When a natural disaster hits, such as the recent Superstorm Sandy, many utilities are knocked out in residential areas. Electricity is the most common service to go down, but what happens less often is water service being disrupted. It's nothing short of remarkable that many places, urban and rural, are able to keep water flowing to and from our homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and during all manner of weather and seasons.

Of all the elements of our public infrastructure, our water systems are the most essential for the daily lives of Americans. The average American family of four uses roughly 400 gallons of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking, cleaning, and more. Businesses and industry throughout our nation also depend on clean water to keep their doors open and to manufacture thousands of goods we use or export every day. Indeed, commercial and institutional water-use amounts to roughly 17 percent of the total fresh water used in the United States.