The U.S. water system is outdated, plagued, and disgusting compared to other developed countries as well as what the standard should be for the infrastructure & health standard.
Please reference this pubmed study - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6013391/
I put this under infrastructure rather then health because I think it starts with our infrastructure of water first and from there the next steps will be made.
There are many aspects that play into this - aging infrastructure, underinvestment, outdated technologies, regulatory failures, etc. These are all aspects that need to be addressed in order to change this growing and eventually detrimental negligence. For example - the flint water crisis has still not been fixed. The city still has 1,600 lines to replace and while there has been significant progress towards it, this is something that should have been completed years ago.
This is an aspect that the U.S. needs to focus on with all areas and cities to deliver the health standard for water that should be had. Infrastructure period needs to be a center focus and we need to move forward with putting plans and updating regulations with the changes that have come with time.