Fallon, Nevada, located in the middle of the desert, is a typical small town in the west with one large exception. Fallon has a greater concentration of arsenic in its drinking water than any other town its size in the US. While the Environmental Protection Agency rules that 50 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking water is the safe, Fallon water has 100 parts per billion. The town sits atop an extremely toxic water source the basalt aquifer, a 15 mile long underground pool that flows through the arsenic filled rock beneath Fallon. About 22 million Americans drink arsenic tainted drinking water every day from the arid west to New England, and is found to be the cause of significant health problems such as leukemia, lung, liver, kidney, bladder, skin cancer. The EPA has ordered Fallon to meet the safety standard by 2003, but not everyone in the town is happy about this requirement. Arsenic has become a controversial topic in Fallon, where the town is divided on their views of the dangers of drinking arsenic. Many claim that it has no proven ill affects and are angry at the cost of the filtration plant needed to clean the water. Others have suffered the affects of arsenic already with a variety of health problems including cancer. The Mayor claims that there is no health danger but says that they will try to meet the deadline set for them by the EPA.