Few recent events have been more disheartening than the sight of Flint, Mich. — once a bastion of blue-collar pride — being reduced to a veritable beggar, unable even to provide its dwindling number of residents with drinkable water.

It would be tempting to write off the presence of lead, a potent neurotoxin, in the beleaguered city’s water system as just another Rust Belt horror story. But the problems plaguing Flint’s decaying underground iron and lead water pipes can be found throughout the U.S. Indeed, the decrepit condition of many of our nation’s underground water networks is an open invitation to contamination and water-borne disease.