The Flint water disaster is beyond any doubt a tragic national embarrassment. The jury is still out whether what happened was malevolent or incompetent, but it is something we thought unfathomable in America, a government poisoning its citizens to save money.

A little background: Flint’s water had been piped in from Detroit’s system out of Lake Huron for years, and it was safe and clean. In April 2014, that changed, as Flint switched from this system to the cheaper Flint River for its water. Here’s the problem: the Flint River had been used to dump industrial waste from nearby car plants. By that summer, residents had water that made their hair fall out in clumps after showers and surpassed EPA standards for toxic waste. Flint’s drinking water was now orange.

Lead poisoning is an insidious malady. It builds slowly over constant exposure, causing children’s brains to develop more slowly or causing irreversible damage to the brain, nervous system, or kidneys. Young children and infants are especially vulnerable because they are more easily poisoned and the effects are more pronounced in them. This isn’t a type of damage that can be easily (or cheaply) fixed.

Why was this switch even made? Money. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder ran on an austerity platform in the wake of the recession. Cities like Flint and Detroit are no longer run by mayors or city councils but by unelected “emergency managers” responsible for balancing their books.

Yet the State of Michigan continued to say that there was no problem, then that there were outlier cases, even as venerable employer General Motors said that they couldn’t use this water in its local factories because it would corrode engine parts. When a government of any kind starts changing its story, that’s damage control.

Flint citizens have filed a class-action suit against Rick Snyder and the Flint emergency manager for negligence. While Flint’s water system is now back to the Detroit system, there’s honestly no way to tell if the change will do much immediate good. Flint is still being supplied with bottled water by the National Guard as I write this.

It is appalling that the switch was made, that the city and state repeatedly rebuffed concerns raised, that thousands of lives were put at unnecessary risk because it’d save a few dollars. Of course now what was estimated to save a few million in the short term will likely cost hundreds of millions in repairing pipes, overhauling treatment plants, and treating victims.

But what’s more outrageous is that this happened here in America. We hold ourselves higher than this. I know that there are many different visions of what this country is and is not. I don’t think any of them include poisonous drinking water.

There have been numerous corporate and celebrity donations to citizens, but these are only lessening the blow.

I want to speak to Governor Snyder. Sir, you have blood on your hands. You are responsible.