Correspondence between

Hi Nick and Dan, Senior staff in the Governor’s office has been crafting a communications plan for the next couple weeks concerning the Flint water crisis, and | wanted to keep you in the loop. We’re putting out our summary to media about the OAG’s letter, released today. Gov. Snyder has set up a meeting with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver for next week. And we’re releasing this statement (which still may go through a few more tweaks). It may go out tomorrow, possibly Wednesday: “I’ve been briefed on the recent meeting of the task force studying the Flint water situation and I’ve read the report from the Office of the Auditor General on the processes used by DEQ to monitor Flint water. “The bi-partisan task force is working tirelessly to interview Flint, Genesee County, state and federal officials to complete its independent analysis. They are reviewing hundreds of documents at all levels of government and from the public health science community. “I'd like to thank the task force for keeping me apprised of their continuing investigation. As they uncover more facts, it’s clear to me we can do better. Their report may take another month or so, but if we need to make changes more swiftly, | plan to take immediate action. “No matter what the testing requirements were, they were not enough to prevent this crisis. “When it comes to matters of health and quality of life, we’re committed to doing everything we can to protect the well- being of our citizens. “| understand there can be disagreements within the scientific community. That is why | have told my directors at MDEQ and DHHS to invite every external scientist who has worked on the Flint water issue to the state laboratory facilities to work as partners with us. Together, we should be able to affirm that we’re using the very best testing protocols to ensure Flint residents have safe drinking water and that we’re doing proper monitoring and remediation of blood levels and other health impacts over the long term. “These are only initial steps in our corrective actions. We fully expect to take more actions following the recommendations of our independent task force.” “| want the Flint community and all citizens of Michigan to know how very sorry | am that this has happened. “But | know an apology isn’t enough. We've already allocated $10 million to test the water, distribute water filters, and help in other ways. On Thursday, | called Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, and we’re going to sit down in the next week to discuss other ways the state can offer assistance. “| want to assure residents there that we are working hard to resolve this crisis.” Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. - Meegan Meegan Holland Director of Communications for Gov. Rick Snyder Office: 517-335-6397 Mobile Twitter: @meholland xxxEND_PAGE:deq19_b01_0001_0036_30

Dan, Thanks for putting this draft together. | agree with Rich's edits, and the attached document has my recommendations. Also, | suggest we add the following departments to comment on this document as the issue in Flint now goes beyond water quality: Treasury, MSP and Dept. of Education. I've taken the liberty to solicit comments from the added directors through this reply. Best, Harvey ~——Original Message-----

Will do. Thanks for the feedback. And safe travels today! :}

Importance: High Good Morning Meegan, This looks excellent with one word change — 5" paragraph , please change the word oversee to operate. (Change to: DEQ doesn't operate...) Thank you. Dan Wyant Director

Dan—- Dave shared with me the draft of the report. We’re eager for the OAG to release this. Meanwhile, | wrote a summary of the conclusions for the Governor’s senior staff. Could you read this for accuracy? I’d very much appreciate your feedback. We will likely give a version of this to reporters who ask about the auditor’s letter. Regards, Meegan Here is a summary of answers from the Office of the Auditor General in response to questions mostly posed by Sen. Jim Ananich’s office (the auditor added a few questions in the 11-page report). The questions came as the OAG conducts an audit of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance’s handling of the Flint water crisis. Conclusions: xxxEND_PAGE:deq19_b01_0001_0036_18 While the City Council voted in March 2013 to move to the KWA pipeline, it didn’t designate the Flint River as an interim water source. But the DEQ had approved the river as a backup source for emergency purposes in 2006. The treated water met safety standards in quarterly tests by the Flint WTP, but Flint had never tested its effect on the distribution system. In an email review of key DEQ managers to determine if there was an effort to conceal information, only one email exchange raised red flags. The EPA had asked DEQ in February 2015 if Flint had a corrosion control program; the DEQ responded the city had an optimized program in place. But in April the EPA asked again, and the DEQ said that the Flint Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was not doing corrosion control. DEQ later explained that the first answer was referring to its LCR program, in which it monitors a new water source (in this case, the Flint river) for lead/copper for two consecutive six-month periods to determine if corrosion treatment is necessary. The report says there’s no reason to believe that DEQ willfully misrepresented information to the EPA. It also concludes that ODOWMA employees appeared to have notified management properly about the unfolding Flint water situation. DEQ did not consult with the EPA on how best to apply the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) monitoring practices after the switch to Flint water, but from past experience, DEQ believed it was doing so correctly by doing two rounds of six-month monitoring on the new water source before determining optimal corrosion control. The EPA disagreed with DEQ’s interpretation of the LCR, but later stated that the LCR was open to interpretation. It then clarified the rule; the upshot: corrosion controls already in place when Flint was on Detroit water should have been maintained after the switch. DEQ should have notified the Flint WTP to start corrosion controls once the first round of six-month sampling results arrived in late March 2015 and showed the water exceeded acceptable lead levels. DEQ doesn’t oversee the Flint WTP so it doesn’t have any accountability measures to ensure the WTP is collecting water samples from tier 1 homes, i.e., residences with lead service lines, soldering or plumbing. Instead, DEQ relies on Flint’s certification of sample sites. The auditor suggests DEQ should consider an independent verification of the sampling pool or Flint’s certifications. In November 2015, Flint admitted that it had no way to ensure the sites were all tier 1. Water samples came from 175 randomly distributed testing bottles. DEQ has asked Flint to verify its prior samples by this Wednesday (12/30). There’s been controversy that DEQ dropped two sampling sites with high lead levels from its second six-month review. It was appropriate for DEQ to do so because those sites did not meet federal criteria. It was also appropriate for DEQ to require flushing taps the night before sampling to ensure faucets didn’t contain overly stagnant water. Charts show that most water samples were taken in the sixth month of the six-month testing period. The report said it’s tough to determine if the lateness of the sampling affects the accuracy. The report ends with an excellent timeline. | have attached the report in case you want to review the timeline on page 11.