Attorneys representing victims of the Flint water fiasco in a class action lawsuit served Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) with subpoenas on Monday.

The subpoenas call for the release of emails, text messages and other documents sent or received by the Republican governor, his office and emergency managers relating to the Flint River as a water source, reports MLive. The subpoenas seek records dating back to January 2011.

The subpoenas were served as part of civil action over alleged personal injury and physical damages suffered by residents affected by the city's lead-contaminated water supply. They were issued nearly a week after Snyder released almost 300 Flint-related emails and other related correspondence regarding the man-made water crisis. However, critics said the release may have been incomplete.

The governor is also under fire over the way he has been handling the crisis in Flint, a municipality that is predominantly African-American and one of the poorest cities in the nation. As a result, the contents of communications by Snyder and his administration have become a focal point, as critics questioned just how much and for how long he knew about the city's polluted water supply.

The drinking water first became contaminated with lead after one of Snyder's appointees decided to start using the Flint River as a water supply in April 2014 to save money, reported The New York Times. That's when residents raised alarms about their faucet water, which looked like urine and caused skin rashes. However, their cries went ignored for months, and officials told them the water was safe to use for bathing and cooking.

Snyder didn't take action until an independent research study conducted in 2015 found elevated levels of toxic lead in the blood of children in the area. He then decided to switch the water supply from the Flint River back to Lake Huron last October.

Earlier this month, state and local officials announced the deaths of nine people in the Flint area from Legionnaires' disease, which could be another result of the water crisis.

Critics also pointed out that, even though Flint residents were told not to drink the contaminated water starting in October, they are still required to pay for the water. Meanwhile, the city has been sending shutoff notices to those who failed to pay their water bills.

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