Jurors in Flint water trial watch Snyder's 2020 video testimony: What he said

In a civil deposition shown to jurors Wednesday, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder testified that he is surprised a water consultant did not discuss lead issues in a 2015 report to the city of Flint, given that emails show officials with the company had identified lead in the city's water supply as a problem.

If Veolia Water North America Operating Services had alerted him or his office, with evidence, to a lead problem in Flint's drinking water in February 2015, is it likely the state would have moved more quickly to address the issue now known as the Flint water crisis, Snyder testified.

"It would have been, from my recollection, one of the earliest points where lead was put on the table as an issue," Snyder testified. "I would expect it to be addressed in a report."

Getting such a report from Veolia would have been considered credible because "they're one of the largest or the largest water company in the world," he said.

Snyder testified under oath before a congressional committee in March 2016 that he did not become aware of lead as a health issue in Flint water until Oct. 1, 2015, though many critics have contested that, saying Snyder either knew or should have known months sooner.

Snyder's videotaped testimony for the federal civil trial, which began in Ann Arbor in late February of this year, was recorded in 2020. Until Wednesday, it had never been made public.

Coincidentally, Snyder's deposition was shown to jurors one day after a major Michigan Supreme Court ruling that could result in the dismissal of two criminal misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty, because of the unusual one-person grand jury method used to bring the state charges against Snyder and other defendants.

More: Michigan Supreme Court: Judge erred in Flint water crisis indictments, one-man grand jury

More: Former Gov. Snyder doesn't want to testify in Flint trial, plans to plead the Fifth

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy made no reference to that unanimous court ruling when she introduced the videotaped evidence to jurors Wednesday. She told them that Snyder has been charged criminally but has not yet had a trial or been convicted.

Snyder, who gave the deposition before he was criminally charged in 2021, has said through attorneys that he will exercise his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer further questions if he is called to give live testimony at the trial.

Four plaintiffs who were Flint children when the lead poisoning began in April 2014 are suing consultants who did work for the city of Flint related to the city's water supply. They are Veolia; Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam (LAN); and LAN's parent company, Leo A. Daly Co.

Snyder's testimony was presented as part of Veolia's case. A major plank of the consultants' defenses is that failure by Snyder and other government officials at the state and local levels are the main roots of the water crisis.

But Snyder may have provided testimony helpful to the plaintiffs after Corey Stern, a New York City attorney representing the Flint children, showed him internal emails exchanged between Veolia officials in early February 2015, not long before they presented a Feb. 18 interim water quality report that said the water was safe to drink and made no mention of lead.

"Do not pass this on," Rob Nicholas, Veolia vice president of business development, said in a Feb. 9, 2015, email to other Veolia officials and communications staff.

"The city ... needs to be aware of this problem with lead and operate the system to minimize this as much as possible and consider the impact in future plans. We had already identified that as something to be reviewed.”

Veolia officials say the email exchange was prompted by a question a reporter sent a Flint city official about detection of high lead levels in water at U-M Flint, which the city forwarded to Veolia. Veolia sought relevant testing results and found compliance with the law, the company said in a Wednesday statement. Also, Veolia sent an email to a Flint official the same day, saying "lead could be an issue," the company said.

In another email, sent earlier, another Veolia official said the best and possibly safest way to address water quality problems in Flint would be for the city to stop drawing water from the Flint River and return to Lake Huron water supplied by Detroit.

Snyder testified that no Veolia official provided his office with that advice at the time, either.

Veolia said in a 2016 statement that when the company raised potential lead and copper issues, city officials and representatives told the company to exclude that from its scope of work because the city and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were just beginning to conduct lead and copper testing.

Snyder's testimony was generally consistent with previous public statements he has made about the lead poisoning of Flint's drinking water supply, though more detailed in several areas.

"I take responsibility for the state's role," in the debacle, Snyder said, while also testifying that state officials let down both him and the residents of Flint.

Snyder said that in 2015 he "was consistently being told by the Department of Environmental Quality that the water was meeting safe water standards," and by the Department of Health and Human Services that elevated blood lead levels in Flint children were not due to the change in the city's water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River.

Both sets of assertions "were not accurate," Snyder testified.

Still, Snyder also agreed that the buck stopped with him in making sure the department heads he appointed were knowledgeable enough to make sure their agencies were run properly.

In retrospect, Snyder said he wished he had pressed harder for answers when concerns were repeatedly raised by Flint residents, his then-chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, Flint pastors and others.

"Personally, I feel terrible about what happened," Snyder testified. "I wish this never would have happened."

The trial resumes Thursday, when testimony from Snyder is expected to continue.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jurors in Flint water civil trial view testimony from Rick Snyder