newspapers and magazines are flooded with articles about the quality of our drinking water. They warn us about contaminates leaching from landfills, untreated runoff from city roads and farmer's fields entering our rivers, acid rain, decaying fuel storage tanks, lead, aluminum, excessive chlorination, bacterial outbreaks in rural supplies and even fluoride concerns.

Government control of contaminant levels has become a fine balance between the taxes we are willing to pay and the cost of the technology required to achieve a higher standard.