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 The state's disclosure of the documents, among thousands of pages
of emails and other material released, comes as Michigan's
Republican governor, Rick Snyder, faces pressure to resign over his
administration's handling of the Flint water crisis.
Michigan's Genesee County, which includes Flint, had 87 cases of
Legionnaires' from June 2014 to November 2015. Of those cases, 10
were fatal.
Flint switched its water supply from Detroit to the Flint River in
April 2014 in a cost-cutting move when the city was under a
state-appointed emergency manager. More corrosive water from the
river leached lead from city pipes, causing a serious public health
threat.
Friday's documents echoed previous disclosures showing that
high-ranking state officials knew about an increase in Legionnaires'
disease in Genesee County and a possible link to Flint's water 10
months before the governor said he received information about the
outbreak.
It is not clear how the water supply switch may have caused
proliferation of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires'.
But health and environmental officials said in the emails that
efforts to combat other contaminants by flushing the water system
pipes and using different treatment methods might have inadvertently
encouraged the presence of Legionella.
 Stephen Busch, a district manager in the drinking water division for
the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, wrote in an email
on March 17, 2015, that the city should take action to optimize
water quality to help limit the potential for occurrence of
Legionella.
Emails also show Busch tussling with county health officials over
the issue and saying it was premature to link the public water
system with Legionella. Busch was suspended last month and his job
status is currently on review, a state official said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was approached
by Genesee County health officials in February 2015 about an
increase in reported Legionnaires' disease cases, but state
officials subsequently told the agency they would handle the
investigation into the matter themselves, a CDC spokeswoman said.
In January 2016, state officials asked for the CDC's help in the
matter.
Legionnaires' disease can lead to severe pneumonia, respiratory
failure, kidney failure and septic shock. It cannot be transmitted
person-to-person. It is most common in the summer and early fall,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms include fever, cough, headaches and muscle aches
Liberal group Progress Michigan said Friday's release of documents
and emails was all for show, and called on Snyder to release his and
those of his executive staff.
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"If the governor is serious about wanting to be transparent, he will
release every single document and communication regarding the Flint
Water Crisis, including those of his executive staff," Lonnie Scott,
executive director of Progress Michigan, said in a statement.
Flint, a predominantly black city of about 100,000 people, switched
back to Detroit water in October after tests found high levels of
lead in samples of children's blood. Lead can damage the nervous
system.
In tests, hundreds of Flint homes showed tap water lead levels
higher than the acceptable 15 parts per billion level, according to
data released by Michigan this week. Thousands of other tested homes
did not exceed that level.
Snyder, who has apologized for the state's poor handling of the
water crisis, alerted the public to the Legionnaires' outbreak on
Jan. 13 and said he had only heard about it two days earlier.
On Friday, a U.S. House of Representatives oversight panel said
Snyder would testify on the Flint water crisis next month. Darnell
Earley, who was Flint's state-appointed emergency manager when the
city switched from Detroit's water system, will also testify.
Snyder said in a Friday statement in which the state released emails
and other documents from several state departments that "all levels
of government failed the people of Flint. This crisis never should
have happened."
Flint's fire and police chiefs resigned on Friday in what the city's
mayor, Karen Weaver, called a first step in restructuring operations
as it struggles to cope with the water crisis.
(Additional reporting by Dave McKinney, Fiona Ortiz, Karen Pierog,
Karl Plume, P.J. Huffstutter and Justin Madden in Chicago, David
Shepardson and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Tom Brown
and Matthew Lewis)
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