The article doesn’t describe a “national” problem. “By the EPA’s own estimates, the nation’s drinking and wastewater infrastructure will require more than $744 billion over the next 20 years,” which sounds like a lot but is about 30 cents per day per person.

Conditions in the US are spotty. It appears water is a problem in some cities scattered around the country. “The federal government’s share of capital spending in the water sector fell from 63% in 1977 to about 9% of total capital spending by 2017, according to the ASCE.” That’s an interesting shift, a kind of de-nationalization. Strange how the US political system started falling apart the moment it won the Cold War and lost its unifying enemy.