After conducting a survey of the state of the 55,000 water systems in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has found that communities need $12.1 billion in immediate funding to protect the nation's drinking water supplies and to meet minimum health‐based standards. Required by the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act to assess the needed capital improvements to drinking‐water supplies, EPA also estimated that $138.4 billion will be needed over the next 20 years to replace or upgrade the nation's eroding water infrastructure.