Emails show officials sniping amid 2nd Michigan lead crisis

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — After a Michigan official emailed the head of Benton Harbor’s drinking water system in June 2019 about the impoverished city's failure to hit targets for treating corroded lead pipes, the local leader snapped back: “I have no time for this.”

Municipal superintendent Mike O’Malley's email response went to lay out grievances about state demands on his office since the discovery months earlier of elevated lead levels in Benton Harbor's water. The testy exchange was among many between the water chief and state regulators trying to contain what has become Michigan's second high-profile lead contamination crisis in less than a decade.

The strained ties were evident in emails released last week by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. They were among an 11,000-page trove of communications and documents sought by legislators investigating the state's handling of the predicament in Benton Harbor, a majority-Black city of about 9,100 in Michigan's far southwestern corner.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also ordered measures last week to strengthen water quality statewide, including stepped-up efforts to reduce lead content and remove service lines made with the toxic metal that can damage children's brains and nervous systems.

But her administration faces complaints of inadequate response from Republican foes and even some allies, including Black activists and environmental groups, as she prepares to seek reelection next year. When campaigning in 2018, Whitmer criticized the performance of GOP predecessor Rick Snyder in the Flint lead emergency.

City and state officials “have failed to address this public health crisis with the urgency it requires,” progressive groups said in a Sept. 9 petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection...