From big cities and sub­urbs to the rur­al heart­land, chem­i­cals linked to can­cer, heart dis­ease, obe­si­ty, birth defects, and low­ered IQ rou­tine­ly spill from our taps. Many are to blame: the EPA, Con­gress, a bipar­ti­san coali­tion of pow­er­ful gov­er­nors and may­ors chem­i­cal com­pa­nies and drink­ing water util­i­ties — even NASA and the Pen­ta­gon. Mean­while, the bot­tled water indus­try has been fan­ning our fears about tap water, but bot­tled water is often no safer. The tragedy is that exist­ing tech­nolo­gies could launch a new age of clean healthy and safe tap water for only a few dol­lars a week per per­son. Scrupu­lous­ly researched, Trou­bled Water is full of shock­ing sto­ries about con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water found through­out the coun­try and about the every­day heroes who have suc­cess­ful­ly forced changes in the qual­i­ty and safe­ty of our drink­ing water. It con­cludes with what Amer­i­ca must do to reverse decades of neglect and play-it-safe inac­tion by gov­ern­ment at all lev­els in order to keep our most pre­cious resource safe.