Congress needs to make infrastructure a priority in the United States budget to stimulate job growth, to update the country’s aging infrastructure, and most importantly improve the water quality for millions of Americans. This action would provide a stimulus to the United States economy that would improve the quality of life for all citizens and is desperately needed. An infrastructure spending bill needs to allow for the replacement of pipes that date back into the 1800’s, the removal of water contaminants, and cleaner drinking water for all. In the United States water quality is easily taken for granted but with the aging infrastructure, this issue will turn into a crisis if not addressed. This plan would follow utilitarianist ethics to be best for the majority and Kantian ethics can be considered if the motive is a higher quality of life and not to make profits. If we ignore water quality issues for our cities, we will continue to incur greater national debt and to see infrastructure failing all around us. We will need to update the infrastructure in our municipal areas to address these issues.

Water is the most precious resource in life, is vital to human existence and is why water quality is one of the most important issues facing America today. The World Health Organization stresses the importance of water quality in promoting health and reducing poverty and while WHO is speaking to a worldwide audience this is just as important to America as it is to any other country. Two billion people, twenty-seven percent of the world population, in the world use a drinking source that is contaminated with feces. Americans may not be worried about fecal contamination in their drinking water, but it is an important reminder of what can happen if our aging infrastructure continues to fail.

Water quality is defined as the degree to which water is clean, and whether it is suitable for drinking, for making plants grow, or for fish to live in, etc. In the United States, the agency in charge of enforcing the federal Clean Water Act and safe drinking water laws is the Environmental Protection Agency, with state and tribal entities having their own individual water quality standards with EPA approval. The EPA plays a large role in the water quality standards all over the United States, including municipal water, as they enforce congressional bills regarding water quality standards. In Idaho, the state department in charge of protecting municipal waters is the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Other states have their own departments in charge of ensuring that the water the community is using is safe, as do tribal communities. These agencies are responsible for making sure the standards set by Congress and their respective authorities are enforced but this isn’t a guarantee that municipal water is safe.  

In the United States, many are surprised to find out that their water could be traveling through pipes that still contain lead or even transported through wooden pipes built in the late 1880’s to 1920’s. Along with water pipes, dams are also an important figure in water infrastructure and can be an example of failing infrastructure around the country as seen in the Oroville dam failure. Water quality is an issue for all Americans and can be particularly felt in Flint, MI, Oroville, CA, and Atlanta, GA. This issue doesn't get as much attention as it should because though the United States has a multitude of water safety and infrastructure concerns, we still have better access to clean water than most of the rest of the world at 91-100 percent of the United States receiving basic water services. As the aging infrastructure begins to fail in the United States I predict these numbers will fall drastically without intervention by Congress.
