This isn't a binary between complete blind trust and "living in the woods", my point is if you want your kids to have clean drinking water the best way to do that is test it yourself. If you trust the US government to provide it for you, you'll end up here crying about how they abused your trust for the ten thousandth time and be somehow, inexplicably, surprised.
Water quality is primarily the responsibility of states. They generally follow EPA standards, but there isn't some EPA guy visiting your local water plant, it's the state.
It's wild that people think water quality has gotten worse over time.
