Correspondence between

FYI. Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:

Importance: High Please advise. We're good with this. It’s basic.

Lead.docx Attached are draft recommendations compiled by GCHD regarding food service establishments. We're waiting on information from Steve Bush regarding sampling. Once this is approved, it will be formatted to a hand out and sent to the approx. 400 food service type establishments in the Flint area. Please review and provide comment as soon as possible. Thank you, Jen

State Tries To Soothe Growing Alarm Over Flint Water State officials have scheduled a Friday afternoon press conference during which they will announce an action plan designed to calm concerns caused by a study claiming Flint's municipal water supply is elevating lead levels in the city's kids. The City of Flint also has a "huge announcement tomorrow" that state officials say could reassure many who are calling on Gov. Rick SNYDER to take executive action to promptly switch Flint's water supply back to the Detroit system. "Flint has done what they've supposed to do under federal law," a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Brad WURFEL, told AZRS. "I don't think there is any argument that it is worth being concerned about, and that it is worth taking steps to protect from." A list of state officials are scheduled to speak tomorrow in Flint at 1:30 p.m., including: HarveyHOLLINS, director of the office of urban initiatives for Gov. Rick SNYDER; Dan WYANT, director of the DEQ; Nick LYON, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Eden WELLS, chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Flint Mayor DayneWALLING. For months, residents have complained of a foul odor, reddish discoloration and most recently, new evidence showing in some cases the doubling of elevated lead-levels for children in the city, after the Hurley Medical Center in Flint recently released that information. And a team of researchers from Virginia Tech alleges that the DEQ is obfuscating the truth, and that the lead problem is real. A growing number of concerned lawmakers are also urging Snyder to get involved. Some involvement has happened. The Snyder administration Tuesday helped orchestrate the distribution of more than 5,000 water filters to city residents in Flint. Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) submitted a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to "abate the imminent and substantial endangerment to human health caused by lead contamination in Flint's drinking water," according to the petition. It was also signed by the Coalition for Clean Water, Concerned Pastors for Social Action, Water You Fighting For, Democracy Defense League Water Task Force, Flint Water Study Team, Michigan Nurses Association, 1 xxxEND_PAGE:deq15_b225_0648_0650_1 NAACP - Michigan State Conference, Michigan Chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Those who signed the petition claim that the lead contamination "meets the (Safe Drinking Water Act) requirements for immediate action by EPA and requires a comprehensive federal response." Meanwhile, Mark EDWARDS, the professor at Virginia Tech who's spearheading the Flint Water Study, said city and state officials could have known that switching to the Flint River would result in a lead problem for city residents, though officials continue to deny that the city has a lead problem. Edwards and his team points to their research, which he said indicates the Flint River is so corrosive that it's causing lead and iron pipes to leach lead into city water. "It's something that's perfectly obvious to anyone who is competent in corrosion control of potable water systems," Mark EDWARDS, a professor at Virginia Tech told M/RS. "Incredibly, I think they (city and state officials) didn't even consider corrosion control when they made the switch," Edwards said. "I have the documents upon which they said they based the decision and there's not a word in there about lead corrosion or iron corrosion for that matter. No consideration was given to that problem." Edwards said that the Flint and state officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) could have tested the water chemistry before switching from the Detroit water supply in April 2014. Edwards said those tests would have shown -- as he said his research demonstrates -- that the Flint River is "many times more corrosive" to lead and iron than their old water source. Federal law also requires that the city have a plan in place to prevent corrosion, but a memorandum from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contends that the city has no such plan in place. According to a June memorandum from the EPA, the city "is no longer providing corrosion control treatment for lead and copper" after switching its water source to the Flint River while the city was under the control of a state-appointed city manager. In that memorandum, EPA water-expert Miguel Del TORAL called that "a major concern," and noted that recent drinking water samples "indicate the presence of high lead results in the drinking water, which is to be expected in a public water system that is not providing corrosion control treatment." He continued, "The lack of any mitigating treatment for lead is of serious concern for residents that live in homes with lead service lines or partial lead service lines, which are common throughout the City of Flint." The Detroit water supply added a treatment chemical called "orthophosphate" to mitigate corrosion that can leach lead into the drinking water supply, according to the EPA. But that treatment didn't continue when Flint switched to its river for water, which Del Toral characterized as tantamount to the city halting its lead and copper mitigation treatment, though federal law requires all cities with more than 50,000 residents to "install and maintain corrosion control treatment for lead and copper," the memorandum notes. Moreover, the same memorandum noted that the city's instructions for city residents to 'pre-flush' before water- testing would likely lead to sampling results that didn't accurately reflect the high lead levels that might be present as a result of not having a mitigation treatment plan. Pre-flushing is not explicitly prohibited, however. xxxEND_PAGE:deq15_b225_0648_0650_2 Edwards and his team of researchers has been publishing a rolling stream of results that have contradicted statements and findings from the DEQ since August, and they say that DEQ even initially lied to the EPA about having a corrosion control program in place. According to a Feb. 27 email from DEQ employee Stephen BUSCH that the researchers received through a FOIA request, Busch told EPA's Del Toral, "The City of Flint . .. Has an Optimized Corrosion Control Program <and> Conducts quarterly Water Quality Parameter monitoring at 25 sites and has not had any unusual results." But DEQ's Wurfel confirmed today that the city does not, in fact, have an "Optimized Corrosion Control Program" in place, though he said they do have a corrosion control program. Edwards and his team received that information as part of a bulk of emails between the EPA, DEQ and Flint resident LeeAnne WALTERS, who said she dealt with elevated lead levels in her home. "T don't think any rational person looking at this is going to see DEQ has any credibility at all at this point," Edwards said. Earlier in the week, Snyder pledged to take "action steps" soon with regard to the Flint water issue. Snyder said a team of people are looking into the matter. Return to Top Sent from my iPhone xxxEND_PAGE:deq15_b225_0648_0650_3

Snyder Pledges 'Action Steps' On Flint Water Issues As attention on Flint water problems trickles into Lansing, Snyder today said he's got a "team" of people working on the matter and promised some "action steps" to come soon. Arecently published study found lead levels in children's blood have increased since the city switched off of Detroit's water supply, instead drawing from the Flint River (See “Higher Lead Levels in Flint Kids Spurs Legislator Action,"9/25/15). Now lawmakers from the region are asking the state and Snyder to get involved, which the administration said has already been happening (See "Ananich Urges Snyder To Get Involved Wuh Flint Water Situation," 9/28/15). But Snyder laid out a few more details today, saying the state this week or next would be coming out with "more public action steps" about what's been done and about what still needs to happen in the future. "T take it as a serious issue about the Flint water situation," he said. The Governor's office later stated that more details on both federal and state efforts are coming soon. The Flint Journal reported today the Snyder administration helped orchestrate the delivery of water filters to the city. They were distributed to the community by pastors and were donated by an unknown corporate donor, according to the newspaper. It's been reported that the administration, based on its own data, doesn't believe the source of the water is what's causing the increased lead levels. "Our data here at the state is much more robust -- we have data on children aged 0-6 for all of Flint for the entire year," said Angela MINICUCIlast week, who is a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). "There is no correlation, based on our data, to the water supply." But Progress Michigan saw the situation as Snyder's administration "publicly denying there's a problem while at the same time quietly working behind the scenes to mitigate the damage," while pointing out the water switch was done under an appointed emergency manager. Sent from my iPhone xxxEND_PAGE:deq14_b0558_1893_1893_1