FLINT, Mich. – Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, confronted with new e-mails showing more red flags raised about problems with Flint's drinking water as early as 2014, said in Flint on Friday that he failed to connect the dots as well as he should have.
"I'm kicking myself every day," Snyder said after signing a bill in Flint to give $30 million in credits to help offset the cost of water Flint residents were billed for but were unable to drink or cook with because of lead contamination.
"I wish I would have asked more questions. I wish I hadn't accepted the answers."
Though he has apologized previously for the state's failures in the public health crisis, Snyder's comments Friday were his strongest self-criticism since he and the state finally acknowledged the lead contamination problem around Oct. 1, after months of denials about that and other problems with the water Flint began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014.
The Detroit Free Press reported Friday that Snyder's top two legal advisers at the time — Flint native Michael Gadola, as well as Valerie Brader — sent strong statements to officials in the governor's office, though not directly to Snyder, in 2014 that said it appeared the Flint drinking water was so poor that the city should be immediately reconnected to the Detroit water system.
Other e-mails show several officials in Snyder's office were sent information about a possible link between the Flint River water and outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease early in 2015. Snyder says he didn't become aware of that issue until January of this year.
