By: David Jay 
It’s no secret that America’s water infrastructure is in a state of crisis. Water infrastructure in the US is functioning far past its designed operating life, with a water main breaking somewhere in the US about once every two minutes. All those leaky pipes waste about 1.7 trillion gallons of water a year, or about 17% of the US public water supply.
According to ITT’s recent Value of Water survey, American voters are waking up to the issue. Ninety five percent of voters rate water as “extremely important,” more important than services like heat or energy. 80 percent stated that water infrastructure was in need of reform, and 63 percent stated that they would pay an average of 11 percent more for water to address the problem.
Charging more for water has been a hot button political issue for years, and there is a big gap between accepting a rate increase on a survey and accepting one in real life. Still, the survey indicates that consumers are willing to spend dollars and exert political muscle to keep water clean and reliable, as illustrated by this recent PSA:
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