ABSTRACT
Fresh water supplies are plentiful in some parts of the United States but quite limited in others, which has led to different legal rules for who has water rights. The potential for water shortages is especially likely to occur in places that have built cities where desert conditions prevail, requiring over-pumping of groundwater or long-distance water transport. Even in places with sufficient supplies, water networks many not be able to deliver water during droughts. Degraded water quality threatens the quality of drinking water in many places; while federal laws helped build sewage treatment plants across the United States and required business to treat waste, quality problems remain. Over-pumping underground supplies, leading to salt-water intrusion, has become a major challenge, as has infectious water waterborne disease outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, Cryptosporidiosis, and several others. Recently, water purveyors have become concerned about deteriorating systems that deliver water from the water supply treatment facility to homes. Old and corroding pipes were compromised by switching the water source in Flint, Michigan, leading to a serious lead exposure incident that required federal government intervention. The Flint case has provoked many other water systems to examine their infrastructure.
