I grew up in the west where water is hard to come by. I have since lived in the midwest in a rural community, and now I live in the east. In both the midwest and the east, water is plentiful (anywhere you don’t have to irrigate your crops, and you try to figure out how to get water out of your fields in time to plant in the spring). Nevertheless, water quality is extremely poor.
In general, there is a huge difference between attitudes of westerners and easterners regarding water. I have noticed that in parts of the country where water is plentiful, it’s very polluted, and if you fish, you are told to not eat the fish, or only eat it once a month. Where I come from, you can eat all you. catch. In the west, folks are always talking about water quality. However, I don’t hear much conversation about water quality in the midwest or in the east. It’s as though folks just expect to have to have dirty water come out of their faucet.
Translation: Midwesterners and Easterners don’t appreciate what a precious resource water is, and so they have allowed it to be destroyed.