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Taken for granted. Many people in America take this precious resource for granted and understand very little about the process in which they obtain water. Do you know where your water was last night, last month, last year? Or where it's headed as it swished across the slick surface of the sink and vanished through a pipe? From the nation's smallest community to its biggest city, Americans use our rivers, lakes and aquifers for drinking water. About half of the population drinks from rivers and lakes and the other half taps underground water resources.

In the United States, the evolution of urban water works has been miraculous both in quantity and quality. Provision of community water to nearly 200 million people is quite an accomplishment for the past 200 years. Starting with only a small handful of organized systems, professionals and imaginative people developed a service of life support and protection from fire, dust, thirst and disease.

The 20th Century has seen great changes in the way Americans use water. As the century opened, the United States Government launched a massive dam-building program aimed at bringing irrigation and people to the west. In the decades that followed, dams were raised across rivers around the country, providing not just water for agriculture and recreation, but also protection against floods and electricity to power the industrial development of entire groups.

Large scale exploitation of groundwater resources began in the 1930s, when new pumps and cheap power allowed a growing number of farmers to economically lift water from as deep as a thousand feet below the surface. From the Great Plains to California's Central Valley, vast regions with little rainfall assumed new prominence as agricultural land.

In recent decades Americans have begun to feel the limits of their water supply. Pollution of lakes and streams and over-pumping and contamination of groundwater sources have, in some areas, sharply reduced the available amount of fresh water. As more people reach for the tap, pressing questions arise about the future of water. A growing population requires more food, more houses, more shopping centers, more roads, more cars, all of which increase demands for clean, fresh water.

In 1972, Congress enacted the first comprehensive national clean water legislation in response to growing public concern for serious and widespread water pollution. The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law that protects our nation's waters, including lakes, rivers, aquifers and coastal areas. The Clean Water Act provides a comprehensive framework of standards, technical tools and financial assistance to address the many causes of pollution and poor water quality, including municipal and industrial wastewater discharges, polluted runoff from urban and rural areas, and habitat destruction. Because of this act, the quality of our waters has improved dramatically and after 25 years, the Act continues to provide a clear path for clean water and a solid foundation for an effective national water program.