In October, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced that the city of Flint would change its water source. This was in response to the discovery that temporarily pulling water from a local river produced high levels of lead in the water supply for Flint, an economically struggling community of 100,000 residents roughly an hour northwest of Detroit.

It was a crisis months in the making. Problems began as soon as officials decided in April 2014 to have Flint stop using Detroit’s water system and begin drawing water from the Flint River.

This was billed as a measure that would save millions of dollars. But residents almost immediately raised concerns about the discolored and smelly water that was flowing from their taps. Tests revealed high levels of chemicals that could cause liver or kidney problems, and some complained of losing hair and getting rashes after drinking the water.

In response to the growing backlash and the evidence that residents were drinking poisoned water, state and city officials sought to quell concerns, insisting the water was safe to drink and continually disputing local studies published this fall that showed lead levels sharply increased in the bloodstreams of Flint residents, including children. (Research suggests that lead can cause irreversible cognitive and developmental damage to children.)

But even as Snyder and other state officials relented, a question has continued to linger among activists and residents with children who could face life-altering circumstances as a result of lead poisoning: Who’s to blame for this mess?

At the October announcement that Flint would switch back to Detroit’s water system, Snyder made clear that he was interested solely in finding a solution to fix the problem, not in revisiting mistakes. Nonprofit donations, along with appropriations from the state and city, would pay for the $12 million transition back to Detroit’s system, he said.

“This isn’t about blaming anyone,” he said, “but are there recommendations to improve processes when you change water sources or are there ongoing things we should be looking at on a more frequent basis?”

Snyder is not the only official involved in the decision-making process to deflect blame.

At the time of the switch, Darnell Earley was Flint’s state-appointed emergency manager, with near total control of day-to-day operations. He was the third appointee to oversee the financially unstable city since 2011. According to a letter obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, it was Earley who made the final call.

But he asserts he’s not to blame. He claims the plan was presented to him by the city’s mayor, Dayne Walling, and staff members after Earley was appointed in October 2013. Walling, who was defeated last month in his re-election bid, has said that’s not the case. The head of Flint’s Department of Public Works at the time, Howard Croft, claimed the decision came down from Snyder’s office. Meanwhile, officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality simply said that staffers applied the wrong federal standards to treat water from the Flint River, despite a 2011 study that showed residents would be at risk of lead contamination if the water supply wasn’t treated properly. Asked about the report, a representative for the department told The Detroit Free Press to ask Flint officials why the recommendations were ignored.