Brittany Greeson, Freelance

NS - Members of New Era Detroit, a modern civil rights group, gather outside of a convenient store to hand out water to Flint residents, while chanting "Power to the people," in Flint, Mich., on Saturday, February 20, 2016. Government run water distributions sites were reportedly handing out only two cases of water per a resident at a time, a figure many residents complained was too little for families and daily life. This prompted an influx of independent volunteers who could be found in several public spaces.

NS - Journey Jones, 3, sits on the kitchen floor in her family's home as her brother Iveon Jones, 2, reaches for a bottled water. The pair are two of six children living in the home, all of whom have had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Their mother says she is at a loss as to what their futures hold. Iveon, she said, has already been displaying behavior issues, a common symptom of lead poisoning in children.

NS - City Council President Kerry Nelson listens to the concerns of a resident as she voices her concerns for local water rates and the lack of current aid as the Flint City Council holds a meeting to discuss whether residents should have to pay their water bills in full at Flint City Hall on February 8, 2016. Despite the city's ongoing water crisis, Flint water rates were among the highest in the nation. The meeting lasted four hours as tensions escalated.

NS - Keeghan Nelson, 4, of Flint, Mich., gets his blood lead levels tested at Carriage Town Ministries in Flint, Mich., on Thursday, February 4, 2016. Several blood lead level testing events have been put on in partnership with the Michigan State Health Department following the declaration for a state of emergency in the city.

NS - Bertha White, 64, of Flint, Mich., opens her front door to local police officers to accept a new filter and gallon jugs of water during a distribution to residents by the Genesee County sheriff's office on January 7, 2016. Distributions continued through the day on the city's north side, which is lower income, with 1,000 water filters on the service truck. A primary worry for local officials had been that the limited mobility for the elderly forced them to drink the lead tainted tap water for longer than the rest of the population. The door to door program was eventually replaced by a hotline that elderly citizens could call for water deliveries.

NS - Janice Berryman, 71, cries while sitting in her bedroom after being asked what the most difficult part of Flint's ongoing crisis was. She said it was loneliness, as members of her family visit less often due to the state of the water in the city. Berryman has lived in the city of Flint her entire life and says she is committed to having her voice heard in the coming years.

NS - Christian and Adam Murphy, become angered with their son, Cillian's, pediatrician, after discussing testing alternatives to see how much lead he may have been exposed to at the time the city was using the Flint River as a water source during an appointment at Hurley Children's Hospital in Flint, Mich., on May 7, 2016. According to the pediatrician, Hurley has planned to treat all children as though they had been lead poisoned as a wholistic approach to benefit the community at large. The Murphy's, however, were disappointed at the lack of direct answers from those in the medical field and felt they were not doing enough for their son and the likelihood he could develop a learning disorder.

NS - Adam Murphy, 36, gives his newborn son, Declan Murphy, his second bath since birth with bottled water at his family's home in Flint, Mich., on April 9, 2016. The family had been using bottled water to bathe for over several months due to safety concerns for the tap water's content. Although it hadn't been verified by the CDC, a large portion of residents complained of rashes and hair loss.

NS - Hundreds of index cards, possessing the addresses of local water lines and whether or not they are made of lead, are stacked in one of the filing cabinets at the City of Flint Division of Water Service Center on February 11, 2016. There are roughly 50,000 cards in total, organized by street name, however, not all have complete information regarding the lead lines as they date back to the 1920's. In the Fall of 2015, when the presence of lead was first publicly announced to be in the tap water of residents, only a fourth of the cards were computerized leaving many community members in the dark about their own plumbing system.

NS - Earlene Love, 64, prays alongside her peers as protestors gather outside the Romney building, which houses the office of Governor Rick Snyder, in Lansing, Mich., on January 14, 2016. Earlier protestors had filled the front entrance of the building, conflicting with officers who said they would not be permitted inside. Throughout the city's water crisis, many residents have viewed Snyder as a distant leader whose priorities were never on Flint's well being. Some asked whether this was due to the city's makeup, which holds a majority African-American population.

NS - Brenda Briggs, a native of Flint, Mich., pushes a grocery cart full of bottled water to her home, which was several blocks away from a water drive put on by volunteers from Syracuse and Buffalo, New York, in the North side of Flint on Saturday, February 6, 2016. Briggs, a mother of three and grandmother to four, makes the journey to nearby water resource centers every week despite arthritis pains and maintaining her diabetes. Sometimes, when she says she is lucky, she'll be able to stockpile a few cases in her kitchen.

NS - Darline Long, 58, of Flint, Mich., embraces her daughter, Wendy Long, 36, as she and her family spend the evening at a Super 8 Motel in Burton, Mich., on April 9, 2016. Long and her family stayed at the motel specifically to bathe outside of the city of Flint. The family makes the trip only when they have the funds available and see it as an opportunity to bond over the trauma they've faced.

Jake May, The Flint Journal

Flint, a city poisoned Flint, Michigan. The entire city faces an overhaul on its infrastructure because of lead-tainted drinking water through mismanaged political oversight, leading to a spike in elevated blood lead levels in thousands of children. The people are hurting, still today. Rashes and hair loss. Bathing with bottled water. Hell, drinking and cooking with it too. Case after case. The people want answers. The people want a solution. They feel the cannot trust the government as much as they cannot drink their own tap water.

Flint resident Andrea Watson, back right, drops to the floor in tears as Flint Police stand guard at the city council chamber doors, not allowing city residents to listen to Gov. Rick Snyder speak publicly for the first time in Flint, six days after he declared a state of emergency in the city because of health and safety issues caused by lead in the city's drinking water during a press conference on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 at City Hall in downtown Flint. The entire city, with a population of nearly 100,000 people, faces an overhaul on its infrastructure because of lead-tainted drinking water through mismanaged political oversight, ultimately leading to a spike in elevated blood lead levels in thousands of children.

Flint residents Tammy Loren and her husband Ken McCloud inspect abrasions that appeared on the arms, neck and back of their son Jeremiah Loren, 12, on Jan. 28, 2016 at their home on Flint's west side, after bathing in unfiltered Flint water in their bathtub months prior before an announcement that the corrosive Flint River water caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead.

Flint resident Tim Monahan refuses a piggyback ride from his niece Chadie Adler, 9, before she goes to bed as he wouldn't be strong enough to lift her on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 in Flint. Chadie has lived with her uncles Tim and Bill Griffin, his partner, for five years since her mother died after more than one year battling Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of cancer. Tim Monahan was diagnosed with Legionella pneumonia in July 2014, one of 45 cases reported in Genesee County during a 10-month period from June 2014 to March 2015 -- including 27 cases in Flint -- that included seven deaths, according to a report from the state. Three other deaths from the disease, as part of 42 additional cases in Genesee County, took place between May 2015 to November 2015. "I'm not alone in this. There's a whole bunch of us that are like could we go somewhere if we could, would we do something different? I don't know. I like the city of Flint and I love the people that live here," he said. "There are so many great people that are standing up and working on making this a better city, there really are. We're excited in that, but at the same time, you can't drink the water."

“I can’t trust them because to me they knew what was going on,” said Gerry Woodberry, 50, of losing his trust in government after the Flint water crisis. “A little shortcut to save them money, while you’re destroying people’s lives… I can’t regain my trust. I really can’t. I feel like this situation with me trying to get help, they don’t really care, they just don’t care. It’s not them that’s affected, so why should they care. That’s how I feel.” Woodberry who deals with the effects of lichen planus, a disease that causes the body to mistakenly attack its own skin cells, said his condition has been made worse by the water situation to the point where his skin aches at times.

“Before this water changed, when I would take my showers, it would soothe my skin,” said Flint resident Gerry Woodberry, whose skin condition lichen planus worsened because of the water crisis. “When I get out now, it’s the total opposite. It’s like I’m very irritated, like I’m very dry. It’s constantly hurting. Some days I can’t even put my socks on or my shoes.”

After pouring two pots of boiling water mixed with five bottles of water, Flint resident Na'Keyja Cade, 24, uses a hand cloth to bath her 5-year-old daughter Zayionna Callon-Cade as she stands in ankle high water in the bathtub on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2016 at their home in Flint. "My kids can't take baths and play in the water like most kids. Those are memories that will never happen. It's ruining their childhood," Cade said. "We are making due because we have to, but we can't live like this forever."

Stern and inquisitive looks mask the faces of Flint residents in a crowd of more than 500 people seeking answers, who pack an elementary school gymnasium at Holmes STEM Academy during a town hall meeting by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 on Flint's north side.

Gov. Rick Snyder takes his seat before a hearing about the Flint water crisis in front of the U.S. House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform at the Rayburn House Office Building on Thursday, March 17, 2016 in Washington D.C. "Let me be blunt. This was a failure of government at all levels," Snyder said during the hearing.

Plumbers Rob Johnson, left, and Kevin Kinasz assist Flint resident Lawanda Asa, 70, at right, with donated faucet installation on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 at her home in Flint. About 300 members of Plumbing Manufacturers International took the donated faucets and supplies, as well as Brita water filters provided by the state before beginning work in houses and apartment buildings throughout Flint. "People from all over the country, Canada, Cher, tons of organizations are sending trucks loads of waters and filters to us. I've even lost count on how many people are sending us water," she said. "It just goes to show how giving American people are. People that don't even know us, have never heard of Flint before are at our side. We're so very blessed that the American people have such big hearts."

Flint resident Sarah Truesdail holds her daughter Gabriella Venegas, 5, as she screams out with tears rolling down her face while a health official pricks her finger with a needle for a free lead test on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 at Carriage Town Ministries in Flint. Molina Healthcare provided children up to six years of age with free lead testing, as well as water filters for families to take home and install. "She take baths in the water, and my daughter takes a lot of baths. Just recently she's been having stomachaches. I took her to the emergency room but they said she was OK. She missed school today. There's something wrong with her," Truesdail said. "We don't drink it. Bathing in it is supposed to be safe. But if it's safe, why do you have to limit the time? And you're breathing the steam when it's hot and the vapors enter your body through the air? We just don't know how it's affecting us. I'm a little worried for the lead test. I'm thinking she doesn't have lead poisoning, but it's just worrying me. Parents need to get their kids lead tested — better safe than sorry."

Rhonda Chatman, who lives on Ridgeway Avenue on Flint's north side, holds closely her grandchildren Nevia Beverly, 4, left, and Naseir Evans, 7, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, more than two years into the city's water crisis. Chatman said it is inconceivable. "We've had to deal with the water crisis. My grandchildren can't take a bath like any normal child. We have to brush our teeth with bottled water. Cook with it. Clean with it. We can't live life like this," Rhonda Chatman said.

St. Clair Shores resident Terra Castro removes her glasses as she wipes away tears as she takes a moment to reflect on the state of emergency in Flint while dropping off more than 500 cases of bottled water with about 20 Detroit-based volunteers on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016 at Mission of Hope on Flint's north side. "It's overwhelming. The magnitude of the issue and the magnitude of love and compassion people hold for others is so apparent here. Our cities (Flint and Detroit) are very bold, helpful and caring. People who cannot afford to give water are doing it, even though they have issues of their own unresolved," Castro said. "We're a pretty rad state. It's truly unfortunate that we're surrounded by water with the Great Lakes and we have to worry about water in Flint."

Salwan Georges, Detroit Free Press

After the Marines in September documented abuse of recruits at the base at Parris Island, S.C. – abuse investigators said led to the presumed suicide of Taylor, Michigan recruit Raheel Sidiqqui in March of 2016. What surfaced was a problem the Marines are well aware of: the difficult balance between giving drill instructors – who are expected to turn raw recruits into battle ready Marines in 13 weeks – broad authority and autonomy while maintaining enough oversight to keep them from stepping over the line.

A drill instructor leads new recruits before daylight during their Initial Strength tests on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC.

A new male recruit work on two complete "dead-hang" pull ups during his Initial Strength Tests (ISTs) on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. In order to begin boot camp in earnests, new recruits must be able to do two complete "dead-hang" pull ups, 44 crunches in two minutes and a one mile and half run in 13 minutes and 30 seconds.

A recruit work with his team over, under and around obstacles toward an objective during The Crucible on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. Before graduating as new Marines, recruits break into teams and undergo a 54-hour training exercise (The Crucible), with only limited food and sleep.

Recruits lined up before entering the Chow Hall for lunch on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC.

A recruit work with his team over, under and around obstacles toward an objective during The Crucible on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. Before graduating as new Marines, recruits break into teams and undergo a 54-hour training exercise (The Crucible), with only limited food and sleep.

A team of four recruits work over, under and around obstacles covered in barbed wire toward an objective during The Crucible on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. Before graduating as new Marines, recruits break into teams and undergo a 54-hour training exercise (The Crucible), with only limited food and sleep.

A recruit helps with the cleaning after recruits get their haircuts on Wednesday October 19, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. Recruits get their hair cut when they show up and then regularly throughout boot camp.

Candidates to being drill instructors study the Recruit Training Order at Parris Islan's drill instructor school on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. The order has strict rules about when and under what conditions are drill instructor or DI can lay his or her hands on a recruit.

A drill instructor watches as new male recruits do two complete "dead-hang" pull ups during their Initial Strength Tests (ISTs) on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. In order to begin boot camp in earnests, new recruits must be able to do two complete "dead-hang" pull ups, 44 crunches in two minutes and a one mile and half run in 13 minutes and 30 seconds.

Families lined up to watch officers, instructors and new Marines run a 3-mile "motivational run" the day before graduation on Wednesday October 19, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC. A short time after the run, families got to see the sons and daughters for the first time in three months.

New Marines embrace with their families after graduation ceremony on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, SC.

Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press

In early 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan switched from getting its water from the city of Detroit and began pumping water directly from the Flint River. As a cost cutting move, the city opted not to add a chemical that would have created a film inside its aging service pipes, preventing lead from entering the water. Residents noticed immediately. The water was discolored and it smelled. Many of the city's residents began using bottled water as their primary source for drinking and cooking, but many continued to bath in it. Before long rashes and hair loss started plaguing the people of Flint. City officials started to issue boiled water alerts. It would be another year before a local doctor would publish a troubling report which concluded Flint has a serious problem with children with elevated blood lead levels. Even then, city officials were slow to fully respond to the growing concern among residents. In October of 2015, Flint residents were finally advised to not drink the water. Today, thousands of residents are stuck in a poor, majority-African-American city where people cried out for more than a year about odd-smelling, discolored water, rashes, stomach aches and hair loss.

Ivory Gipson, 44, of Flint, Mich. washes her daughter Marlana Bowen, 3, in their kitchen sink on April 6, 2016. "She's a water baby,” Gipson said. “She loves water. I can't let her play in it. When it first happened she would always go get in the water, turn it on and play in the water. I had to tell her, like, ‘You can't play in the water. You play in the water you might die. You don't want to die do you?’ So that cancels her water plan. She don't like it.” The water crisis has continued over 1,000 days in 2016 and Bowen, has lived nearly her entire life without clean tap water.

LeeAnne Walters, 36, of Flint, Mich. shows water samples from her home to Flint's new emergency manager Jerry Ambrose at a January 21, 2015 forum to discuss health concerns about the drinking water raised by Flint residents. "I was actually called a liar and stupid at a public meeting,” Walters said after the event at Flint's City Hall. “I decided at that point that I wasn't going to be called names and be told that I don't know what's going on when there's something wrong. I was going to get the science because you can't argue with science. And that's what I did. I went and found the science. I found people that could help me prove by science that this is what was going on." Walters became concerned after her son broke out in rashes, leading her to contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lisa Gaines, of Flint, Mich., slowly stands up after cleaning her 70-year-old bedridden mother, Erma Jean Gaines, in the dining room of their home in preparation for her dialysis appointment on January 26, 2016. Lisa also takes care of her sickly brother Edward, who has skin rashes and other health problems the family believes came from drinking and bathing in their tap water. "If I didn't own this house I would take off," said Lisa, who also has mild skin rashes on her abdomen. "What I'm hoping is that my mother and brother can leave here. I do not want them dying in here due to this water. But I think they will, because they are so sick."

Nine-year-old Mycal Anderson, of Flint, Mich. sheds a tear while being afraid to have his blood drawn to test for lead poisoning during an event on January 23, 2016, sponsored by lawyers at the Masonic Temple in downtown Flint. More than a hundred Flint residents came to be tested. Residents left without results readily available from their blood tests after having been exposed to the Flint water. Lead exposure from blood samples is only detectable within the last 20 to 30 days, but will not show earlier exposure because lead settles into a person’s bones. Children, especially those younger than 6, are more vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning because they are still growing and developing. Lead poisoning can cause brain damage, development delays, speech problems, behavioral issues and chronic conditions. And none of it can be undone. The damage is forever.

Flint resident Darryl Wilson, 46, checks on a rash that covers some of his body in a bathroom mirror at his home on Flint's north side on February 5, 2016. Wilson lives without running water in his home, and has had to use bottled water for washing, cooking, cleaning and flushing the toilet. 'I'm stressed out,” he said. “I need to do something. My water is off. I can't even bathe. The agency was going to help me with it, but they wouldn't release the funds because the water is contaminated. So how am I supposed to feel that I'm steady getting denied and let down with something they would usually help me with, but they can't because the government done messed up something.” Wilson, who wants to leave Flint until someone can replace the pipes and fixtures in his home, doesn’t have the money and can't drive. He's stuck, just like thousands of other people in a poor, majority-African-American city where people cried out for more than a year about odd-smelling, discolored water, rashes, stomach aches and hair loss. They say, and experts agree, they are victims of racial, economic and environmental injustice. "They wronged us like we wasn't even human beings," said Wilson. "I mean they just straight ran over us like a hit and run." Flint residents still had to pay the highest water rates in the nation during the crisis.

"I believe that they've got to listen to us because we're not going away. We're not going away and we'll be back if they don't listen," said Flint resident Gladyes Williamson-Bunnell while holding water that came from her tap and a wad of her hair that has fallen out she said due to the Flint water. Williamson-Bunnell was among protestors and residents taking buses heading to Washington D.C. on Tuesday February 2, 2016 to rally during the Congressional hearing on the Flint water crisis. "I get to take a shower twice a week. Does the Governor get to take a shower more than twice a week? If he does then he doesn't understand."

"I’ve taken a liking to doing it," Hugh Douglas, 56, of Flint, Mich. said while pushing a cart with four cases of donated bottled water along Franklin Ave. in Flint's east side on Thursday June 30, 2016 to deliver to elderly neighbors that can't get out to get their own. Douglas has spent three to four hours of his day walking three to four miles back and forth over the last two months pushing the cart he uses as his only way to transport the water. "With the water situation people always need water. It’s just an ongoing thing. I just make sure they never run out."

(left to right) Andrew Fenior, 5, and his brother Jordan Fenior, 7, play in a pool full of tap water as their brother Zack Fenior, 8, looks out the window of their home on Flint's east side on May 25, 2016. "What am I supposed to do, really? I ain't got much of a choice. I can't keep them out of the water," said their father Timothy Fenior, who moved into the house in 2015, just as the crisis was unfolding. "I've got a lot going for me right here. It'd suck to lose this house. This is something that me and my family have always needed. We don't have any other family. I'd really, really hate to give this up. If I have to for their safety, I will."

Nick Toins, 7, of Flint, Mich. lays across the lap of his grandmother, Janet Sanchez, of Flint, Mich. while listening to a speaker during a community meeting with the Flint Water Class Action Team on April 5, 2016 at the Dort Federal Event Center in Flint. Sanchez brought her grandson, who has a rash on both of his upper arms she thinks is from exposure to the Flint water, to the meeting regarding a class-action lawsuit for residents involved in the Flint water crisis.

Hundreds of residents and activists march towards the Flint Water Plant during the Rebuild Flint march led by Jesse Jackson, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Concerned Pastors for Social Action on February 19, 2016. More than 500 marched to protest the slow pace of action to reconnect the city to Detroit’s safer water supply. There was plenty of anger over the state’s role in the water crisis, with several participants holding up signs calling for Gov. Rick Snyder to resign or be recalled or jailed. 

President Barack Obama takes a drink of filtered Flint water to show it’s safe after speaking to a crowd at Flint Northwestern High School on May 4, 2016. Obama urged Flint residents, except for pregnant women and children younger than age 6, to move away from bottled water and trust their certified filters. He stated it's necessary to get water moving through Flint's pipes again in order to heal them. "I will not rest ... until every drop of water that flows to your home is safe to drink, and safe to cook with, and safe to bathe in, because that's part of the basic responsibilities of a government in the United States of America,” he told the crowd.

Michael Richardson, of Flint Township, Mich. stands with the word Flint painted across his forehead while accompanying his mother showing support to family members and those in Flint on Saturday April 30, 2016 during the Flint Prayer Day outside of Flint City Hall. A group of people came together to pray for the city during the Flint water crisis and hand out water and donated supplies for families.