In the year 2014, local officials of Flint, Michigan made the decision to switch their supply of drinking water from Detroit, which contained many awful chemicals, to the Flint River, which is very safe to drink. This was a smart decision for a city facing financial crisis, because it would save them a lot of money in the long run. However, what the city did not know (at the time) was that this river water would corrode all of Flint’s city pipes and leach poisonous metals into their drinking water supply. One of these metals, lead, is extremely dangerous if consumed by children and pregnant women. In fact, when this lead-contaminated water was tested, it contained twice the amount of lead at which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems toxic waste. This lead, when it enters the human body, affects nearly every system, causing brain damage, depression, muscle fatigue, nausea, and learning disabilities in children. Flint residents would continue to drink this contaminated water, completely unaware of how dangerous it really was.

Soon after Flint switched their source of drinking water, many residents started complaining how their water was turning orange and had a very strange smell. When they brought this up with Flint authorities, says Curt Guyette, a longtime investigative journalist, they were reassured time and time again how their water was fine and perfectly safe for consumption. Not only that, but the city would go on to suppress findings on high lead levels from the public, and even declined help offered by EPA to fix the water. When large amounts of lead were found in children’s blood, Flint finally made the decision to switch their water source to Detroit, but the damage was already done, thousands of Flint children and adult residents had already been exposed to the brain damaging water.

This led President Barack Obama to issue a state of emergency on January 16th. When presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were asked about what should be done next, they both were in agreement that the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, should resign. As of now, lawsuits have not begun to spring up, but it is sure that they will soon appear by the hundreds.