Drinking water is no joke
by digby
The latest e-mails released from Gov. Rick Snyder’s office on Thursday include playfully written messages about the quality of Flint’s drinking water and the challenge of confronting the issue.
One was sent from a DEQ district engineer who repeatedly told residents that drinking water from the Flint River is safe and downplayed suggestions otherwise from reporters and other officials.
“Thanks Richard…now off to physical therapy…perhaps mental therapy with all of these Flint calls….lol,” engineer Mike Prysby wrote to fellow DEQ official Richard Benzie on Sept. 18, 2014, five months after Flint switched to the Flint River as its drinking source. Prysby did not immediately respond Thursday to an e-mail requesting comment.
“I cannot provide the context for a message I did not compose, and for which I cannot recall the circumstances from more than 18 months ago,” Benzie wrote in an email responding to a request for comment.
This is about drinking water folks, drinking water filled with lead. I realize people often use gallows humor in a crisis, but that’s not what this is. Public officials knew they were poisoning people.
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