There is now overwhelming evidence that Michigan state officials were well aware that the water supply in Flint was contaminated well before Governor Rick Snyder publicly acknowledged it.
We now know, for instance, that officials in Snyder’s office ordered the switch from Detroit water to the Flint River despite objections from members of Snyder’s team who were actually on the ground in Flint. We also know that state workers based in Flint got access to purified water several months before residents did. And we also know that Snyder himself knew or should have known as early as October 2014 that the water was contaminated–and did absolutely nothing for a year.
Well, late Wednesday, the evidence that this tragedy was a criminal act got even greater. It turns out that last year, state officials all but forced Flint officials to keep the Flint River as their water source as a condition of getting a state loan–even though, based on what we now know, they were well aware the water was contaminated.
The Michigan Democratic Party obtained the loan documents under a Freedom of Information Act request. The $7 million loan, approved on April 29, was intended to wipe out Flint’s operating deficit, clearing the way for the city to end five years of control by a state-appointed emergency manager. However, under the terms of the loan, the city could not “enter into an agreement with the Detroit Water and Sewer Department, or any successor entity” without permission from state treasurer Nick Khouri.
We now know that by then state workers had had access to purified water for the three months by the time this loan was approved. And we also know that a month earlier, Snyder’s own chief of staff proposed distributing bottled water to Flint residents. That idea was ultimately shelved because–wait for it–other state officials feared it would send a message that “something was wrong with the water.”
At least one city official has gone on record as saying that he was blindsided by the ban on switching water sources. Joshua Freeman, who was president of the Flint city council at the time the loan was approved, told MLive that the ban on switching back to Detroit water “wasn’t part of the discussions.” He believes that someone slipped that provision in as retaliation for the city council voting a month earlier to do everything it could to switch back to Detroit water.
Last October, the state provided Flint $6 million to reconnect to Detroit’s water system. By then, however, the damage had already been done. Indeed, the water is still so polluted that federal EPA officials say that water filters might not work. In a statement, Khouri claimed that no requests to switch water sources were made between April and October 2015. But in an emergency like this, why should city officials even have to make a request to take such a basic step?
Snyder spokesman Ari Adler harrumphed that any outrage over this loan was nothing more than “political rhetoric.” No, Governor. When you have to ask permission from the state to make a basic move to protect your city’s citizens, any objections to this can hardly be dismissed as mere “political rhetoric.”
To pile obscenity on top of insult, the loan terms also barred Flint from lowering water and sewer rates without Khouri’s permission. That means Flint residents are locked into paying some of the highest water rates in the nation for water that is still undrinkable.
In a colossal understatement, state Democratic chairman Brandon Dillon called it “simply unconscionable” that Snyder and other state officials would hold “a financial gun” to Flint’s head when they were almost certainly aware that residents were being sickened. He called for Khouri to either resign or be fired.
I’d go one better. Since Khouri is appointed by Snyder, it simply defies belief that this loan would have even been on the table without Snyder’s knowledge and approval. Either Snyder was complicit in what appears to be an outrageous cover-up, or he was disengaged in a way that a governor cannot be in such a situation. Either way, if Snyder has anything left in him, he must resign.
