As regards human consumption, the main source of demand comes from urban communities requiring water for drinking, sanitation and drainage.
Nationwide, 250, 000 water lines burst a year, or about one every two minutes, flooding and closing streets, interrupting water service, and requiring residents to boil water for safety, wrote New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg in a special series on water issues.
Water quality issues also create risk for companies, from stricter pollution standards on their own effluent to other entities polluting water upstream, requiring them to clean up water prior to use.
This treatment and reuse approach has the additional benefit of requiring much less water in those areas where water is a scarce resource.
Freshwater pearl mussels can live for up to 100 years and only thrive in clean water as well as requiring the presence of wild salmon to reproduce.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Scotland | Rare mussels are moved for safety
The board's storied history also includes banning lead paint and requiring fluoride to be included in drinking water.
It was a massive undertaking, requiring a 7-story dam below the water level of the adjacent Hudson River.
The law's strict liability provisions could be interpreted as requiring drillers to treat a mine discharge in perpetuity once they begin withdrawing water from it, even though they had no role in creating it.
Requiring no other technology or special skills, the filters are simply immersed in untreated water, stirred and then removed, leaving behind safe drinking water.
FORBES: "Plastic Bottle" Filters Can Help Millions Poisoned by Arsenic-Contaminated Water
Obama, though, is requiring additional monitoring to better ensure that the production methods are safe, citing federal authority to oversee clean water laws.
FORBES: Can New York and the Nation Frack Safely -- and Profitably?
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