Dear Marc,

We wanted to pass along a quick note to express our strong support for the views expressed in your rebuttal to the editorial “Crossing the Imaginary Line” by David Sedlak in ES&T. We admire the tremendously difficult, courageous, and important work that you and your research team have done in Washington DC and are continuing to do in Flint, Michigan. Your work has uncovered severe public health crises in our country, given underserved communities a voice, and contributed to improving drinking water quality. Thank you for your efforts to uphold the first canon of civil engineering.

We view the original ES&T editorial and your rebuttal as a teachable moment for engineering students and for academia. We all must understand our professional responsibilities, including our ethical obligation to speak out when the science and data demand it.

You serve as an excellent example to us all. Please keep up the good work.

Yours truly,

Joe DeCarolis, Detlef Knappe, Morton Barlaz, Emily Berglund, Doug Call, Daniel Obenour, James Levis, Francis de los Reyes, Andy Grieshop, Joel Ducoste, Fernando Garcia Menendez, Tarek Aziz