at how the crisis unfolded.

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April 15, 2013

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department asks Flint to reconsider its decision, laying out alternatives, including a modified rate structure. "Our goal is to provide the lowest-cost water solution for the KWA service area," director Sue McCormick says in a letter to to Kurtz and the KWA.

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Kurtz signs a contract to purchase water from the KWA. He and Jeffrey Wright, Genesee County drain commissioner, issue a statement explaining why Flint rejected the offer from Detroit, saying Detroit hasn't offered savings over the KWA.

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The roots of Flint's water crisis go back to when the city decided to switch water authorities. Here's a look at how the crisis unfolded.

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"The city begins using water from the Flint River until the pipeline from Lake Huron can be completed."

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Complaints about the new water start coming in from local residents.

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Tonight on MSNBC, "The Rachel Maddow Show" will host a town hall with residents of Flint, Michigan to discuss the steps ahead in dealing with the town's toxic water crisis.

But first, how did this disaster happen? Here's a historical timeline of events that led to the town's present state of emergency, leaving lives at risk and 100,000 residents without drinkable water.

Watch the Flint town hall at 9 p.m. EST on MSNBC, or tune in via the livestream here: http://msnbc.com/flinttownhall

Join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #FlintTownHall.

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Take a detailed look at the events that led to Flint's current state of emergency.

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Ben Porter - Flint Water known as unsafe (General Motors refuses to use it) however residents still drink it (Oct 2014)

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Ben Porter - Flint Water known as unsafe (General Motors refuses to use it) however residents still drink it (Oct 2014)

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Flint switches its water supply to The Flint River.

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GM won't use Flint water

October 1, 2014

General Motors announces it is pulling its engine plant off Flint water after workers begin noticing rust spots on newly machined parts.

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Violation of the Clean Drinking Water Act detected due to the level of TTHM in the water.

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January 2015 - Olivia Comerford, Olivia Conley, Maggie, Rozir

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January 2015 - Olivia Comerford, Olivia Conley, Maggie, Rozir

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The city announces that Flint’s water contains such a high level of trihalomethanes, a disinfectant byproduct. Though it’s in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, Officials say residents with normal immune systems have nothing to worry about

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"Flint switches back to Detroit water."

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Citing high chloride levels in the water to its engine plant, GM switches off its hookup to Flint and gets water instead from neighboring Flint Township.

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Walters calls EPA

February 25, 2015

Concerned about the high lead levels found in her home, Walters contacts the Chicago offices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Miguel Del Toral, regulations manager in the EPA's ground water and drinking water branch, calls the results alarming.

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October 2015 - Bernicia, Eva, Ari, Jenna

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October 2015 - Bernicia, Eva, Ari, Jenna

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State officials announced that children have lead in their blood.

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October 2015 - Olivia Comerford, Olivia Conley, Rozir, Maggie

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October 2015 - Olivia Comerford, Olivia Conley, Rozir, Maggie

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The Department of Environmental Quality director, Dan Wyant, reports that his staff used inappropriate federal protocol for corrosion control.

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"Snyder declares a state of emergency in Flint. The Department of Justice opens an investigation into the issue."

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A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit tells the Detroit Free Press that federal prosecutors are "working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the EPA's office of inspector general, and EPA's criminal investigation division."

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January 2016 - Bernicia, Eva, Jenna, Ari

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January 2016 - Bernicia, Eva, Jenna, Ari

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President Obama signs an emergency declaration and orders federal aid for Flint.

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Jonathan Oosting, Christine MacDonald, Joel Kurth, and Jim Lynch, The Detroit News

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Emails show state bureaucrats challenged water complaints from Flint residents, federal officials and whistle-blowers

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Lead seepage into the drinking water in Flint, Mich., has caused a massive public health crisis and prompted President Obama to declare a federal state of emergency there.

The problem began when the city switched its water supply in 2014. Almost immediately, residents of Flint - a majority-black city where 40 percent of people live in poverty - started complaining about the quality of the water. City and state officials denied for months that there was a serious problem.

By that time, supply pipes had sustained major corrosion and lead was leaching into the water. The city switched back to its original water supply late last year, but it was too late to reverse the damage to the pipes.

High blood lead levels are especially harmful to children and pregnant women, and can cause "learning disabilities, behavioral problems and mental retardation," the World Health Organization says.

Here's how the crisis unfolded:

June 2012-April 2013: Flint Looks For Cheaper Water

Flint officials explore whether the city can save money by switching from its current provider, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). City and state officials weigh an alternative: Flint could build its own pipeline to connect to the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA). That option was projected to save the region $200 million over 25 years, according to City Council meeting minutes.

On April 16, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz tells the state treasurer that the city is going to join the KWA. A day later, Detroit's water system tells Kurtz it is terminating service to the city effective a year later, in April 2014.

April 25, 2014: Switch To The Flint River

Until Flint's pipeline connecting to the KWA is operational, the city needs an interim source of water and turns to the Flint River, which was also its main water source until the 1960s.

Flint River water starts flowing to the city on April 25.

In a press release, the city characterized it as a temporary switch and aimed to ease resident concerns about the water quality. Here's an excerpt:

"Even with a proven track record of providing perfectly good water for Flint, there still remains lingering uncertainty about the quality of the water. In an effort to dispel myths and promote the truth about the Flint River and its viability as a residential water resource, there have been numerous studies and tests conducted on its water by several independent organizations. ... Michael Prysby of the Michigan DEQ Office of Drinking Water verified that 'the quality of the water being put out meets all of our drinking water standards and Flint water is safe to drink.'

...

" 'It's regular, good, pure drinking water, and it's right in our backyard,' said Mayor [Dayne] Walling, "this is the first step in the right direction for Flint, and we take this monumental step forward in controlling the future of our community's most precious resource.' "

Officials did not immediately treat the Flint River water to ensure it didn't cause corrosion in the pipes - instead, they took what Michigan Radio characterized as a "wait-and-see" approach.

May: Residents Complain

Some Flint residents complain about the smell and color of the new water, which is 70 percent harder than its previous water source, according to MLive.

August: E. coli And Total Coliform Bacteria Detected

E. coli and total coliform bacteria are detected in Flint's water, prompting multiple advisories for residents to boil their water.

An informational document from Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) says the city addressed the problem by increasing chlorine levels in the water.

Oct. 13: General Motors Stops Using Flint River water

General Motors says it will stop using Flint River water, fearing corrosion in its machines. "Because of all the metal ... you don't want the higher chlorine water (to result in) corrosion," GM spokesman Tom Wickham tells MLive. "We noticed it some time ago (and) the discussions have been going on for some time."

Jan. 2, 2015: Disinfection Byproducts Detected

Flint is found to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because of the level of total trihalomethanes, or TTHM, in the water. TTHM are disinfection byproducts that occur when chlorine interacts with organic matter in the water. Some types are possible carcinogens for humans, the CDC says.

In response, the state starts buying bottled water for its employees at government offices. This continues even after TTHM levels returned to compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act in September 2015, MLive reported.

Feb. 25: Tests Show High Lead Levels In Home

A city test "reveals high lead content in the water of a Flint resident's home." As Michigan Radio reported, the water at Lee Anne Walters' home "turns up with a lead content of 104 parts per billion. Fifteen parts per billion is the [Environmental Protection Agency]'s limit for lead in drinking water."

In April, Walters says her child was diagnosed with lead poisoning. An independent test done by Virginia Tech researchers finds lead levels at 13,200 ppb - water is considered hazardous waste at 5,000 ppb.

April: State Agency Notifies EPA That Flint Did Not Implement Corrosion Controls

The EPA says it was notified by the MDEQ on or about April 24 "that the City did not have corrosion control treatment in place at the Flint Water Treatment Plant."

July 13: 'Anyone Who Is Concerned About Lead ... Can Relax'

A leaked internal memo from the EPA expresses concern about lead levels, including the level at Lee Anne Walters' home. The ACLU picks up the report.

Michigan Radio reaches out to the MDEQ for comment about the memo, and spokesman Brad Wurfel says, "Let me start here - anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax."

He adds that he hasn't seen the memo, but that preliminary tests show the Walters test was an "outlier." Wurfel tells Michigan Radio, "It does not look like there is any broad problem with the water supply freeing up lead as it goes to homes."

Aug. 20: Lead-Level Samples Excluded From Report

The MDEQ dropped two samples from its initial report on lead levels from the city, which put the result within federally mandated levels.

"If the state had just dropped one high sample, Flint still would have been over the federal action level," Michigan Radio reports. "But dropping two samples put them below the action level."

Officials said the two samples did not meet federal criteria - because one of the samples had a water filter and another came from a business rather than a home, Michigan Radio reports.

September: Virginia Tech Team Finds 'Serious' Lead Levels In Flint

A team from Virginia Tech tests hundreds of homes for lead in Flint, and says that "preliminary tests show 'serious' levels of lead in city water."

"The levels that we have seen in Flint are some of the worst that I have seen in more than 25 years working in the field," Dr. Marc Edwards, a member of the Virginia Tech team, tells Michigan Radio.

Officials such as MDEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel dismiss the Virginia Tech results. He tells Michigan Radio: "I don't know how they're getting the results they're getting. ... I know that it doesn't match with any of the other surveillance in the area."

In an email to MLive journalist Ron Fonger, Wurfel says:

"It's scientifically probable a research team that specializes in looking for lead in water could have found it in Flint when the city was on its old water supply. We won't know that, because they've only just arrived in town and quickly proven the theory they set out to prove, and while the state appreciates academic participation in this discussion, offering broad, dire public health advice based on some quick testing could be seen as fanning political flames irresponsibly. Residents of Flint concerned about the health of their community don't need more of that."

In a September interview with NPR, Edwards says: "Flint is the only city in America that I'm aware of that does not have a corrosion control plan."

Sept. 24: Study Finds Elevated Lead Levels In Children

A study from the local Hurley Medical Center found that 2.1 percent of children age 5 and under had elevated blood lead levels prior to the switch to Flint River water, compared to 4.0 percent after the switch. A spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the elevated lead level results may be a result of seasonal changes, rather than the change in the water source.

Sept. 25: City Lead Advisory

Flint issues a lead advisory to residents. "While the City is in full compliance with the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, this information is being shared as part of a public awareness campaign to ensure that everyone takes note that no level of lead is considered safe," it reads.

That same day, Gov. Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, writes in an email that the MDEQ and Department of Community Health "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 population and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state."

Oct. 2: Water Filters And Testing

An action plan released by Snyder says the city and state will provide free filters and water testing for Flint residents, among other things.

Oct. 16: Switch Back To Detroit Water Supply

Flint switches back to the Detroit water supplier, which is now called the Great Lakes Water Authority. The governor's office said in press briefing notes that the Detroit water "will be easier to manage. It comes from a more stable source than the river, it is fully optimized for corrosion control, and it is clear that residents of Flint have more confidence in this water source."

Oct. 18: State Regulator Cites Confusion About Federal Protocol

In an email to a Detroit News reporter, MDEQ Director Dan Wyant discusses why there were no corrosion controls in place when the city started using Flint River water. He seems to chalk up the lack of corrosion controls to a misunderstanding:

"What has become clear in recent weeks is that the staff believed they were handling the situation in accordance with the proper protocol for a water provider using a new source, but the federal Lead and Copper rule has a particular provision for communities over 50,000 people; that the system operator must continue treating with full corrosion control even as they test the water.

"What the staff did would have been the proper protocol for a community under 50,000 people. None of the DEQ staff in this division had ever worked on a water source switch for a community over 50,000 people - it's uncommon for big communities to switch sources.

"It's increasingly clear there was confusion here, but it also is increasingly that DEQ staff believed they were using the proper federal protocol here and they were not."

Wyant adds that lime had been added to the water but provided "insufficient corrosion control."

A December email from Snyder's communications director, Meegan Holland, also said that Flint never tested the impact of the Flint River water on the distribution system.

Dec. 14: Mayor Declares State Of Emergency

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declares a state of emergency over the elevated lead levels in the city's water. "I am requesting that all things be done necessary to address this state of emergency declaration, effective immediately," Weaver tells the City Council, according to MLive.

Weaver, who vowed to fix the water crisis, beat out incumbent Dayne Walling in an election the previous month.

Dec. 29: State Regulation Officials Resign

MDEQ Director Dan Wyant and spokesperson Brad Wurfel resign, MLive reports. This comes a day after the Flint Water Advisory Task Force, created by the governor, releases a preliminary report on the crisis and concludes that primary responsibility rests with the MDEQ.

The report says that in the agency's interactions with the public about their concerns, its response "was often one of aggressive dismissal, belittlement, and attempts to discredit these efforts and the individuals involved."

Jan. 2016: Snyder and Obama Declare State Of Emergency

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declares a state of emergency in Genesee County due to the lead in Flint's drinking water.

President Obama declared a state of emergency less than two weeks later. The move "means FEMA is authorized to provide equipment and resources to the people affected. Federal funding will help cover the cost of providing water, water filters and other items," as we reported.

Jan. 21: EPA Issues Emergency Order

The EPA issues an emergency order to take action on the Flint water crisis. "EPA has determined that the City of Flint's and the State of Michigan's responses to the drinking water crisis in Flint have been inadequate and that these failures continue," the emergency order reads.

Feb 3: Testimony From Flint Officials And Experts

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hears testimony from several Flint officials and experts.

But much attention has focused on who wasn't testifying at the hearing: Gov. Snyder and city emergency managers who presided over the change in Flint's water supply.

Feb. 17: Gov. Snyder Testifies

Snyder, along with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Let me be blunt," the governor says in his opening statement. "This was a failure of government at all levels. Local, state and federal officials - we all failed the families of Flint."

March 21: 'Next Steps' For Flint

Snyder outlines state agencies' goals in addressing the Flint crisis.

The action plan includes providing professional support for children under 6 with elevated lead levels, replacing water fixtures in public facilities, replacing the city's 8,000 lead service lines, and increasing resources for schools.

March 23: Independent Probe Pins Blame On State Officials

Supporting its preliminary conclusion, the task force charged with investigating the causes of the Flint water crisis says in its final report that the MDEQ bears primary responsibility.

Task force member Chris Kolb tells reporters:

"From a regulatory standpoint, to a protection of human health and the environment standpoint, they missed the boat completely. And it is extremely troublesome to me that an agency whose primary role, once again, is to protect human health and the environment came to these decisions, and they never backed off these decisions, no matter how many red flags they saw."

Others are also to blame, the report says, including the state's Department of Health and Human Services, the city's emergency managers and the governor.

April 12: Researchers Say Flint's Water Is Still Unsafe

Despite improved lead levels in Flint's water, it remains unsafe to drink without a filter, according to results released from Virginia Tech researchers. (Though Gov. Snyder later pledged to drink filtered Flint water for 30 days.)

That's partially because residents have been using very little of the tainted water. As the Two-Way has reported, "in an unfortunate cycle, the water additives that would 're-scale' corroded pipes in the water system, thereby preventing lead from leaching into the water, are not reaching the pipes because people in Flint don't want to pay for contaminated water that they can't use."

MLive reports that in December, Flint began adding phosphates to the water that would "rebuild the protective coating inside transmission lines."

April 20: Criminal Charges Filed Against 3 Officials

Michigan's attorney general, Bill Schuette, announces that three people will face charges - the first criminal charges leveled against officials over the lead crisis.

Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby are state officials at the MDEQ. City employee Michael Glasgow is Flint's water quality supervisor. As the Two-Way reported, the three "face felony charges including misconduct, neglect of duty and conspiracy to tamper with evidence. They've also been charged with violating Michigan's Safe Drinking Water Act."

June 22: Lawsuit Filed Against 2 Corporations

Schuette announced that his office is suing two companies involved in Flint's crisis, and he says the damages could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

Veolia, a French company, was hired by the city as a water-quality consultant in 2015. Texas-based firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam was originally hired in 2011 and helped to operate the water treatment plant using the Flint River. The civil lawsuit accuses both firms of negligence and public nuisance, and also accused Veolia of fraud.

"In Flint, Veolia and LAN were hired to do a job and failed miserably," Schuette told reporters at a news conference. "They failed miserably in their job - basically botched it, didn't stop the water in Flint from being poisoned. They made it worse, that's what they did."

July 29: Criminal Charges Filed Against 6 Officials

Schuette announced criminal charges against six more current and former state employees, bringing the total number of people charged to nine.

Liane Shekter-Smith is the former director of the drinking water and municipal assistance office within the MDEQ. She and two subordinates, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook, allegedly misled officials about Flint's water treatment plant, which was not in compliance with lead and copper rules.

The other three people charged are current or former employees of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The director of the child health unit, Nancy Peeler, her subordinate, Robert Scott, and a state epidemiologist Corinne Miller allegedly failed to release a report that showed unsafe lead levels in the blood of Flint children.

All six are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy, and willful neglect of duty. Rosenthal is also charged with tampering with evidence, for allegedly requesting water tests that did not show elevated lead.

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Lead-Laced Water In Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings Of A Crisis

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Lead seepage into the drinking water in Flint, Mich., has causing a major public health crisis and prompted President Obama to declare a federal state of emergency. This is how it unfolded.

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Criminal charges are filed against 6 officials

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Attorney General Bill Schuette issued charges in connection with the Flint-area Legionnaires' disease outbreak that occurred after the city switched its water supply

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Flint Water Crisis: Everything you need to know

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Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know

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After officials repeatedly dismissed claims that Flint’s water was making people sick, residents took action. Here’s how the lead contamination crisis unfolded—and what we can learn from it.

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In January 2019, residents and officials expressed doubt about the cleanliness of the water. There were an estimated 2,500 lead service pipes still in place as of April 2019.

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This year the water in Flint met the requirements for lead content. After years of ignorance it is reasonable to drink.

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Five years ago, the drinking water source for Flint, Mich., was switched, setting the stage for the city's water crisis.

In the years since, residents of the aging industrial city have seen their children's blood lead levels spike, government officials grudgingly admit mistakes and perhaps seen Flint begin to recover.

It's still common to see claims on social media that Flint still doesn't have clean water. However, tests have shown Flint's tap water has improved greatly since the depths of the water crisis. Now, it's well within federal and state standards for lead, even better than many other cities.
The outrage
The city's water problems all began with an optimistic toast.

"Here's to Flint," Mayor Dayne Walling said as he lifted a glass filled with tap water. Walling and other city and state officials were toasting the switch of the city's drinking water source from Detroit's water system to the Flint River.

The switch was intended to save money, but instead cost the mayor his job.

At first, Flint's nearly 100,000 residents complained their tap water was undrinkable: cloudy, foul smelling and tasting of chemicals or worse. The system also suffered E. coli outbreaks. Eventually, the city acknowledged it was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

But government officials persisted in defending the water as safe to drink.

Outrage grew. Flint residents took to the streets to voice their anger. Chanting "Flint lives matter," the growing protests demanded the city return to Detroit water.

After 18 months, government officials admitted the switch had been bungled. In October 2015, Flint was switched back to Detroit water.

It was only revealed after the city's drinking water was switched back that a Legionnaires' disease outbreak had killed at least a dozen people during the switch. There are conflicting scientific opinions as to whether the Flint River water was the source of the outbreak.
"We have to be where we are to move forward"
In the past few years, 15 city and state officials have been indicted for their actions related to the crisis. About half have cut plea deals. No one has gone to jail. And the remaining criminal cases are stalled as Michigan's new attorney general tries to decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, multiple civil lawsuits against state and federal agencies and private contractors are grinding their way through the courts.

Flint was left with thousands of damaged water pipes, families surviving on bottled water, and a battered self-image.

Later this year, the city hopes to inspect the last of nearly 30,000 pipes connecting homes to city water mains. Crews are replacing old lead and galvanized service lines with new copper pipes. But residents are still advised to use filters on their taps as the pipe replacements continue.

Federal and state funds are helping Flint fix its broken water system. And that in turn is attracting business investment.

Stylist Dan Buccilli and his husband, David Custer, opened a new hair salon in downtown Flint last month in a rehabbed print shop. Custer, who is also a local TV anchor, says Flint is better off now than it was before the water crisis.

"We joke ... that we have some of the best water in the country now," says Custer. "We have brand-new pipes around our entire city."

Linnette Phillips, the deputy director of small business and workforce development for the city, says this year Flint has about $200 million in new business investment coming in, from new auto parts manufacturing to a new culinary school.

"Of course, no one would ever want to experience this travesty that the city of Flint experienced," says Phillips. "But we have to be where we are to move forward from that."

But while businesses are moving forward, many city residents are having trouble.

Flint's unemployment rate remains high and median income is less than half the state average, with more than a third of city residents living below the poverty line. And it's not surprising to see long lines still forming outside churches during weekly bottled water giveaways.

Flint resident Melissa Mays has been one of the loudest voices during the water crisis. But even she can see some silver linings. "In some ways we're better," says Mays. "In other ways, we're forever poisoned, damaged, traumatized ... that's not gonna ever be better."

Flint still faces a long road to recovery.

For example, it will be several years before studies will be able to show whether drinking Flint's lead-tainted tap water affected the cognitive and behavioral development of thousands of young children.

It is the future of those children that will determine whether Flint truly emerges stronger from its water crisis.

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5 Years After Flint's Crisis Began, Is The Water Safe?

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Five years ago, the drinking water source for Flint, Mich., was switched, setting the stage for the city's water crisis. In the years since, residents of the aging industrial city have seen their children's blood lead levels spike, government officials grudgingly admit mistakes and perhaps seen Flint begin to recover.

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On August 20, 2020, the victims of the water crisis were awarded a combined settlement of $600 million, with 80% going to the families of children affected by the crisis. By November, the settlement grew to $641 million. An extensive lead service pipe replacement effort has been underway since 2016.

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former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight other officials were charged with 34 felony counts and seven misdemeanors-41 counts in all.

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Time

April 25, 2014; 6 years ago

Duration

2014-Present

Location

Flint, Michigan, United States

Coordinates

43°0′36″N 83°41′24″W ﻿ / ﻿ 43.01000°N 83.69000°W Coordinates: 43°0′36″N 83°41′24″W ﻿ / ﻿ 43.01000°N 83.69000°W

Type

Participants

Residents of Flint, Michigan

Outcome

6,000-12,000 children exposed to lead[2]

Public health state of emergency

79 lawsuits[3]

Several investigations

Four resignations

Four firings

Five suspensions

Fifteen people face criminal indictments, those against all but one dismissed or overturned

One person found guilty

Statute of limitations on felony misconduct-in-office charges expiry on April 25, 2020[4]

Deaths

12 or more (from Legionnaires' disease),[5][6] and an estimated several hundred additional pregnancies ended in stillbirths.[7]

Accused

15 face charges

Convicted

1 - Corinne Miller

Convictions

1

Sentence

Corinne Miller - a year's probation, 300 hours of community service, and fine of $1,200.[8]

The Flint water crisis is an ongoing public health crisis that started in 2014, after the drinking water source for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated. In April 2014, Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water. As a result, lead from aging pipes leached into the water supply, leading to extremely elevated levels of the heavy metal neurotoxin and exposing over 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies proved that lead contamination was present in the water supply. The city switched back to the Detroit water system on October 16, 2015. It later signed a 30-year contract with the new Great Lakes Water Authority on November 22, 2017.

On January 5, 2016, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Genesee County, of which Flint is the major population center. Shortly thereafter, President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency, authorizing additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. Between 6,000 and 12,000 children were exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead. The water supply change was also the cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the county that killed 12 people and affected another 87. Four government officials-one from the city of Flint, two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and one from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-resigned over the mishandling of the crisis, and one additional MDEQ staff member was fired. Fifteen criminal cases have been filed against local and state officials in regard to the crisis, but only one minor conviction has been obtained, and all other charges have been dismissed or dropped.

An extensive lead service pipe replacement effort has been underway since 2016, with innovative techniques such as machine learning being used to predict the number and location of lead pipes. In early 2017, some officials asserted that the water quality had returned to acceptable levels, but in January 2019, residents of Flint and surrounding suburbs as well as officials still expressed doubt about the cleanliness of the water. There were an estimated 2,500 lead service pipes still in place as of April 2019.

On August 20, 2020, the victims of the water crisis were awarded a combined settlement of $600 million, with 80% of that amount going to the families of children affected by the crisis.

The following is a sequence of events related to the Flint water crisis.

1967-2013 - The city of Flint receives its water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, sourced from Lake Huron. The city operates under a plan to use the Flint River as an emergency water source.

November 29, 2011 - Three weeks after the city declared a state of financial emergency, Governor Snyder appoints Michael Brown as the city's Emergency Manager, effective December 1. He is the first of four such managers who will effectively take the place of the mayor until 2015, when a Receivership Transition Advisory Board will be appointed.

March 22, 2012 - County officials announce plans for a new pipeline to reduce costs by delivering water from Lake Huron to Flint.

April 16, 2013 - The city approves the Karegnondi Water Authority contract.

April 17, 2013 - Detroit terminates its water service contract.

April 25 - After construction delays, the water source switch to the Flint River is completed. This date is considered the start of the water crisis.

August 14 - The city announces a water boiling advisory for parts of the city. The advisory is lifted on August 20. A second warning is issued in September.

October - Flint's General Motors Truck Assembly plant discontinues using Flint tap water because high levels of chlorine are corroding engine parts.

January 12 - City officials decline an offer to reconnect to Lake Huron water, concerned about higher water rates.

January 21 - Flint residents complain of health issues caused by city water. Residents bring bottles of discolored tap water to a community meeting.

March 23 - Flint City Council members vote to reconnect to Detroit water. Emergency manager Jerry Ambrose overrules the vote.

June 24 - Del Toral states in a memo that Virginia Tech scientists, led by water expert Marc Edwards, found extremely high lead levels in four homes.

July 13 - In response to Del Toral's memo, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) official tells Michigan Radio, "Anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax."

September 8 - Virginia Tech's water study team reports that 40% of Flint homes have elevated levels of lead.

September 9 - MDEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel states that Flint needs to upgrade its infrastructure but is skeptical about Virginia Tech's water study.

September 11 - Virginia Tech recommends that the state of Michigan declare that the water in Flint is not safe for drinking or cooking.

September 24 - Hurley Medical Center pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha releases her study showing an increased number of children with high levels of lead in their blood after the water source switched to the Flint River.

October 15 - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signs a bill for $9.35 million to reconnect to the Detroit water system and provide relief. The switch is made the following day.

December 29 - MDEQ Director Dan Wyant resigns.

December 30 - Governor Snyder apologises in public for the crisis.

January 5 - Governor Snyder declares a state of emergency in Genesee County.

January 6 - Governor Snyder apologises again for the Flint water crisis.

January 13 - Governor Snyder announces that an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease occurred in the Flint area between June 2014 and November 2015.

January 14 - Governor Snyder asks President Barack Obama to declare a disaster in Flint.

January 16 - President Obama declares a state of emergency in Flint and authorizes $5 million in aid.

February 4 - Water service lines are identified as the main source of lead in tap water, but there are almost no verified service line materials in Flint because of outdated records. Mayor Weaver appoints Michael C.H. McDaniel, a retired National Guard brigadier general, to oversee the group leading the lead service line replacement project, the Flint Action and Sustainability Team (FAST).

February 8 - Governor Snyder turns down a second invitation to testify at a congressional hearing on the crisis.

March 17 - Governor Snyder testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

April 20 - Criminal charges are filed against government employees Mike Glasgow, Stephen Busch, and Mike Prysby.

May 4 - President Obama visits Flint to hear first-hand how residents have endured the city's water crisis and to highlight federal assistance to state and local agencies.

July 29 - Six state workers are criminally charged as investigations continue.

September - The city begins using a machine learning model developed by two University of Michigan professors, which uses various data about the home and neighborhood to predict its likelihood of having a lead service line. The model is used throughout 2016 and 2017 to prioritize excavations, yielding a hit rate of about 80%.

November 10 - A federal judge orders the implementation of door-to-door delivery of bottled water to every home without a properly installed and maintained faucet filter.

December 20 - Four officials are charged with felonies of false pretenses and conspiracy.

January 24 - The MDEQ declares that, in a six-month-long study, the city's water tested below the federal limit.

February 8 - State official Richard Baird informs Flint residents that the year-long state water bill subsidy will end, effective March 1, 2017.

February 20 - The state considers ending bottled water distribution.

March 1 - The state officially ends water bill subsidies for residents of Flint.

March 16 - Snyder creates the Child Lead Exposure Elimination Commission in an effort to avoid future lead poisoning outbreaks.

March 28 - A settlement is reached between the plaintiffs and the city, resulting in a federal judge approving $97 million in funding for Michigan to examine and replace lead water service lines for 18,000 Flint homes, to be completed in a three-year time frame.

April 18 - Weaver recommends staying with the Great Lakes Water Authority, which would reverse a 2012 decision that started the water crisis. Governor Snyder agrees with her decision.

April 20 - At a town hall meeting regarding the crisis, six people are arrested at a Flint church for disorderly conduct and interfering with the police. The meeting is criticized as having violated Michigan's Opening Meetings Act.

April 28 - Weaver announces that the city has plans to remove lead piping at 6,000 homes by the end of the year. The project is funded by a $100 million grant approved by Congress earlier that week.

May 3 - A notice, warning 8,000 residents that their water will be turned off after lack of payment, causes a controversy in the city.

May 17 - It is reported that 128 blood tests in Flint may have registered falsely low lead levels.

June 14 - Attorney General Bill Schuette charges five officials with involuntary manslaughter and one official with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer.

June 20 - MDEQ threatens Flint with legal action if a water contract is not approved by June 26, 2017. Mayor Weaver calls for the Flint city council to approve a 30-year contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority.

June 26 - After several hours of debate, city council decides to postpone the vote on whether to approve the 30-year GLWA contract until September 2017.

June 28 - Michigan sues Flint, alleging that the city council's failure to approve a recommendation to buy water long-term from the GLWA is endangering the public. Flint hires an attorney to fight the charges and renegotiate the contract with the state.

July 24 - The Flint Fast Start initiative announces that over 2,500 of the approximately 30,000 homes needing new water service lines have completed pipe replacement.

August 11 - MDEQ releases a letter stating that Flint has "significant deficiencies", which among other issues include source water, financial, distribution system, management and operations.

August 29 - A study published in the American Chemical Society's publication Environmental Science & Technology states that the Flint River was "a likely trigger contributing to the increase in Legionnaires' disease incidence."

September 15 - Water from 138 Flint homes tested during the prior month by Virginia Tech registers lead levels well below the federal guidelines. Marc Edwards states it is likely the last time such sampling coordinated by Virginia Tech will be necessary in Flint.

September 20 - A study conducted by professors David Slusky and Daniel Grossman is released demonstrating that fertility rates decreased by 12 percent among Flint women and fetal death rates increased by 58 percent since the switch to the Flint River in 2014.

October 9 - State prosecutors announce that Eden Wells, Michigan's top medical official, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for her role in the water crisis, which was linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that caused at least 12 deaths.

October 9 - Flint city council hires a North Dakota-based environmental consultant for $150,000 to conduct an analysis of the city's potential future water sources.

October 17 - A federal judge orders the city of Flint to choose a long-term water source by October 23, 2017.

October 26 - An EPA report finds fault with Michigan's oversight of Flint's drinking water system, placing the most blame with the MDEQ.

October 31 - The city council votes to extend its contract with the GLWA for another 30 days while a long-term deal is pending.

November 21 - The city council votes 5-4 to sign a 30-year contract with GLWA.

January - The city contracts a private consulting firm, AECOM, to take over water service line excavations and stops using the machine learning model. During 2018, 10,531 excavations are performed, yielding a hit rate of only 15%.

January 8 - MDEQ official Eric Oswald tells the EPA he also has concerns about Flint's "long-term, technical, managerial and financial capacity" to handle the responsibility and that "the city faces numerous challenges in staffing its limited water treatment plant."

January 12 - An MDEQ study for the first half of 2017 claims 90% of water samples were at or below 7 parts per billion (ppb) of lead, with an official stating the city's "water quality is restored." Over 30,000 Flint water samples have been tested during the crisis.

February 5 - A Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study on the causes of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Flint in 2014 and 2015 finds that low chlorine levels were the cause. Chlorine, which kills microbes responsible for the disease, also reacts with heavy metals like lead and iron. High levels of lead and iron in Flint's water may have been responsible for the decreased amount of chlorine available.

March 26 - A study published in The Journal of Pediatrics shows blood lead levels in Flint children ages 5 and younger hit an all-time low in 2016.

April 6 - The state announces the distribution of free bottled water in the city is ending. Water distribution centers will close over the next few days, although water and replacement cartridges will still be available. In response, Mayor Weaver says the city plans to sue the state so it can continue. The program was funded through a $450 million federal loan, which had not run out. Michigan planned to end the distribution since tests of Flint's water show low lead levels. The distribution continues until the supply runs out.

April 7 - Hundreds of Flint residents flee to water bottle distribution centers to gather remaining free water bottles. Residents are still worried about drinking water from taps, since not all of the pipelines have been switched.

April 12 - A federal judge approves a $4.1M settlement to be used to test Flint children for lead poisoning.

April 13 - The Natural Resources Defense Council announces the results of tests of 92 homes with lead service lines show the 90th percentile for lead is 4 ppb.

April 23 - Flint resident LeeAnne Walters is awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in exposing the water crisis.

April 26 - The EPA approves a $1.9 million grant to Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards for nationwide research of lead contamination in drinking water, to ensure of the safety of future generations. The grant will be used to help people where there is a suspicion of lead being in their drinking water but government officials are not acting on it. This project is said to target Michigan and Louisiana initially, and then it will branch out to other areas.

May 16 - Flint Department of Public Works Director Robert Bincsik sends a letter to the EPA saying there are still 14,000 lead service lines in the city, 15% more than previous projections.

May 27 - Jordan Chariton Reports, the YouTube channel and reporting website, releases an investigative piece on TruthDig showing that the science and data used to declare the water safe in Flint were suspect. The report is featured on the May 31, 2018, episode of the Thom Hartmann Program.

June 14 - Michigan enacts the strictest law in the United States for lead in drinking water, imposing a limit of 12 ppb, as opposed to the federal limit which is 15 ppb. This is projected to be achieved by 2025.

June 15 - George Krisztian, an assistant director of MDEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, says that Flint's 90th percentile for lead was 6 ppb in the first six months of the year, up since the state stopped bottled water deliveries to the city in April. The MDEQ also says it is ready to turn the testing program back over to the city.

July 30 - The MDEQ announces that in June and July 2018, of the 420 filtered water samples from Flint Public Schools tested, 100 percent were below 15 ppb of lead, and more than 99 percent met the 5 ppb bottled water standard.

August 21 - NRDC and several local groups participate in a hearing regarding two major issues: whether the city can defend its lead service line inventory methods and whether the city should be required to install home water filters immediately following service line replacements to mitigate lead spikes in drinking water.

September 24 - The mayor's office reports that a total of 15,031 pipes have been excavated at homes in Flint. This includes service lines to 7,233 homes that have been identified as lead and/or galvanized steel which have been replaced, including 1,005 homes newly discovered in 2018.

September 28 - A report by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says the Genesee County Health Department failed to help 85% of children diagnosed with high blood lead levels in 2016.

October 5 - Elon Musk donates approximately $480,000 to the Flint school system to pay for UV filtration devices in all 12 schools; installation is expected to be completed by January 2019.

January 2 - In her first act as governor, Whitmer signs an executive directive requiring state employees to immediately report to their department or agency director any threat to public health or safety, an action inspired by the decisions made by her predecessor's administration that led to the water crisis.

January 4 - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel offers Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy the job of special prosecutor on the Flint water crisis criminal cases, succeeding Todd Flood. Worthy accepts the job on February 21. Flood is reassigned as special assistant attorney general on February 25, while several other attorneys join the prosecution teams. On April 29, Flood is fired by Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, who claims he failed to "fully and properly" pursue potentially important evidence in criminal cases tied to the Flint water crisis.

February 18 - A report posted online by the MDEQ says the 90th percentile for 51 high-risk homes tested in Flint from May through December 2018 was 4 ppb of lead-less than half the current federal and future state action level.

March 28 - The March 2017 settlement is amended to require the city to replace thousands of lead service lines and return to using the machine learning model. By June 2019, the lead pipe hit rate rises to 60-70% for the excavations.

April 23 - Status Coup, an independent investigative reporting network co-founded by Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize, releases the documentary Flushing Flint, which claims that the water testing by MDEQ was manipulated by MDEQ staff taking water samples after flushing running water from taps for several minutes before taking the samples, contrary to normal procedures for water testing for copper and lead, and by MDEQ staff telling residents that they should take water samples after flushing running water from their taps for several minutes. This would clearly contravene the EPA guidance that samples taken must be "first-draw samples at taps in homes/buildings".

May 30 - A new study by Virginia Tech professors Marc Edwards and Sid Roy published in the peer-reviewed journal Water Research relies on years of data from routine measurements of metals in Flint's sewage sludge, showing a connection between rising levels of lead in city waste, blood lead levels in children and use of the Flint River as a water source.

June - The researchers responsible for developing the machine learning model, Eric Schwartz and Jake Abernethy, form BlueConduit, a for-profit, social venture aimed at leveraging data science and machine learning to find and remove lead pipes around the country.

June 3 - The government-issued phones of 65 state officials, including former Governor Snyder, are seized in a criminal investigation into the crisis.

June 13 - Attorney General Nessel announces that charges will be dropped against eight people and investigations will be restarted in the scandal.

July 31 - The city fails to meet its self-imposed deadline to replace all service lines and defaults to its legally binding deadline of January 1, 2020.

October 10 - The EPA proposes updates to the Lead and Copper Rule, which has remained relatively unchanged since 1991.

December 31 - After falling short of a mandate to submit lead level testing results of at least 60 homes, the city asks for an extension to June 30, 2020, to do so.

February 21 - To date 25,042 water service lines have been excavated, resulting in the replacement of 9,516 lead pipes and the verification of 15,526 existing copper pipes.

April 16 - An article is published giving details of evidence of corruption and a coverup by Governor Snyder and his "fixer" Rich Baird, and stating that the statute of limitations on some of the most serious felony misconduct-in-office charges will expire on April 25, 2020. Michigan state authorities deny that a deadline is approaching and say that criminal prosecutions will follow.

Some water service lines in Flint were installed between 1901 and 1920. As with many other municipalities at the time, all of the service lines from the cast iron water mains to end users' homes were constructed of lead, because it was relatively inexpensive and easy to work. Lead from the pipes can leach into the water, especially if certain contaminants are present. However, the water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, where Flint had obtained its water since 1967, had been treated well enough that the leaching from the lead pipes was at levels considered acceptable by state and federal environmental protection agencies. There are an estimated 43,000 service lines in the city; these include 3,500 lead lines, 9,000 known galvanized steel lines, and 9,000 unknown service lines.

Lead exposure across the U.S. has fallen dramatically since the 1980s, but no blood-lead level is considered completely safe. Children under age five, and especially infants and unborn children, bear the greatest risk of deleterious and irreversible health outcomes. From 2012 to 2016, the CDC set a "reference level" of 5 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), in order to target for case management the 2.5% of young American children with the highest blood-lead levels. At 45 µg/dL, chelation therapy is considered. Among the many ways lead can enter a modern American's bloodstream is through lead plumbing. Acidic water makes it easier for the lead found in pipes, leaded solder, and brass faucets to dissolve and to enter a home's drinking water. Therefore, public water treatment systems are legally required to use control measures to make water less acidic. Plumbing that contains lead is often found in buildings constructed in the 1980s and earlier.

From 2011 to 2015, Governor Snyder appointed four emergency managers to control Flint's finances. After 2015, the city continued to receive financial guidance under the lesser oversight of a Receivership Transition Advisory Board.

In 2011, Genesee County initiated the switch to the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA); the KWA would supply water to both Genesee County and Flint. On March 25, 2013, the purchase of 16 million US gallons (61,000 m ³) per day from the KWA was approved by the Flint City Council. The KWA informed the council that they could dig to Lake Huron (the new water supply) in 30 months using a bored tunnel. Ed Kurtz, Flint's emergency manager, along with Mayor Dayne Walling and Flint City Council, approved the action and awaited the State Treasurer's approval. Following this decision, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) negotiated with Flint officials by offering to restructure water payments. Flint refused, insisting that KWA was the best water supplier. DWSD argued that Flint could not spend more money on a new water system and that Lake Huron's system was more efficient.

On April 15, 2013, State Treasurer Andy Dillon approved the water purchase contract with the KWA. Emergency Manager Kurtz signed the KWA water purchase agreement the following day. On April 17, the DWSD delivered its one-year termination notice after Flint rejected their last offer. The DWSD expected that Flint would reimburse the investments for the water system that benefited regional customers. Flint and Genesee County rejected such responsibility but indicated their willingness to purchase pipelines.

In April 2014, to save about $5 million in under two years, Flint started treating water from the Flint River instead of purchasing Lake Huron water from Detroit. Previously, the Flint River was the backup water source. In June 2014, Flint's Emergency Manager Darnell Earley finalized the sale of a nine-mile (14 km) section of water pipeline to Genesee County for $3.9 million. This pipeline fed DWSD water into the county, and after the KWA pipeline was active, would service the eastern part of the county as well. By December 2014, the city had already invested $4 million into its water plant. On July 1, 2014, Earley gave operational authority to Mayor Dayne Walling over two city departments, including Public Works. It was later reported that by not adding a corrosion inhibitor, Flint was going to save about $140 per day.

Prior to August 2014, additional chlorine had been added to eliminate bacteria from the Flint River. This is likely the cause of a spike in trihalomethanes, unsafe chlorine byproducts, in one of eight water locations. Long-term exposure to these chemicals has been linked to cancer and other diseases. Following this test, the MDEQ placed Flint on violation notice but did not reveal the information to residents until January 2015. The employees of the Flint Public Library declared the water undrinkable after noticing that it was discolored, despite the city's claim that the water was safe. Since 2014, the library has provided safe water for the public alongside the state's most prominent bottled water provider. January and February 2015 tests showed that the city water met all health and safety standards. Nevertheless, the DWSD offered to reconnect Flint, waiving a $4 million connection fee, but was declined by Emergency Manager Jerry Ambrose. MDEQ officials indicated that there is no "imminent threat to public health," as the nature of the issue was "communicated poorly."

In March 2015, Flint voted to switch back to the DWSD. This vote was motivated by residential complaints and recommendations from Veolia North America to prevent the city from further violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. Ambrose disagreed with the reintroduction of the Detroit water source. Ambrose argued, "Flint water today is safe by all Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality standards, and the city is working daily to improve its quality." In August 2015, it was found that local organizations observed that high concentrations of chloride caused the water to be orange and that the water contained high levels of lead. The lead levels were caused by the omission of orthophosphate treatments, which led to excessive pipe corrosion. Consequently, the three organizations, "... delivered more than 26,000 online petition signatures to Mayor Dayne Walling, demanding the city end its use of the Flint River and reconnect to the Detroit water system." Flint's water supply was switched back to DWSD in October 2015. Subsequently, Flint started adding additional orthophosphate to the water to rebuild the pipe lining.

On October 8, 2015, Snyder requested that Michigan legislators contribute $6 million of the $12 million for Flint to return to Lake Huron water. The city of Flint would pay $2 million, and the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation would pay $4 million. Jim Ananich, the State Senator representing Flint, demanded that the state refund the $2 million to the city. Ananich also requested further emergency funding from the state and long-term funding to address the effects of the lead contamination. On March 2, 2016, Michigan declared that returning to the Detroit water system must be approved by the state. When approved, the city was granted an emergency loan of $7 million. On September 27, 2016, Flint officials announced that the city will continue to use Detroit water until a new stretch of pipeline is constructed and the Flint River is tested and treated by the KWA.

From August 2015 to November 2016, median water lead levels began to go down again depending on the type of water service pipes each home had. In homes with copper pipes, the median water lead level dropped from 3.0 micrograms per liter (µg/L) to <1 µg/L; galvanized steel service lines dropped from a median water lead level of 7.2 µg/L to 1.9 µg/L, and lead service lines dropped from a median water lead level of 9.9 µg/L to 2.3 µg/L. 1 µg/L is equivalent to 1 part per billion. On December 9, 2016 the MDEQ reported that more than 96 percent of water samples in Flint residencies were below the EPA lead threshold of 15 ppb. On March 15, 2017, the Genesee County Water and Waste Services Advisory Board voted to construct a new pipeline; it would be a 7-mile (11 km), 42-inch (110 cm) connector to the KWA pipeline. The pipeline would allow the treatment of raw Lake Huron water, so the city of Flint could continue to buy pre-treated water from the Great Lakes Water Authority. The $12 million project will allow Flint to remain a customer of the GLWA until at least 2019.

In January 2015, a public meeting was held, where citizens complained about the "bad water." Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water for 18 months before a Flint physician found highly elevated blood lead levels in the children of Flint. During that time period, MDEQ had insisted the water was safe to drink. A study by Virginia Tech researchers (see section below) determined that the river water, which, due to higher chloride concentration, is more corrosive than the lake water, was leaching lead from aging pipes. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist based in Ann Arbor, said this level of lead exposure is comparable with what the Iraqi people have experienced since the U.S. occupation in 2003.

While the local outcry about Flint water quality was growing in early 2015, Flint water officials filed papers with state regulators purporting to show that "tests at Flint's water treatment plant had detected no lead and testing in homes had registered lead at acceptable levels." The documents falsely claim that the city had tested tap water from homes with lead service lines, and therefore the highest lead-poisoning risks; however, the city did not know the locations of lead service lines, which city officials acknowledged in November 2015 after the Flint Journal/ MLive published an article revealing the practice, using documents obtained under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. The Journal/MLive reported that the city had "disregarded federal rules requiring it to seek out homes with lead plumbing for testing, potentially leading the city and state to underestimate for months the extent of toxic lead leaching into Flint's tap water."

See Education and research section for later studies.

Hurley Medical Center study I (2015)

On September 24, 2015, Hurley Medical Center in Flint released a study led by Mona Hanna-Attisha, the program director for pediatric residency at Hurley Children's Hospital, confirming that the proportion of infants and children with elevated levels of lead in their blood had nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source. Using hospital records, Hanna-Attisha found that a steep rise in blood-lead levels corresponded to the city's switch in water sources. The study was initially dismissed by MDEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel, who repeated a familiar refrain: "Repeated testing indicated the water tested within acceptable levels." Later, Wurfel apologized to Hanna-Attisha. The team's study appears in the February 2016 issue of American Journal of Public Health.

Hanna-Attisha's research found that the average proportion of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels (above five micrograms per deciliter, or 5 × 10 ⁻⁶ grams per 100 milliliters of blood) rose from 2.4% (2013, before the change in water source) to 4.9% (2015, after the change in water source). In areas where water lead levels were considered high at ≥ 15 ppb, which is the maximum amount of lead allowed in water per the Safe Drinking Water Act Lead and Copper Rule, the average proportion of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels rose from 4% to 10.6%. Michigan Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program data agree an increase occurred, suggesting an increase from 2.2% of children (May 2013 - April 2014) to 3.0% (May 2014 - April 2015). Hanna-Attisha's data were taken from hospital laboratory records for children less than five years old.

Hanna-Attisha and Flint resident LeeAnne Walters were awarded PEN America's Freedom of Expression Courage Award on May 16, 2016.

Hurley Medical Center study II (2018)

In June 2018 the Journal of Pediatrics published a much expanded study of blood lead levels measured at Hurley Medical Center. The original 2015 study of Hurley records involved a total of 1,473 children "younger than 5 years" whose address could be mapped to a site inside Flint in two pre/post 8.5 month periods. The 2018 study, led by Hernán F. Gómez, involved 15,817 children "aged ≤ 5 years" over the 11-year period 2006-2016. Data for 2012-2016 were available from center's Epic EMR system; records for earlier years were scrounged from legacy systems. The results show an increase in the fraction of children with elevated lead blood levels immediately pre/post the water switch (from 2.2% to 3.7%); invoking a Bonferroni correction, Gómez argues the change is not statistically significant. These results are consistent with a CDC report which found that the fraction of "all children under age 6" with elevated lead blood level "was nearly 50 percent higher after the switch to Flint River water." The striking result of Gómez et al. however is that during the 11-year period, the "crisis years" are actually the third and fourth lowest years for lead blood levels. That is, the upward blip during the water switch sits on a rapid declining curve (presumably because of the many lead mitigation projects that have been initiated nationally) so that blood lead levels during the crisis are actually lower than those two years earlier.

In September 2015 a team from Virginia Tech arrived in Flint. Led by Marc Edwards, an expert on municipal water quality, the team came to perform lead level testing on the Flint water supply, working under a National Science Foundation grant. Edwards had been contacted by Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, whose family suffered from extreme health problems almost immediately following the switch to the Flint River water. Walters had attempted to act locally, but she was repeatedly ignored by city, state, and EPA officials. The study found that Flint water was "very corrosive" and "causing lead contamination in homes". It concluded in its report that "Flint River water leaches more lead from plumbing than does Detroit water. This is creating a public health threat in some Flint homes that have lead pipe or lead solder."

Edwards was shocked by the extent of the contamination, but even more so by the inaction of the proper authorities after being made well aware of the contamination. Edwards and his team found that at least a quarter of Flint households had levels of lead above the federal level of 15 ppb and that in some homes, lead levels were at 13,200 ppb. Edwards said, "It was the injustice of it all and that the very agencies that are paid to protect these residents from lead in water, knew or should've known after June at the very very latest of this year, that federal law was not being followed in Flint, and that these children and residents were not being protected. And the extent to which they went to cover this up exposes a new level of arrogance and uncaring that I have never encountered." Edwards' team created a website called " Flint Water Study", with the main purposes of informing, and creating support for, Flint residents during the crisis. The site also summarized study results and became a comprehensive public database for all information related to the study.

On January 11, 2016, the Virginia Tech research team led by Edwards announced that it had completed its work. Edwards said, "We now feel that Flint's kids are finally on their way to being protected and decisive actions are under way to ameliorate the harm that was done." Edwards credited the Michigan ACLU and the group Water You Fighting For with doing the "critical work of collecting and coordinating" many water samples analyzed by the Virginia Tech team. Although the labor of the team (composed of scientists, investigators, graduate students, and undergraduates) was free, the investigation still spent more than $180,000 for such expenses as water testing and payment of Michigan Freedom of Information Act costs. A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $116,000 of the $150,000 needed for the team to recover its costs. On January 27, the city of Flint retained Edwards to monitor the city's water testing efforts.

On April 23, 2019, Status Coup released the documentary Flushing Flint which claimed that the water testing conducted by MDEQ was falsified by MDEQ staff taking water samples after flushing running water from taps for several minutes before taking the samples, contrary to normal procedures for water testing, and by MDEQ staff telling residents that they should take water samples after flushing running water from their taps for several minutes. This would clearly contravene the EPA guidance that samples taken must be "first-draw samples at taps in homes/buildings". These claims cast doubt on the MDEQ reports of improvements in water quality over previous years.

Possible link to Legionnaires' disease spike

On January 13, 2016, Snyder said that 87 cases of Legionnaires' disease, a waterborne disease, were reported in Genesee County from June 2014 - November 2015, resulting in 12 deaths (two more people later died from the disease). Although the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said that there is no evidence of a clear link between the spike in cases and the water system change, Edwards stated the contaminated Flint water could be linked to the spike. In a second report released January 21, state researchers had still not pin-pointed the source of the outbreak. The next day, an official at McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint confirmed that there was a spike in Legionella cases in Flint and elsewhere in Genesee County, but noted that there was "no definitive data to support that McLaren Flint is the source of exposure for any patient testing positive for the Legionella antigen." The family of one of the people who died of Legionnaires filed a $100 million lawsuit against McLaren.

The Flint Journal obtained documents via the Michigan Freedom of Information Act on the Legionnaires' outbreak and published an article on them on January 16, 2016. The documents indicated that on October 17, 2014, employees of the Genesee County Health Department and the Flint water treatment plant met to discuss the county's "concerns regarding the increase in Legionella cases and possible association with the municipal water system." By early October 2014, officials at MDEQ were aware of a possible link between the water in Flint and the Legionnaires' outbreak, but the public was never informed, and the agency gave assurances about water safety in public statements and at public forums. An internal email on January 27, 2015, from a supervisor at the health department said that the Flint water treatment plant had not responded in months to "multiple written and verbal requests" for information.

In January 2015, following a breakdown in communication between the city and the county on the Legionnaires' investigation, the county filed a FOIA request with the city, seeking "specific water testing locations and laboratory results ... for coliform, E-coli, heterotrophic bacteria and trihalomethanes" and other information. In April 2015, the county health department contacted the CDC, and in April 2015 a CDC employee wrote in an email that the Legionnaires' outbreak was "very large, one of the largest we know of in the past decade and community-wide, and in our opinion and experience it needs a comprehensive investigation." However, MDHHS told the county health department at the time that federal assistance was not necessary.

Emails obtained by Progress Michigan in February 2016 indicate Snyder's office knew about the outbreak since March 2015, despite Snyder's claim he was only informed in January 2016. On March 11, 2016, Governor Snyder ordered an investigation of the MDHHS regarding the outbreak. On February 16, 2017, the CDC discovered the first genetic links between city water and patients diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County. "The presence of Legionella in Flint was widespread," said Janet Stout, a research associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a national expert on the disease. "The (laboratory) results show that strains (of the bacteria) were throughout the water system." Virginia Tech researcher Amy Pruden published a study that found Legionella levels up to 1,000 times higher than normal tap water in Flint, and said finding a patient whose clinical isolates-or bacteria-matched the McLaren water sample without having been hospitalized there "suggests that same strain may have been elsewhere."

On March 10, 2017, affidavits filed by experts in court supported the conclusion that Flint water was connected to the Legionnaires' disease outbreak. Janet Stout wrote in an affidavit: "(It) is my opinion to a reasonable degree of probability that the source water change and the subsequent management of the municipal water system caused conditions to develop within the municipal water distribution system that promoted Legionella growth and dispersion, amplification, and the significant increases in cases of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County in 2014 and 2015." J. David Krause, director of Forensic Analytical Consulting Services, and Hung K. Cheung, a doctor specializing in environmental and occupational medicine agreed with her claims.

On February 5, 2018, a study published in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and concluded that the 2014-2015 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Flint was caused by low levels of chlorine which, at higher levels, would have made it difficult for bacteria to replicate. Because chlorine reacts with heavy metals like lead and iron, high levels of both in Flint's water may have been responsible for the decreased amount of chlorine available. On December 4, 2019, research institute KWR from the Netherlands published the results of their re-investigation of the outbreak in Environmental Health Perspectives. They found evidence for three sources: strong evidence for exposure to a Flint hospital in 2014 and 2015 for 42 of 86 confirmed cases, and weaker evidence for exposure to city water at home or living in the proximity of a specific cluster of cooling towers, both only in 2014. Each source could be associated with only a proportion of cases. They concluded that focus on a single source may have delayed recognition and remediation of other significant sources of L. pneumophila and provided recommendations to improve Legionella prevention.

Inquiries, investigations, resignations, and release of documents

One focus of inquiry is when Snyder became aware of the issue, and how much he knew about it. In a July 2015 email, Dennis Muchmore (Snyder's chief of staff) wrote to a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) official, "I'm frustrated by the water issue in Flint. I really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt. These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight)." In a separate email sent on July 22, 2015, MDHHS local health services director Mark Miller wrote to colleagues that it "Sounds like the issue is old lead service lines." These emails were obtained under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act by Virginia Tech researchers studying the crisis and were released to the public in the first week of January 2016.

In October 2015, it was reported that the city government's data on lead water lines in the city was stored on 45,000 index cards (some dating back a century) located in filing cabinets in Flint's public utility building. The Department of Public Works said that it was trying to transition the data into an electronic spreadsheet program, but as of October 1, 2015, only about 25% of the index card information had been digitized. On October 21, 2015, Snyder announced the creation of a five-member Flint Water Advisory Task Force, consisting of Ken Sikkema of Public Sector Consultants and Chris Kolb of the Michigan Environmental Council (co-chairs) and Matthew Davis of the University of Michigan Health System, Eric Rothstein of the Galardi Rothstein Group and Lawrence Reynolds of Mott Children's Health Center in Flint. On December 29, 2015, the Task Force released its preliminary report, saying that MDEQ bore ultimate blame for the Flint water crisis.

The task force wrote that the MDEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance adopted a "minimalist technical compliance approach" to water safety, which was "unacceptable and simply insufficient to the task of public protection." The task force also found that "Throughout 2015, as the public raised concerns and as independent studies and testing were conducted and brought to the attention of MDEQ, the agency's response was often one of aggressive dismissal, belittlement, and attempts to discredit these efforts and the individuals involved. We find both the tone and substance of many MDEQ public statements to be completely unacceptable." The task force also found that MDEQ has failed to follow the federal Lead and Copper Rule. That rule requires "optimized corrosion control treatment," but MDEQ staff instructed city of Flint water treatment staff that corrosion control treatment (CCT) would not be necessary for a year. The task force found that "the decision not to require CCT, made at the direction of the MDEQ, led directly to the contamination of the Flint water system." The Flint Water Advisory Task Force's final report, released March 21, 2016, found the MDEQ, MDHHS, Governor's office, and the state-appointed emergency managers "fundamentally accountable" for the crisis, saying the people of Flint were "needlessly and tragically" exposed to toxic levels of lead and other hazards. The task force's findings prompted the resignation of MDEQ director Dan Wyant and communications director Brad Wurfel. Flint Department of Public Works director Howard Croft also resigned.

On January 8, 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said that it was investigating. A month later, they said they were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the EPA's Office of Inspector General, the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, and the Postal Inspection Service on the investigation. The EPA "battled Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality behind the scenes for at least six months over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water" and "did not publicize its concern that Flint residents' health was jeopardized by the state's insistence that such controls were not required by law". In 2015, EPA water expert Miguel A. Del Toral "identified potential problems with Flint's drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem" in an internal memo circulated on June 24, 2015. Despite these "dire warnings" from Del Toral, the memo was not publicly released until November 2015, after a revision and vetting process. In the interim, the EPA and MDEQ engaged in a dispute on how to interpret the Lead and Copper Rule. According to EPA administrator Susan Hedman, the EPA pushed to immediately implement corrosion controls in the interests of public health, while MDEQ sought to delay a decision on corrosion control until two six-month periods of sampling had been completed. Meanwhile, Wurfel called Del Toral a "rogue employee" for his whistle-blowing efforts. Marc Edwards, who investigated the lead contamination, wrote that Del Toral had made a "heroic effort" that was stymied by the EPA and MDEQ spending months "wrangling over jurisdiction, technicalities and legalities."

In an interview with the Detroit News published on January 12, 2016, Hedman said that "the recommendation to DEQ (regarding the need for corrosion controls) occurred at higher and higher levels during this time period. And the answer kept coming back from DEQ that 'no, we are not going to make a decision until after we see more testing results.'" Hedman said the EPA did not go public with its concerns earlier because (1) state and local governments have primary responsibility for drinking water quality and safety; (2) there was insufficient evidence at that point of the extent of the danger; and (3) the EPA's legal authority to compel the state to take action was unclear, and the EPA discussed the issue with its legal counsel, who only rendered an opinion in November. Hedman said the EPA discussed the issue with its legal counsel and urged the state to have MDHHS warn residents about the danger. On January 21, Hedman's resignation (effective February 1) was accepted.

Assessments of the EPA's action varied. Edwards said that the assessment in Del Toral's original June memo was "100 percent accurate" and criticized the EPA for failing to take more immediate action. State Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, Democrat of Flint, said, "There's been a failure at all levels to accurately assess the scale of the public health crisis in Flint, and that problem is ongoing. However, the EPA's Miguel Del Toral did excellent work in trying to expose this disaster. Anyone who read his memo and failed to act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law." Del Toral later told The Flint Journal, "I was stunned when I found out they did not have corrosion control in place. In my head, I didn't believe that. I thought: That can't be true ... that's so basic." He also confirmed that unfiltered Flint water is still unsafe to drink, and did not know when that would change.

On January 15, 2016, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that his office would open an investigation into the crisis, saying the situation in Flint "is a human tragedy in which families are struggling with even the most basic parts of daily life." To oversee the his office's probe, Schuette appointed Todd Flood as special prosecutor and Andrew Arena as chief investigator, who lead a team of nine full-time investigators. At a media roundtable in February 2016, Flood said that the investigation could result in involuntary manslaughter charges, if there was gross negligence leading to a death. Critics have questioned the objectivity of the investigation.

In his annual State of the State address on January 19, 2016, Snyder announced that he would release all of his emails from 2014 and 2015 regarding the crisis. The following day, the governor's office released 274 pages of emails. The New York Times summarized, "the documents provide a glimpse of state leaders who were at times dismissive of the concerns of residents, seemed eager to place responsibility with local government and, even as the scientific testing was hinting at a larger problem, were reluctant to acknowledge it." Later that month in a class action lawsuit related to the crisis, Snyder and the MDEQ were served subpoenas for the release of additional emails dating back to the beginning of 2011. Emails highlighted by Progress Michigan in January 2016 indicate that Michigan state officials were trucking in bottled water to some of their own employees stationed in Flint as early as January 2015 in regards to the unsafe levels of trihalomethanes.

On January 25, 2016, the Genesee County Commission approved a request from Genesee County Prosecuting Attorney David Leyton for $25,000 to conduct an investigation into the crisis. The money will be used to hire two special prosecutors. On February 12, 2016, Governor Snyder released additional emails between his office and the MDEQ which about the Legionnaires' outbreak. On February 26, Snyder's office released several thousand more emails regarding the crisis that date back to 2011. An additional batch of emails was released on March 10. On March 4, 2016, a report released by the Michigan Auditor General's office called the MDEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance "not sufficient" in its oversight of the state's Community Water Supply Program.

On January 14, 2016, U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence formally requested congressional hearings on the crisis, saying: "We trust our government to protect the health and safety of our communities, and this includes the promise of clean water to drink." The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began their hearings on the crisis on February 3. U.S. Representative Dan Kildee from Flint gave an opening statement. The first witnesses were EPA acting deputy assistant administrator Joel Beauvais, Marc Edwards, new MDEQ Director Keith Creagh, and Flint resident LeeAnne Walters (who alerted EPA water expert Miguel A. Del Toral to the problem).

On February 10, 2016, a separate committee, the U.S. House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, held a hearing on the crisis in which Hurley Medical Center pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha; Yanna Lambrinidou, president of Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives, an environmental health group; Flint schools Superintendent Bilal Kareem Tawwab; Eric Scorsone, an expert in local government finances from Michigan State University, and Mayor Karen Weaver testified. On April 13, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy and Energy Subcommittee on Health held a joint hearing on the crisis in which Keith Creagh of MDEQ, Nick Lyon from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Medical Center testified.

On February 23, 2016, the Michigan State Legislature started a committee to investigate the crisis. On March 1, one of its members, Senator Jim Ananich of Flint, introduced a resolution that would grant state lawmakers probing the Flint water crisis subpoena power over the governor's office, which is immune to the state Freedom of Information Act. The committee's first hearing was on March 15, 2016. On March 29, 2016, the state's Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency held a hearing on the crisis in Flint during which residents and local experts testified.

On December 15, 2015, Mayor Weaver declared the water issue as a citywide public health state of emergency to prompt help from state and federal officials. Weaver's declaration said that additional funding will be needed for special education, mental health, juvenile justice, and social services because of the behavioral and cognitive impacts of high blood lead levels. It was subsequently declared a countywide emergency by the Genesee County Board of Commissioners.

On January 10, Mayor Weaver stressed to residents that it was important to also pick up the testing kits, as the city would like to receive at least 500 water test samples per week. On January 12, officers from the Michigan State Police and Genesee County Sheriff's Department started delivering cases of water, water filters, lead testing kits and replacement cartridges to residents who needed them. The American Red Cross has also been deployed to Flint to deliver bottled water and filters to residents.

On January 5, 2016, Governor Snyder declared Genesee County to be in a state of emergency. On January 6, Snyder ordered the Michigan Emergency Operations Center, operated by the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division, to open a Joint Information Center to coordinate public outreach and field questions from the residents about the problems caused by the crisis. The State Emergency Operations Center recommended that all Flint children under six years old get tested for lead levels as soon as possible, either by a primary care physician or the Genesee County Health Department. They also advised residents to call the United Way to receive additional help if needed.

On January 11, Snyder signed an executive order creating a new committee to "work on long-term solutions to the Flint water situation and ongoing public health concerns affecting residents." On January 13, Snyder activated the Michigan Army National Guard to assist the American Red Cross. On January 27, Snyder announced the establishment of the new 17-member Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee to "make recommendations regarding the health and welfare of people exposed to lead, study Flint's water infrastructure and determine potential upgrades, review Flint Water Task Force recommendations, and establish ways to improve communication between local and state government." On March 2, Snyder announced the state would partner with the employment agency Michigan Works! Association to hire 81 Flint residents to work at water distribution sites throughout the city. On March 21, Governor Snyder released a 75-point relief plan for addressing the crisis, which includes programs in the fields of health and human services, education, water supply and infrastructure replacements, and jobs and economic development. On April 6, the state began offering up to $100,000 in grant money from the Disaster and Emergency Contingency Fund to local governments affected by the water crisis.

On March 16, 2017, Governor Snyder created the Child Lead Exposure Elimination Commission and appointed Mona Hanna-Attisha of Flint's Hurley Medical Center, Rebecca Meuninck of Ann Arbor, deputy director of the Ecology Center; Paul Haan of Grand Rapids, executive director of the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, Inc.; and Lyke Thompson of Ann Arbor, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University as its members. "Eliminating the risk of child lead exposure will require the coordination and expertise of people across all sectors," Snyder said in the announcement. "Creating this permanent commission will help advance the strategies recommended to better protect Michigan children from lead exposure." On the same day, Governor Snyder said will lower Michigan's "action level" from 15 ppb to 10 ppb. Snyder sent $28 million to Flint for supplies, medical care, and infrastructure upgrades and later budgeted an additional $30 million to Flint to provide water bill credits of 65% for residents and 20% for businesses. Another $165 million for lead pipe replacements and water bill reimbursements was approved by Snyder on June 29, 2016. On January 6, 2017, Snyder signed a bill that accelerated the public notice requirement for lead in drinking water to three business days, from the previous time of 30 days.

On January 9, 2016, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent two liaison officers to the Michigan Emergency Operations Center to work with the state to monitor the situation. On January 15, Snyder asked President Obama to grant a federal emergency/major disaster designation for Genesee County, seeking federal financial aid for emergency assistance and infrastructure repair in order to "protect the health, safety and welfare of Flint residents." The following day, Obama signed an emergency declaration giving Flint up to $5 million in federal aid to handle the crisis. FEMA released a statement that said:

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Genesee County. FEMA is authorized to provide equipment and resources to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding. This emergency assistance is to provide water, water filters, water filter cartridges, water test kits, and other necessary related items for a period of no more than 90 days.

After Snyder's request for a "Major Disaster Declaration" status was turned down, FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate wrote a letter to Snyder saying that the water contamination "does not meet the legal definition of a 'major disaster'" under federal law because "[t]he incident was not the result of a natural catastrophe, nor was it created by a fire, flood or explosion." In response, Snyder asked Obama for emergency funding under FEMA's Individuals and Households Program, which provides housing assistance and replacement of personal property. He will also ask for money and emergency protective measures, according to the release. On March 3, 2016, Governor Snyder filed a second appeal for federal help to replace lead pipes and provide medical support and supplies for affected residents which said the estimated economic impact of the Flint water crisis is beginning to exceed $140 million. FEMA rejected his request again on March 16.

The EPA issued a Safe Drinking Water Act Emergency Order and took over collecting and testing of water samples, while ordering state agencies to send them previously collected data, on January 21. A week later they advised residents to continue using water filters and drink only bottled water. On February 12, the USDA extended their nutrition programs for Flint children diagnosed with high blood lead levels. On the next day, Governor Snyder asked for additional help from Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program for affected Flint children. The Department of Health and Human Services granted his request on February 18, providing an additional $500,000 in Medicaid expansion for affected Flint children and pregnant women. On March 3, a waiver request to include pregnant women and people up to 21 years of age was approved. On March 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to expand its Head Start Program to more Flint children affected by the crisis. On March 23, the U.S. Department of Labor announced up to $15 million in National Dislocated Worker Grants will help provide temporary jobs to assist with Flint's water crisis recovery. About 400 temporary jobs at water distribution centers throughout the city will be created through the grant. The workers will take the place of the Michigan National Guard soldiers who have been in place since January.

On March 25, 2016, the EPA and FEMA extended the federal emergency until August 14, 2016. The state took over the emergency response after that date. A $170 million stopgap spending bill for repairing and upgrading the city of Flint's water system and helping with healthcare costs was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 8, 2016. The Senate approved it the next day. $100 million of the bill is for infrastructure repairs, $50 million for healthcare costs, and $20 million to pay back loans related to the crisis.

On April 20, 2016, criminal charges were filed against three people in regards to the crisis by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. Former MDEQ employees Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, a treatment violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, and a monitoring violation of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act; former city water plant operator Michael Glasgow was charged with willful neglect of office, a misdemeanor, and felony tampering with evidence. On May 4, 2016 Glasgow accepted a plea deal with prosecutors, admitting to filing false information about lead in Flint water and agreeing to cooperate in other prosecutions. Exactly a year later, the case against Glasgow was dismissed, with prosecutors acknowledging his cooperation and the fact that he was the person who reported the crimes of his colleagues to the MDEQ.

The cases were consolidated for preliminary hearing purposes on August 9, since the same witnesses were to testify against all defendants. On September 14, 2016, Miller pleaded no contest to the neglect of duty charge and agreed to testify against the other defendants. She was later sentenced to a year probation, 300 hours of community service, and fined $1,200. On December 20, 2016, Schuette filed false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office charges against former Emergency Managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose; and false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses charges against former Flint Utilities Administrator Daugherty Johnson and former Flint Department of Public Works Director Howard Croft. On November 28, 2017, Daugherty Johnson pleaded no contest to failing to furnish water documents to a Genesee County Health Department employee investigating a possible connection between Flint water and Legionnaires' disease outbreaks. Charges were dismissed in 2018 because of his cooperation with prosecutors.

On December 18, 2019, the cases against former MDEQ employees Steven Busch and Michael Prysby were dismissed by a Genesee County judge.

On November 13, 2015, four families filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit against Governor Snyder and thirteen other city and state officials, including Mayor Walling and Darnell Earley, who was in charge of the city when the switch to the Flint River was made. The complaint alleges that the officials acted recklessly and negligently, leading to serious injuries from lead poisoning, including autoimmune disorders, skin lesions, and " brain fog." The complaint alleges that the officials' conduct was "reckless and outrageous" and "shocks the conscience and was deliberately indifferent to ... constitutional rights." The case was dismissed on February 3, 2017, with the judge stating his court has lack of subject-matter jurisdiction in the matter. Their attorneys filed an appeal on February 6.

On January 14, 2016, a separate class-action lawsuit against Snyder, the state of Michigan, the city of Flint, Earley, Walling, and Croft was filed by three Flint residents in Michigan Circuit Court in Genesee County. This suit targets lower-level officials who (under Michigan law) do not have immunity from claims arising from gross negligence. A separate suit was filed in January 2016 in the Michigan Court of Claims against the governor and state agencies; that suit alleges violations of the state constitution. In Michigan, the Court of Claims is the only court with subject-matter jurisdiction over claims against the state and its subdivisions.

A federal lawsuit filed on January 27, 2016, seeks the replacement of all lead service lines in Flint at no cost to residents following claims city and state leaders violated federal laws designed to protect drinking water. It is also asking the court to force city and state officials to provide safe drinking water to Flint residents and require them to follow federal regulations for testing and treating water to control for lead.

On February 2, 2016, a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court was filed on behalf of Beatrice Boler, a Flint mother of two, Flint pastor Edwin Anderson with his wife, Alline Anderson, and a company, Epco Sales LLC. against Snyder, the MDEQ, two former state appointed emergency managers and Mayor Walling that seeks more than $150 million in refunds and compensation for damages for "water that was extraordinarily dangerous, undrinkable and unusable." It was dismissed on April 19, 2016, after the judge ruled the allegations fall under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which prevents challenges to the law being ruled on in U.S. District Court and states they must be addressed by the EPA, and the case should be re-filed in the Michigan Court of Claims. Also on February 2, a lawsuit was filed in Michigan Circuit Court on behalf of four Genesee County residents who contracted Legionnaires' disease during the Flint water crisis, including one woman who died seven days after entering the emergency room with a headache. The suit names McLaren Regional Medical Center and several MDEQ officials as defendants. Lawyer Geoffrey Fieger represents the plaintiffs.

On February 8, 2016 the parents of a two-year-old girl diagnosed with high blood lead levels filed a lawsuit in federal court, naming as defendants the city of Flint, the state of Michigan, Snyder, Earley, and Walling. The case was dismissed on February 7, 2017, with the judge citing his court has a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On March 3, 2016, a lawsuit was filed in state court by LeeAnne Walters, the Flint mother who informed the EPA water expert Miguel Del Toral of the health problems her family experienced after the water switch, against multiple corporate entities and three current and former government employees for their role in the city's water crisis. On March 7, 2016, another class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of seven residents alleging that tens of thousands of residents have suffered physical and economic injuries and damages. It argues officials failed to take action over "dangerous levels of lead" in drinking water and "downplayed the severity of the contamination."

On March 8, 2016, a federal class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 500 county inmates against the Genesee County Sheriff's Department in regards to the water quality at the Genesee County Jail. The suit seeks only an injunction that will order the sheriff's department to continue to serve inmates only bottled water and dry food that doesn't require water to prepare.

On June 22, 2016, the Michigan Attorney General's Office filed a civil suit against engineering firms Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN) who were hired to consult Flint water plant officials after the switch to the Flint River in April 2015. The lawsuit accuses Veolia and LAN of professional negligence and public nuisance. Veolia is also accused of fraud. Veolia called the accusations "baseless, entirely unfounded and [appearing] to be intended to distract from the troubling and disturbing realities that have emerged as a result of this tragedy," and then added, "In fact, when Veolia raised potential lead and copper issues, city officials and representatives told us to exclude it from our scope of work because the city and the EPA were just beginning to conduct lead and copper testing." Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel amended the complaint on April 12, 2019, stating the companies "made multiple missteps by designing water treatment measures that made the water corrosive. Those failures ultimately resulted in bacterial problems in Flint's water, potentially dangerous disinfectant byproducts, the corrosion of the city's water distribution system, and high lead levels." On May 28, 2019, Veolia denied responsibility for the crisis, instead blaming state and location officials for the crisis, and filed a motion for summary disposition on that date. In November 2019, a Genesee County judge dismissed four of the plaintiff's five charges against Veolia and LAN.

On January 7, 2016, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said that estimates of the cost of fixing water infrastructure in Flint, such as aging pipes, range from millions up to $1.5 billion. These figures encompass infrastructure alone, excluding any public health costs of the disaster. DEQ interim director Keith Creagh said that estimation of total costs would be premature. However, in a September 2015 email released by Snyder in January 2016, the state estimated the replacement cost to be $60 million, and said it could take up to 15 years to do.

At his annual State of the State address on January 19, Snyder apologized again, and asked the Michigan Legislature to give Flint an additional $28 million in funding for filters, replacement cartridges, bottled water, more school nurses and additional intervention specialists. It also will fund lab testing, corrosion control procedures, a study of water-system infrastructure, potentially help Flint deal with unpaid water bills, case management of people with elevated lead-blood levels, assessment of potential linkages to other diseases, crisis counseling and mental health services, and the replacement of plumbing fixtures in schools, child care centers, nursing homes and medical facilities. The Michigan House Appropriations Committee passed the bill the next day, while the Senate approved it on January 28. Snyder signed it the next day.

On January 28, 2016 Democratic U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters and Representative Dan Kildee proposed an amendment to pending federal energy legislation to add the special appropriation of up to $400 million to replace and repair the lead service lines in Flint and $200 million more to create a center for lead research in Flint. They also said the state could choose to match up to $400 million for its share of infrastructure repairs in Flint. The newly amended bill was rejected by the Senate on February 4. A new $220 million bill to address the crisis was proposed in the U.S. Senate on February 24.

At a news conference on February 9, 2016, Flint mayor Karen Weaver said that the city would remove and replace all of the city's 15,000 water service lines containing lead piping. Work was expected to begin in March 2016. The project will receive technical advice from the Lansing Board of Water and Light, which removed over 13,000 lead pipes in Lansing, Michigan. Lansing mayor Virg Bernero volunteered to provide the assistance. Weaver appointed Michael C.H. McDaniel, a retired National Guard brigadier general, to oversee the group leading the project, the Flint Action and Sustainability Team (FAST). The city government hopes to complete the project within a year, using 32 work crews, with priority given to the most at-risk households.

On February 16, 2016 the state hired Flint-based engineering firm Rowe Professional Services to begin the process of locating, removing, and eventually replacing lead pipes in the highest risk areas of Flint.

On February 18, 2016 the state gave Flint a $2 million grant that will go towards replacing lead service lines.

On July 18, 2016 city council approved a $500,000 contract with three companies for the second phase of lead pipe replacements: WT Stevens, and Johnson & Wood were awarded $320,000 contracts to do no more than 50 homes each. Goyette was awarded $619,500 to tackle replacing lead lines at 150 Flint homes. The city is using $25 million in funding approved by the Michigan legislature in June that was allocated for replacing Flint lead tainted pipes for Fast Start's third phase which will replace infrastructure at an estimated 5,000 homes in Flint.

Flint's water service line records were largely unreliable, meaning the city could not say how many lead pipes existed, nor where they were. The City therefore started using a machine learning model to prioritize excavations starting in September 2016. Researchers from the University of Michigan developed this predictive model, using utility and parcel-level data to develop a more accurate service line inventory and calculate the probability that a given service is connected with a lead line. As pipes are dug up and more data is gained, the model updates accordingly and yields more accurate results. Using the model to prioritize excavations throughout 2016 and 2017 yielded a hit rate of about 80%.

On February 6, 2017, the Genesee Intermediate School District received $6.5 million for the Early On Genesee program to provide free evaluations to as many as 5,000 children up to 5 years old facing possible lead-related developmental delays from the state of Michigan.

On March 17, 2017, Flint received a $100 million grant from the EPA for water infrastructure repairs.

On June 30, 2017, the Genesee County Health Department's Healthy Start Program received $15 million to provide health and social services for people who have had or are at risk for lead exposure stemming from Flint water crisis.

In January 2018, the city contracted a private consulting firm, AECOM, to take over water service line excavations and consequently stopped using the machine learning model. During 2018, 10,531 excavations were performed, yielding a hit rate of only 15%.

Childhood lead exposure causes a reduction in intellectual functioning and IQ, academic performance, and problem-solving skills, and an increased risk of attention deficit disorder, aggression, and hyperactivity. According to studies, children with elevated levels of lead in the blood are more likely as adults to commit crimes, be imprisoned, be unemployed or underemployed, or be dependent on government services. While changes in IQ may appear small from the elevated blood levels, it has been estimated that each increase in an IQ point raises worker's productivity by 1.76-2.38%, and that the economic benefit for each year of 3.8 million 2-year-old children could be from $110 to $319 billion.

In addition, early-life exposure to lead may increase risk of later-life neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, and this risk is likely to persist into late life long after lead has been removed from the body. A 2014 study by researchers at Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan, completed before the Flint water crisis came to light, estimated the annual cost of childhood lead exposure in Michigan at $330 million ($205 million in decreases in lifetime earnings, $105 million in additional criminal justice system expenditures, $18 million in health expenditures to diagnose lead positioning and lead-linked attention deficit disorder), and $2.5 million in additional special education expenditures.

Because the developmental effects of lead exposure appear over a series of years, the total long-term cost of the Flint water crisis "will not be apparent in the short term." However, the cost is expected to be high. Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, an expert in the effects of environmental pollution on brain development, said that "when calculated from the loss of lifetime income, the societal costs from lead exposure (across the United States) reach billion-dollar amounts."

Dan Kildee, the Democratic party congressman in the House of Representatives representing the Michigan 5th district which includes Flint, along with Republican Michigan Representative Fred Upton, sponsored H.R. 4470, the Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act, which would ensure that the public promptly learns of excessive lead levels in their drinking water by setting forth how and when states, EPA, and public utilities communicate their findings. It has passed the House, but has yet to be passed by the Senate.[needs update ]

Among the Michigan congressional delegation, only Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Cascade Township, opposed federal aid for Flint. Amash opined that "the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to intervene in an intrastate matter like this one."

In December 2016, President Barack Obama signed Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 (co-sponsored by Debbie Stabenow in the Senate) which earmarked $170 million to address the Flint water crisis. The first $100 million was released in March 2017, by the US Environmental Protection Agency after President Trump had taken office.

President Donald Trump's plan to fix the crisis in Michigan has been folded into his federal infrastructure plan. Trump's infrastructure plan proposes $1 trillion in spending on new infrastructure by offering corporations who invest in infrastructure projects tax credits, with the corporations investing approximately $167 billion. This plan would require a return of 9-10% to investors to remain feasible. This plan has no direct reference to or specific proposal for the crisis in Flint and as of his election he has not proposed a direct federal intervention.

Dan Kildee, the Democratic party congressman in the House of Representatives representing the Michigan 5th district which includes Flint, re-introduced on July 10, 2019 a bill in the House, originally introduced in 2017, as HR 3677, the National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence Act (NO LEAD) of 2017. Tammy Duckworth, Democratic Senator for Illinois, announced on the same day, July 10, 2019, the introduction of a bill in the Senate as S. 2086, the National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence (NO LEAD) of 2019. The nearly-identical bills aim to help ensure drinking water across the USA is safe from lead and copper contamination, and would update the Lead and Copper Rule, lowering the lead action level from 15 parts per billion (ppb) currently, to 10 ppb by 2020 and 5 ppb by 2026. The bill would also create a lead-service-line inventory to help monitor contaminated service lines and ensure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develops a universal testing protocol to make sure the entire lead service line is replaced if water contamination is detected, as partial replacement does not eliminate the risk of contamination.

On January 4, 2016, citing the Flint water crisis, Michigan Representative Phil Phelps, Democrat of Flushing, announced plans to introduce a bill to the Michigan House of Representatives that would make it a felony for state officials to intentionally manipulate or falsify information in official reports, punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.[needs update ]

On March 2, House Democratic leader Tim Greimel called on Governor Snyder to resign, due to his "negligence and indifference" in his handling of the Flint water crisis. Also on that date, State Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon called for Michigan Treasurer Nick Khouri to resign due to his role in a loan agreement from April 2015 that blocked Flint from switching back to the Detroit system.

On January 19, 2016, then- Republican-candidate Donald Trump said, "It's a shame what's happening in Flint, Michigan. A thing like that shouldn't happen." After clinching the Republican nomination, Trump visited Flint on September 14, 2016 and toured the water plant and a Flint church, where he promised to fix the water crisis, and in a brief speech there, he blamed NAFTA for General Motors' abandonment of Flint and the area's subsequent ongoing recession caused by it, saying, "It used to be that cars were made in Flint and you couldn't drink the water in Mexico. Now cars are made in Mexico, and you can't drink the water in Flint. That's terrible."

Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton repeatedly mentioned the crisis during her campaign, saying: "The people of Flint deserve to know the truth about how this happened and what Governor Snyder and other leaders knew about it. And they deserve a solution, fast. Thousands of children may have been exposed to lead, which could irreversibly harm their health and brain functioning. Plus, this catastrophe-which was caused by a zeal to save money at all costs-could actually cost $1.5 billion in infrastructure repairs." In a subsequent interview, Clinton referred to her work on lead abatement in housing in upstate New York while a U.S. Senator and called for further funding for healthcare and education for children who will suffer the negative effects of lead exposure on behavior and educational attainment.

The crisis was also the catalyst for a town hall style debate in Flint between Clinton and Democratic rival Bernie Sanders on March 6, 2016, two days before the Michigan Presidential primary election. It was hosted by CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon. Both candidates called for Governor Snyder to resign during the event.

On January 16, 2020, Trump re-tweeted a story by conservative website The Daily Caller which claims that $390 million of state funds allocated to Flint in 2019 for the crisis recovery were improperly used, adding, "This is a total disgrace, but just another reason that I'm going to win Michigan again!". The article's accusations have been denied by the state's budget director.

In early September 2020, Republican former Governor Rick Snyder endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden for president. Liberal Flint-born filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, angry about the endorsement, devoted a podcast episode to this issue.

An investigative report by Reuters released December 19, 2016 found nearly 3,000 areas in the United States with lead contamination rates at least double those in Flint. The Trump Administration blocked publishing a federal health study on the nationwide water-contamination crisis.

The water disaster called attention to the problem of aging and seriously neglected water infrastructure nationwide. The Flint crisis recalled recent lead contamination crises in the tap water in various cities, such as the lead contamination in Washington, D.C. drinking water (2001), Columbia, South Carolina (2005); Durham and Greenville, North Carolina (2006); Jackson, Mississippi (2015); and Sebring, Ohio (2015). The New York Times notes, "Although Congress banned lead water pipes 30 years ago, between 3.3 million and 10 million older ones remain, primed to leach lead into tap water by forces as simple as jostling during repairs or a change in water chemistry." Inadequate regulation was cited as one reason for unsafe lead levels in tap water and "efforts to address shortcomings often encounter push-back from industries like agriculture and mining that fear cost increases, and from politicians ideologically opposed to regulation." The crisis called attention to a "resource gap" for water regulators. The annual budget of the EPA's drinking water office declined 15% from 2006 to 2015, with the office losing over 10% of employees, and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators reported in 2013 that "federal officials had slashed drinking-water grants, 17 states had cut drinking-water budgets by more than a fifth, and 27 had cut spending on full-time employees," with "serious implications for states' ability to protect public health."

In the aftermath of the water crisis, it was noted that elevated blood-lead levels in children are found in many cities across Michigan, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Adrian. Although statewide childhood lead-poisoning rates have dramatically declined since the removal of lead from gasoline, certain areas of the state (particularly low-income areas with older housing stock) continue to experience lead poisoning, mostly from lead paint in homes built before 1978 and lead residue in dust and soil. Lead abatement efforts are slow.

After the crisis in Flint, Michigan, Trump's administration created a new set of regulations that would allow states to react more effectively and in a faster manner in the event of a public health crisis. These changes, proposed in amendments to the Lead and Copper Rule, still allow lead water lines to service communities, which has drawn a lot of criticisms from the public. This new proposal highlighted four changes in the Lead and Copper Rule, a rule that previously has not been revised in years. The proposed revisions consist of:

Requiring water systems to create a database of where the lead pipes are located, and when the water running through the pipes reaches lead levels greater than 15 parts per billion, the problem must be investigated and fixed.

Create an alert when water samples reach 10 parts per billion so that communities can determine how to lower the lead levels in the water before it reaches 15 parts per billion.

Require water systems to alert customers within a one-day period if their water sample tests higher than 15 parts per million.

Require water systems to replace water service lines to a home if they are contaminated with lead, and if the homeowner chooses to replace the piping. Every year thereafter, the water system must replace three percent of the lead contaminated water system.

However, critics are calling for the replacement of all lead service lines in communities; a project that would cost billions of dollars, which was not a part of the proposed amendments to the Lead and Copper Rule.

The problem with the current Lead and Copper Rule is that it allows states to test their own water systems. This can cause problems because the water systems in individual homes affect the quality of the water there. Therefore, water pipes could be contaminated and never get tested, or the test results are never reported. Since the crisis in Flint, the Environmental Protection Agency has called for more aggressive replacement of contaminated pipes, as well as improved education so people know to test their water. The crisis in Flint spurred the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to test water systems across the nation for possible contaminants. The study showed that every state in the country had areas which tested positive for matter that could be harmful to human health. This highlights the sheer number of violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, of which the Lead and Copper Rule is a part of. These violations could be positive results of contaminated water, failing to test water and water systems, and the failure to report contaminated water systems to the proper authorities.

Civil rights advocates characterized the crisis as a result of environmental racism (Flint's population is 56.6% African American per the 2010 census), a term primarily referring to the disproportionate exposure of ethnic minorities to pollution as a result of "poverty and segregation that has relegated many blacks and other racial minorities to some of the most industrialized or dilapidated environments." Columnist Shaun King, for example, wrote that the crisis was "a horrific clash of race, class, politics and public health."

On October 8, 2015, the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press wrote that the crisis was "an obscene failure of government" and criticized Snyder.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has extensively reported on the water crisis on her show since December 2015, keeping it in the national spotlight. She has condemned Snyder's use of emergency managers (which she termed a "very, very radical" change "to the way we govern ourselves as Americans, something that nobody else has done") and said, "The kids of Flint, Michigan have been poisoned by a policy decision." Maddow visited Flint and hosted a town hall with government officials and other involved experts on her show on January 27. On October 5, 2017, Maddow won an Emmy Award for the special.

In February 2018, "Jordan Chariton Reports", the YouTube channel and reporting website, released an investigative piece on TruthDig showing that the science and data used to declare the water safe in Flint, Michigan was suspect. This report was later featured on the Thom Hartmann Program..

On April 23, 2019 Status Coup, an independent investigative reporting network co-founded by Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize, released the documentary Flushing Flint which claimed that the water testing by Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was falsified by MDEQ staff taking water samples after flushing running water from taps for several minutes before taking the samples, contrary to normal procedures for water testing, and by MDEQ staff telling residents that they should take water samples after flushing running water from their taps for several minutes. This would clearly contravene the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance that samples taken must be "first-draw samples at taps in homes/buildings".

On April 16, 2020, an article was published giving details of evidence of corruption and a cover-up by former Governor Rick Snyder and his "fixer" Rich Baird, and stating that the statute of limitations on some of the most serious felony misconduct-in-office charges would expire on April 25, 2020. The article was published by Vice News, written by Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize, the co-founders of Status Coup, with photos by Brittany Greeson. Responses from Michigan state authorities denied that a deadline was approaching, and said that criminal prosecutions would follow.

In June 2019, the University of Michigan researchers responsible for developing the model, Jake Abernethy and Eric Schwartz, founded BlueConduit, a company aimed at leveraging data science and machine learning to find and remove lead pipes in other municipalities. Retired Brigadier General Michael C.H. McDaniel, who was appointed by Flint Mayor Karen Weaver to serve as program manager for the lead service line replacement programs in Flint, joined BlueConduit as Director of Government and Customer Services.

Michael Moore, a Genesee County native and director-producer of several movies related to Flint, called for Snyder's arrest for mishandling the water crisis in an open letter to the governor, writing, "The facts are all there, Mr. Snyder. Every agency involved in this scheme reported directly to you. The children of Flint didn't have a choice as to whether or not they were going to get to drink clean water." A spokesman for the governor called Moore's call "inflammatory". Later, after hearing of the Legionnaires' outbreak, Moore termed the state's actions "murder". Speaking to reporters in Flint, he emphasized that "this was not a mistake ... Ten people have been killed here because of a political decision. They did this. They knew." Moore also criticized Barack Obama's trip to Flint, where he drank water, "disappointing."

On January 16, 2016, the Reverend Jesse Jackson met with Mayor Weaver in Flint and said of the crisis, "The issue of water and air and housing and education and violence are all combined. The problem here obviously is more than just lack of drinkable water. We know the problems here and they will be addressed." Jackson called Flint "a disaster zone" and a "crime scene" during a rally at a Flint church the next day. Jackson, in conjunction with the group Concerned Pastors for Social Action, held a major national march in Flint on February 19 to address the water issue, as well as inner city violence and urban reconstruction.

In the third episode of the Adult Swim comedy series Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, Charles Carroll (member of the group of YouTube comedians " Million Dollar Extreme") delivers a monologue where he describes how viewers can recreate the contaminated water in Flint. In his monologue, the right wing-leaning Carroll discusses the concept of tyrannicide with costars Sam Hyde and Andrew Ruse and claims that the situation in Flint is a situation where the violent murder of Republican leadership in the state of Michigan would be justified.

West Virginia University/University of Kansas study

On August 7, 2017, West Virginia University published a study validating the correlation between the intake of lead contaminated water and the increase of fetal deaths along with miscarriages during November 2013 to March 2015. The study was led jointly by Daniel Grossman of West Virginia University and David Slusky of the University of Kansas. The data was constructed over the course of two years focusing on the city of Flint and how the data differs among neighboring cites in Michigan. Data shows that after the city switched the water source to the Flint River, fetal deaths rose 58% among women aged 15-49 compared to control areas.

William Paterson University/University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Study

On November 6, 2017 a retrospective cohort study was published in the Journal of Public Health Policy regarding birth weight outcomes in Flint in the early stages of the water crisis.The study was completed using birth data from 2005 to 2015 to assess the birth weights of infants born before and after the Flint, Michigan, water supply was changed. Low birth weight was defined as a birth weight less than 2,500 grams. Beginning with January 2014 conception dates, the Flint, Michigan, population saw the incidence of low birth weight infants increase from 13.3% to 15.7%. Further analysis, using other counties as controls with similar demographics during the same time period, were then assessed in order to prove these lower birth weights did not happen by chance.

Wayne State University, Department of Communication Study

In a study published in the journal Communication Studies, researchers conducted a survey on the crisis communications methods used during the Flint water contamination by looking at media use between different racial groups. The results were accordant with past research, where racial minorities generally utilized more interpersonal and social connections as informational resources in comparison to their white counterparts. Additionally, the study found that "In almost every category pertaining to health effects and other topics related to the Flint water crisis, African American respondents wanted additional information at higher levels than White respondents." Lastly, researchers found that Instagram was widely used by African-American residents to receive crisis information. The results from this study can further inform government agencies on how to effectively communicate with African-American communities, and use new social media platforms like Instagram to disperse important crisis information.

The crisis highlighted a lack of transparency in Michigan government; the state is one of just two states that exempts the governor's office from state freedom-of-information legislation. A number of commentators framed the crisis in terms of human rights, writing that authorities' handling of the issue denied residents their right to clean water.

Some have framed it as the end result of austerity measures and given priority over human life. Jacob Lederman, for example, contends that Flint's poisoned water supply, in addition to high crime rates, devastated schools and crumbling infrastructure, can be attributed to neoliberal economic reforms.

Robby Soave, writing in magazine, said that administrative bloat in public-sector trade unions was to blame for the crisis: "Let's not forget the reason why local authorities felt the need to find a cheaper water source: Flint is broke and its desperately poor citizens can't afford higher taxes to pay the pensions of city government retirees. As recently as 2011, it would have cost every person in Flint $10,000 each to cover the unfunded legacy costs of the city's public employees." "Flint was a government-made disaster from top to bottom. Private companies didn't run the system or profit from it," Shikha Dalmia wrote in Reason magazine.

Using predictive models could be another invaluable way to help prevent another crisis like the one in Flint. Many municipalities across the country have outdated or incomplete records on their water service line materials, and governments have finite resources to identify and fix the problem of lead lines. In Flint, it is clear that a data-driven approach allowed public money to be spent more efficiently in ways that directly align with public health protection. Because the public (utility-owned) portion of service lines is buried under roads and sidewalks, it is expensive to verify pipe materials. Depending on the verification method, it can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars per home. Flint spent more than $20 million on unnecessary excavations when it ignored model predictions in 2018, instead of targeting homes with the highest likelihood of having a lead service line. This could have been largely avoided with the continued use of the machine learning model developed in 2016.

As the water crisis unfolded, residents experienced considerable anxiety over the physical and mental health impacts of lead poisoning on both adults and children, stress, and anger and political leaders. Some adults felt guilty about giving children contaminated water, and in some cases family members stopped visiting. Some residents related the water crisis to depression and even thoughts of suicide; some sought treatment for mental breakdowns. The state government gave a $500,000 grant to the Genesee Health System for free counseling in addition to sending state mobile crisis teams and expanding Medicaid programs for affected residents. Volunteer social workers arrived from across the state, and the United States Public Health Service offered training.

As of September 8, 2017, the Ruth Mott Foundation and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint had directed a combined $33,480,494 to various programs to aid both children and adults affected by Flint's water crisis. This total reflects donations from many celebrities, groups and organizations. The money has gone to fund not only immediate aid for the Flint crisis (such as bottled water distribution), but also to build community organizations and infrastructure in Flint; however, it has not gone to repairing the Flint water system, which remains the responsibility of local and state governments. The Ruth Mott foundation says much of their work is going towards helping Flint's children, in the form of programs for health, nutrition, and education.

The Flint water crisis has attracted a substantial amount of philanthropic support from a wide variety of individuals and organizations, with donations often focused on bottled water or money. Celebrities including the singers Cher and Bruno Mars, rapper Meek Mill, comedians Dave Chappelle and Jimmy Fallon, and many others have made high-profile donations to assist Flint.

A group made up of actor Mark Wahlberg and rappers Sean Combs, Eminem, and Wiz Khalifa donated 1 million bottles of water to Flint.

Support has also come from numerous companies, including Detroit-based Faygo, grocer Meijer, the Dow Chemical Company of nearby Midland, and Ball Corporation, among many others.

The Flint Firebirds' rivals in the Ontario Hockey League made donations: the Windsor Spitfires donated 40,000 bottles of water, and the Sarnia Sting donated 15,000 bottles of water.

Detroit Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah donated 94,000 bottles to Flint, and Terrance Knighton and his Washington Redskins teammates donated 3,600 bottles of water to Flint's Catholic Charities USA. On the same day, rock band Pearl Jam and a large group of musicians donated $300,000 to the United Way of Genesee County, and started a CrowdRise fundraiser for donations from its fans. In January 2016, fundraising website GoFundMe promised to donate an additional $10,000 to the fund of the winner of a contest between groups trying to raise money for Flint, while Anheuser-Busch donated 51,744 cans of water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

The Detroit Pistons donated $500,000 to the United Way of Genesee County from their FlintNOW fundraising campaign from the previous night's game.

Walmart, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé and PepsiCo announced that they would collectively donate a total of 176 truckloads of water (up to 6.5 million bottles) through the end of 2016. On the same day, singer Madonna (a native of nearby Bay City) donated $10,000 to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, and singer Kem donated $10,000 to the Salvation Army of Genesee County.

Rapper The Game donated $1,000,000 in water bottles to Flint, while FedEx, along with the city of Memphis, Tennessee donated 12,000 bottles of water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

A group of nine banks collectively donated $600,000 to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

The LaPorte County, Indiana Sheriff's Office donated 2,300 cases of water to a church in Flint, the Northwest Indiana Truck Club donated 3,500 cases of water to Flint, and NFL player and Flint native Brandon Carr donated $100,000 to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint and $10,000 to the Safe Water Safe Homes Fund.

The police fraternity Brothers Before Others donated 330 cases of water bottles, 361 one-US-gallon (3.8 l) water jugs and $1,000 to the Flint Police Department. The charity Resources Unite of Dubuque, Iowa collected 300,000 bottles of water for Flint.

The Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation donated $100,000 to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

Two prisons in Northern Michigan donated 29,000 bottles of water to the Genesee Intermediate School District.

Mari Copeny, also known as Little Miss Flint, launched a t-shirt fundraiser that says 'Don't Forget Flint' to raise money for events and programs that benefit kids impacted by the water crisis in Flint. Since the campaign first launched in August 2017, she has sold over 19,000 shirts. In April 2018, Mari launched another fundraising campaign through GoFundMe to raise money for bottled water. To date, she has raised over $125,000.

The United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ, two Flint-area Protestant denominations, worked together to launch a water distribution effort.

Flint Jewish Federation worked in partnership with the American Red Cross to help get clean water to homes.

In January 2016, Muslim organizations, including Who is Hussain, Life for Relief and Development, Islamic Relief USA, and the Michigan Muslim Community Council, donated and distributed thousands of bottles of water to Flint-area residents. By May, Michigan's Muslim community had donated more than one million bottles of water to Flint-area residents.

Comedians George Lopez, Eddie Griffin, Cedric the Entertainer, Charlie Murphy, and D. L. Hughley performed stand-up comedy in Flint's Dort Federal Credit Union Event Center as part of The Comedy Get Down Tour, with the proceeds to go to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

$50,000 raised at the Meridian Winter Festival in Detroit was donated to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

On February 28, 2016, coinciding with the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, director Ryan Coogler and director Ava DuVernay held a charity event at the Whiting Auditorium in Flint. The event, titled #JusticeForFlint, was live-streamed by Sean Combs' Revolt.tv network. Hosted by comedian Hannibal Buress, it featured singers Janelle Monáe and Ledisi, as well as actor-activists Jesse Williams and Jussie Smollett, among others. The event raised $156,000.

A telethon led by Detroit TV station WDIV and simulcast on Michigan's other NBC affiliates raised $566,982 for the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Detroit Pistons owner and Flint native Tom Gores matched the amount, doubling the amount raised to $1,133,964.

A charity celebrity basketball game called Hoop 4 Water featuring former Michigan State Spartans players Morris Peterson (from Flint), Zach Randolph and Jason Richardson, Coach Tom Izzo, and rapper Snoop Dogg was played in Flint on May 22. Izzo and Snoop Dogg agreed to return to Flint for the same event in 2017, along with other celebrities, held on May 20.

Fight for Flint was a boxing fundraiser at Flint's Dort Federal Event Center featuring Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns, along with brothers Andre Dirrell and Anthony Dirrell; Mike Hernandez, Troy Albrine Jr., Rakim Johnson; and female boxers Jackie Kallen, Fatuma Zarika and Alicia Ashley. It was sponsored by Don Elbaum Promotions and the Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties.

A fundraiser called Fashion For Flint held in late January 2017 helped raise money to purchase 10,000 bottles of water.

The Flint crisis has been the subject of many documentaries, as well as fictional dramatizations.

, a television film based on the crisis starring Queen Latifah, Betsy Brandt, Jill Scott, Marin Ireland and Rob Morrow premiered in October 2017.

Lead and Copper, a documentary on the Flint water contamination crisis, was released in 2017.

On May 31, 2017, the PBS show aired an episode about the water crisis called "Poisoned Water". The Flint Institute of Arts screened the episode early, on May 23.

On March 2, 2018, Netflix released which follows the Flint Police Department in 2016 during the height of the water crisis.

The water crisis was a major part of the 2018 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 about the election of Donald Trump.

PBS's aired an episode about the water crisis and Legionnaires outbreak on September 10, 2019 called "Flint's Deadly Water".

Flint: The Poisoning of an American City, a documentary film about the crisis produced by Barnhart Films, was released theatrically on September 12, 2019, premiering at the Capitol Theater in Flint and briefly shown at theaters owned by Emagine Entertainment the following week.

On June 22, 2016, Bridge Magazine, The Center for Michigan, and Mission Point Press published a book about the crisis called "Poison on Tap". It has been described as a "riveting, authoritative account of the government blunders, mendacity and arrogance" that caused the crisis.

In May 2016, it was announced that Mona Hanna-Attisha was in the process of writing a "dramatic first-hand account" of the Flint Water Crisis. The book, titled, "What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City" was released on June 19, 2018 by Random House imprint One World by editor-in-chief Chris Jackson. Anonymous Content optioned the book rights to make a movie, to be produced by Michael Sugar and Rosalie Swedlin, and written/directed by Cherien Dabis. The New York Times named "What the Eyes Don't See" one of the 100 notable books of 2018.

The song "Near DT, MI" featured on the 2019 debut album Schlagenheim by UK noise band Black Midi contains lyrics that describe the circumstances of those affected by the water crisis.[citation needed ]

On January 28, 2016, rapper Jon Connor from Flint released a song titled "Fresh Water for Flint" (featuring Keke Palmer) about the crisis and how it has affected his family. Nu metal band King 810 from Flint also has a song about the water crisis, called "We Gotta Help Ourselves".

The song "Parts per Million" featured on the 2017 album Wolves by American punk rock band Rise Against contains lyrics involving the Flint Water Crisis.

Michigan native and actor Jeff Daniels directed a play called Flint, a "heartfelt and brutally honest story of two couples struggling to endure and believe in the American dream" set in 2014, at his Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan. It ran from January 18 through March 10, 2018.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Time April 25, 2014; 6 years ago Duration 2014-Present Location Flint, Michigan, United States Coordinates 43°0′36″N 83°41′24″W ﻿ / ﻿ 43.01000°N 83.69000°W Coordinates: 43°0′36″N 83°41′24″W ﻿ / ﻿ 43.01000°N 83.69000°W Type Participants Residents of Flint, Michigan Outcome 6,000-12,000 children exposed to lead[2] Public health state of emergency 79 lawsuits[3] Several

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I n October 2015, then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder finally announced that Flint's water was contaminated with dangerous lead levels. That public admission had come after more than a year of pleading from the city's residents to examine the situation. The city, Snyder promised, would immediately stop using water from the Flint River, which residents had been drinking for 18 months.

The public announcement raised as many questions as it answered and kick-started a yearslong investigation into how the decision that delivered the toxic water to Flint had been made in the first place, how many people were sickened and killed as a result, and when senior government officials first learned of the deadly consequences.

Along the way, however, investigators who were part of a three-year Flint water investigation beginning in 2016 kept drilling dry holes.

Dr. Eden Wells became Michigan's chief medical executive in May 2015. By then, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services had been aware for at least seven months of a significant increase in the deadly waterborne Legionnaires' disease throughout Flint.

Patricia McKane, an epidemiologist with MDHHS who that she was pressured to lie by Wells about elevated blood-lead levels in Flint's children, was found to have only had four text messages on her phone from 2015 and seven total messages. (Wells denied pressuring her to lie.) Fellow MDHHS epidemiologist Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the state Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, who Wells copied in an email responding to accusations by a Wayne State University professor that she was trying to conceal the link between the Flint River switch and the Legionella outbreak, had no messages prior to June 2016.

The lack of phone messages from top MDHHS officials was a major red flag to investigators and an obvious impediment to those investigating who knew what and when. Despite department epidemiologists hypothesizing in October 2014 that the source of Flint's deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak was the switch to the Flint River six months earlier, Flint residents weren't informed of the deadly outbreak until 16 months later, when Snyder announced it in January 2016. PBS a 43 percent increase in pneumonia deaths in Flint during the 18 months the city received drinking water from the Flint River - and also found that scientists that some of those 115 pneumonia deaths could be attributed to Legionnaires' disease, which has similar symptoms to pneumonia and is often misdiagnosed as such.

Investigators also discovered that phone data belonging to a key official close to Snyder was completely erased shortly before the Flint criminal investigation was launched.

"No. So when I left the governor's office, everything got wiped. I mean, when - I turned in my phone, it got wiped," Wurfel told Flood. Wurfel, who kept her state cellphone number when she left her government job, said she didn't recall if she had been asked to hand in her phone at any other time in 2015 prior to leaving her job in November. She also said she didn't think that she had used iCloud to back up her phone data.

"We've said all along that we believe that there was a cover-up and that the governor knew more information than he was putting out publicly."

Lonnie Scott, executive director of the progressive organization Progress Michigan, told The Intercept "it's not entirely surprising to hear" that top officials' phones lacked data or were wiped completely. Scott had seen something similar happen in 2014, when his organization had submitted Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests for state health Director Jim Haveman's communications with Snyder's chief of staff. After Haveman resigned from his job in October 2014, Progress Michigan discovered that his emails were deleted upon his resignation from his role.

"We've said all along that we believe that there was a cover-up and that the governor knew more information than he was putting out publicly," Scott said. Soon after Snyder's October 2015 announcement about Flint's toxic water, the heat intensified around the governor as for a federal investigation into the water crisis mounted along with heightened media attention. As the water crisis intensified and a criminal investigation was launched, criminal prosecutors and investigators would discover that messages were lacking from before October 2015 on phones belonging to top MDHHS officials.

The question of what Snyder knew and when, and what role he and his administration played in stymying investigations into the cause and cover-up of the outbreak, is of increasing importance as the former governor now faces trial in connection with his handling of Flint's water crisis.

Snyder's legal team declined to comment.

concerning the missing data was detailed by the investigators in a petition for the issuance of a subpoena obtained by The Intercept. Flint special prosecutor Flood, who was appointed by then-Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in 2016 to carry out the original Flint water investigation, sought to interview Jim Fick, a state information technology official with the DTMB. Though the petition was never filed, its contents are supported by the accounts of multiple sources familiar with the investigation as well as transcripts of interviews reviewed by The Intercept. Flood did not respond to The Intercept's request for comment. In the subpoena petition, Flood referenced the top MDHHS officials from whom he had recently obtained phone data; 4 out of their 5 phones had "no records prior to October 2015."

Henry was referring to George Krisztian, who served as MDEQ's lab director involved with Flint's water lead- and copper-testing data - data that Flint water investigators found MDEQ officials had "conspired" to alter in order to bury the true lead levels that showed Flint's water was toxic.

Soon after Snyder's October 8, 2015, press conference announcing that Flint's water was toxic, Krisztian was named the MDEQ's Flint action plan coordinator . Weeks later, on October 19, 2015, MDEQ Director Dan Wyant that the state environmental department had erred when it failed to treat Flint's water with corrosion-control chemicals that prevent lead from leaching off old distribution pipes into the city's water supply. One day after MDEQ's public mea culpa, Krisztian sent an email to colleagues announcing that he had a new cellphone and number.

Krisztian told The Intercept in an email that he got a new phone shortly after Snyder's press conference because of " my new assignment as the Flint Action Plan Coordinator."

"I needed a phone that was dedicated to that job so that the Lab could get their phone back and be used by the acting lab director," he said. "Many parties had that phone number as a contact for the lab, and if I recall correctly that number was also used for emergency response efforts. As such, it was only logical that I be issued a new phone and number. In addition, the old phone was a flip phone that had very limited functionality and a smartphone was much better suited to handle the needs of the Flint assignment."

Krisztian aside, Flood considered whether there was a connection between the "wiped clean" phones and the phones he described with missing data, writing, "The contents of the imaged data [from MDHHS officials' phones] have given credence to the possibility that was articulated from James Fick to James Henry may have occurred."

Flood's team was never formally able to interview the information technology official under oath, The Intercept learned; the subpoena petition moved up the attorney general's leadership chain, but the "brakes kind of got pumped" and efforts to subpoena Fick halted, a source familiar with the chain of events told The Intercept . Instead, an investigator spoke with Fick informally, the results of which are unknown.

"I don't know where they took it or what they did with it," Sygo told Flood in a confidential interview, adding that he believed they were taking his phone to have it imaged. When Flood asked him if he received his phone back after handing it in, Sygo answered no. He did not specify whether he was given a new phone.

"I don't know where they took it or what they did with it."

A spokesperson for MDEQ, which has rebranded itself the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, pointed to the previous Snyder administration.

"The current administration [of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer] is neither in a position to confirm the actions of, nor speculate on the motives of, employees and former employees that occurred six years ago," they said. The spokesperson declined further comment, citing the ongoing Flint criminal investigation.

The other Snyder-launched investigation was led by the state auditor general and inspector general investigating MDHHS's role in the water crisis. In a sharply worded May 25, 2016, letter Schuette sent to Snyder, the attorney general ridiculed the investigations, arguing that they "have compromised the ongoing criminal investigation" and "may effectively be an obstruction of justice." After Schuette's letter demanding that Snyder cease his own Flint investigations, the governor announced a to them.

Snyder's top adviser and self-described " ," Richard Baird, was the point person for Snyder who engineered the state police and auditor general/inspector general investigations, multiple sources familiar with the criminal investigation told The Intercept . With this knowledge in mind, Schuette copied Baird on the letter to the governor, along with Snyder's private attorney, chief legal counsel, and chief of staff.

In January, Baird was charged with obstruction of justice, misconduct in office, perjury, and extortion for his role in the Flint water crisis.

In one example, Rish wrote that MDEQ supervisor Stephen Busch merely made a "misstatement" when he told concerned Environmental Protection Agency officials that Flint had an "optimized corrosion control program" in February 2015. As the Detroit Free Press , Flint "disastrously" had no corrosion control program in place at all, the lack of which resulted in lead leaching off of the city's older pipes into its drinking water.

Snyder's internal investigations weren't the only red flags investigators discovered surrounding the governor and Baird.

The Intercept learned that departments, including MDEQ and MDHHS, were tasked with creating timelines for their respective actions during the water crisis. But like many other things inside the Snyder administration during the crisis, the timelines were routed through Baird, who was well known in state government as Snyder's right-hand man and close friend dating back to when Baird the governor his first job out of college.

Baird's power as the governor's point man even drew jokes about him being a "shadow governor."

More than just allegedly false information, the timelines seemed to be missing important events linked to the water crisis. "It appears that MDEQ has missed a few items," Henry, the Genesee County Health Department supervisor who sent the tip about the "wiped clean" phones to investigators, wrote in a December 3, 2015, email to colleagues that attached the Flint water timeline MDEQ put together.

"I doubt they want our help filling in the blanks," Henry wrote.

and other Snyder officials used their private emails to communicate about a secret, for-profit school model the Snyder administration planned on launching, ominously called "Skunk Works."

The alleged command by Baird was in sync with his overall aversion to leaving an official paper trail.

A week later, Baird again texted Earley, who at that point had moved on from his role as Flint's emergency manager to become emergency manager for Detroit public schools.

Baird and other officials involved in the Snyder administration's use of private emails continued into the Flint water crisis. In December 2015, then-Snyder chief of staff Jarrod Agen Baird and Meegan Holland, Snyder's communications director at the time, for using their private emails to discuss Flint water matters. In fact, Snyder himself used private email to discuss Flint water matters, his then-spokesperson acknowledged at the same time the governor testified in front of Congress in 2016.

The Intercept learned of other internal Snyder administration turmoil during the water crisis among MDHHS officials who stewed over what they felt was the administration prioritizing its own political survival over the public health crisis in Flint.

"Morons all, they will all sink with their boss - and they will all deserve it," Bolen wrote, seemingly referring to Nick Lyon, the MDHHS director. Soon after, Bolen texted Collins again: "No kidding send that last message 'upstairs' - they have no clue how this makes us look. Really tired of the games they're playing - they appear to be more interested in 'political health' than public health."

Collins responded: "Hang in there Tim. There are still good folks. Despite the crap." Neither Bolen nor Collins responded to The Intercept's request for comment.

A s Flint prosecutors and investigators discovered the lack of phone messages, and Snyder's questionable internal investigations, they were also waging a three-year, behind-the-scenes legal battle with Snyder and his attorneys. On June 10, 2016, Snyder was served with an investigative subpoena, documents obtained by The Intercep t show. The subpoena sought documents and communications that the governor and his top officials had about Flint's water dating back to when the governor entered office in 2011 through June 2016.

While interviewing Wurfel, Snyder's press secretary, Flood also noted attempts by state officials to influence the testimony of other Snyder administration officials.

"There have been times where people have been contacted, after testimony that have sat in investigative subpoenas before, to talk about what they testified to," Flood told Wurfel. "There have been - as disclosures have shown, people have been talked to in cases where witnesses have been talked to about what they should say in an investigative subpoena. ... If someone were to do that, I would consider it tampering with evidence and an obstruction, and I would charge anybody that would do that to you."

In the January 2021 indictment against Baird for perjury, extortion, misconduct in office, and obstruction of justice, prosecutors referenced Baird's attempt "to influence/interfere with ongoing legal proceedings arising from the Flint water crisis."

Documents that Snyder had provided prosecutors were "patently noncompliant with the requirements of the subpoena," Flood wrote, adding that the governor's lawyer had "arbitrarily decided not to search for" large numbers of documents prosecutors had asked for. He argued that Snyder had "custody or effective control over massive amounts of information that is relevant to an ongoing investigation."

Some of the relevant documents that Snyder was withholding, Flood wrote, included "MDEQ Governor Briefings, Governor daily briefings, Executive Staff meetings, and Flint Water Crisis-related conference calls, updates, and reports" that were all "in the custody or effective control of the Governor."

As The Intercept previously , investigators found potential evidence that Snyder was notified much earlier: Notes from an October 22, 2014, MDEQ managers meeting included the blurb "Governor's Briefings" with a corresponding mention of the Legionella outbreak in Flint. The memo, which came two weeks before Snyder's reelection, seemed like a smoking gun - written notice to the governor 16 months earlier than he claimed to have learned about the outbreak. As The Intercept also reported, investigators had other reasons to believe that the governor knew about Legionnaires' disease in Flint as early as October 2014 after finding a suspicious, two-day blitz of phone calls between Snyder, his chief of staff, and the MDHHS's director in October 2014, calls that investigators speculated amounted to the trio working to prevent news of the outbreak from going public.

In Flood's motion, he also made mention of "executive office cell phones that were not timely imaged or forensically preserved" - highlighted by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, whose cellphone wasn't forensically preserved until January of 2017, according to Flood.

Flood also explained that he had relied on the "good-faith representations" from the governor's attorney that Snyder's subpoena response would be completed by "January or February of 2017" but that "it became clear by May of 2017 that the Governor had no intention of complying with significant requirements of the subpoena."

On top of that, the documents that Snyder had given to prosecutors were fraught with technical issues, including "duplication issues, blank/withheld documents, missing custodians, unidentified custodians, and inconsistent and questionable redactions," Flood wrote.

Furthermore, Flood stated that the governor's attorney hadn't produced any privilege logs, lists lawyers provide prosecutors with for each document they are withholding and the justification for doing so. But the special prosecutor had not received "a single privilege log reflecting thousands of otherwise responsive documents being withheld by the Governor," he wrote in the motion.

By the end of 2018 - two years after Snyder was originally subpoenaed for Flint water documents - Flood petitioned a judge to allow any future motions he would file to compel the governor to be made public. Snyder's lawyers objected, lobbying to keep review of all contested documents confidential, known in law as "in-camera review."

In the motion, Flood revealed that Snyder's lawyer had stated that he was now considering "whether the Governor would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as a basis in refusing to fully respond to the subpoena."

Among other things, Flood wrote, he had evidence of "data stores and devices from key executive officials under the effective or actual control of the Governor that were not searched; relevant documents and data that were not preserved despite having notice of the OSC's criminal investigation; and missing material information that was required to be produced."

It would be "a travesty of justice" if Snyder were able to continue to not cooperate with the subpoena, Flood concluded.

Along with Flood, Nessel fired Andy Arena, the investigation's chief investigator, and the majority of the criminal team responsible for charging 15 state and city officials with crimes over the Flint water crisis over a three-year investigation. In June 2019, prosecutors with Nessel's revamped Flint water investigation issued search warrants to seize the cellphone Snyder had used while in office, along with other mobile devices belonging to him. With the seizure of Snyder's devices, prosecutors also seized devices connected to dozens of members of his administration. Soon after, prosecutors the remaining charges against eight state and city officials - including MDHHS Director Lyon, Michigan's Chief Medical Executive Wells, and two of Snyder's Flint emergency managers - citing flaws in the original three-year investigation and that "all evidence was not pursued."

A year and a half later, in January 2021, Nessel's prosecutors charged Snyder with two counts of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor charge, for "willfully neglecting his mandatory legal duties under the Michigan constitution and the emergency management act, thereby failing to protect the health and safety of Flint's residents."

Eight other state and city officials - including Baird, Snyder chief of staff Agen, and two ex-Flint emergency managers appointed by Snyder - were faced with a slew of felony and misdemeanor charges related to the water crisis.

After two investigations spanning different attorneys general, no state of Michigan or city of Flint official has faced a jury or been convicted.

"Since 2014, Flint residents have been posting photos and videos of rashes, discolored water, health questions, and concerns about high water bills," Melissa Mays, a Flint resident and activist, told The Intercept . "For seven years we have been consistently dismissed and ignored. We are halfway through 2021, and we are still getting our water through corroded pipes and fixtures, but somehow those in charge have decided to tell the world everything is fine, but common sense tells us that our water still flowing through damaged and contaminated infrastructure means that our water is still not fixed."

Peter Hammer, a Wayne State University law professor who produced a definitive report on the Flint water crisis that identified structural racism as its root cause, expressed serious concerns about Snyder's evasion of prosecutors' requests for years, as well as wiped phones belonging to state officials.

On whether Snyder was involved in efforts to cover up state officials' knowledge of the Flint water crisis, Hammer was blunt.

"If the actions reported here are accurate, it is impossible for me to believe that the governor was not aware of the efforts to hide and destroy damaging information."

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Wiped Phones and the Battle for Evidence in Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's Prosecution

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I n October 2015, then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder finally announced that Flint's water was contaminated with dangerous lead levels. That public admission had come after more than a year of pleading from the city's residents to examine the situation. The city, Snyder promised, would immediately stop using water from the Flint River, which residents had been drinking for 18 months.