Highlighting the importance of the world’s most precious resource, the United States Environmental Protection Agency released a report yesterday entitled “The Importance of Water to the U.S. Economy”. This report strives to raise awareness of the value of water and its economic impact to this country. Just think how many industries rely on water – fishing, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing – and the list goes on. As Nancy Stoner, U.S. EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Water wrote in a blog published yesterday, “Every sector of the U.S. economy is influenced by water.”

This report focuses on the economic impacts of water, but it also serves as a reminder that only tap water, which is provided through a vast number of water utilities around the country, also delivers public health protection, fire protection and quality of life. Water is the world’s most important resource, but it can be easy to forget that something that we get so effortlessly in this country is also so precious.