The Flint water research team could use a hand

When it comes to the outpouring of support — coming from everyday people on up to Cher herself — for the residents of Flint, it makes sense. People want to help the families, the children, the rank-and-file victims of what's happened in Vehicle City. And most of them are content to be as anonymous and unidentified as a redacted email from the Snyder administration. 

That fantastic show of support for the people of Flint is welcome. And yet there's another group of people who could also use a hand. They're the people who helped prove beyond a doubt that a problem existed in the first place: Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards and his team of researchers. It turns out there were significant costs they incurred while uncovering what happened — about $150,000 worth of costs. We blogged about this last week, and checked in on their gofundme.com page, only to find they've raised less than 5 percent of their goal.

It's worth repeating what former MT news editor and ACLU journalist Curt Guyette told us about this group:

"I didn't think it was possible to hold Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards in any higher esteem, but damn if he didn't just prove me wrong. Turns out that he's been footing much of the bill for the independent testing of Flint's water out of his own pocket. As someone who has been involved in this issue for more than six months now, I can say with certainty that, were it not for the tireless efforts of Edwards and his VT team, this scandal would not have come to light. I already knew he was an an extraordinary human being. Now, it seems, there needs to be some new superlative coined to describe him. I say this because he is tapped out and needs to raise some money to keep the effort going."

Again, we can understand why people want to donate money to Flint. But even if you just donate a fraction of your contribution to Edwards and company, it would certainly help reward a worthy person's effort.