Marc Edwards, a civil engineering/environmental engineer and professor at Virginia Tech, is an expert at building and testing drinking-water supply systems. So when a group of homeowners in Washington DC asked him to investigate their water pipes, he rallied some of his students and went to work.

That was in March 2003. The next six years tested Edwards' professional reputation, financial holdings, health, and sanity.

After some relatively basic research, Edwards found enormously high levels of lead in DC drinking water. The local Water And Sewer Authority—WASA—had previously advised customers to allow tap water to run for up to a minute—as a precaution. The trouble was that Edwards found an even higher level of lead after such a delay.

So Edwards did what he thought he should do: He let WASA know what he'd found. WASA's response: Edwards should stop investigating or else they wouldn't share any research data with him. Shortly after that, they and the Environmental Protection Agency—the EPA—cut off all of his funding. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the CDC—assured DC residents that, despite any claims to the contrary, the lead in their water wasn't harmful.

Not willing to give up the fight to protect DC citizens, Edwards started digging into his own pockets. He spent thousands of dollars, not only to hire research assistants but also to pay for Freedom of Information Act requests. He needed the data, and organizations that were supposed to be in the public trust refused to give him any information. But Edwards forged on, worried about the lead, worried about the people affected by the lead, worried about his own family's well-being; at one time, he was hospitalized due to stress.

Then in 2007, Edwards received a $500,000 MacArthur "genius" grant; he used the money to keep paying for the research work. Early the following year, the Children's National Medical Center agreed to give him data on DC children's blood samples. After that, says Edwards, "It took me all of an hour to see that something very bad had happened to DC's children." The levels of lead in their blood was high enough to damage organ functions, one of those organs being the brain.

In 2009, Edwards published his findings, which totally contradicted the CDC's earlier report. People began to take notice—not only in DC but throughout the country. The media picked up the story, and so did Congress. A Congressional Committee investigated the CDC and found their initial report "scientifically indefensible." The CDC, said the committee, had knowingly used flawed data. The CDC immediately admitted to their "errors." The former national director of groundwater and drinking water for the EPA, said that "had Edwards not gotten involved, this would never have come out."

Edwards was relieved, but not satisfied that the machinery existed to solve the current problem or prevent future problems. "If a landlord doesn't tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment," he said, "he can go to jail." No such penalties await those who fail to replace lead water pipes, allowing tenants' water to be poisoned.

The father of twins living on Capitol Hill filed a lawsuit against WASA; he had used tap water in their baby bottles and in their food. The suit grew into a class action suit on behalf of all the DC children who had high lead levels in their blood. A judge threw the suit out of court, saying the class was too broad and that there was no proof of harm.

Edwards continues to teach at Virginia Tech, to publish papers, and to be sought after by people who want to know about both tainted water and tainted bureaucracies. He did the testing that proved there was lead in the water in Flint, Michigan and he's on a team working to solve that problem.