The current national water crisis

At the Moment, water is being neglected and taken for granted. Major corporations are pumping the precious resource for minimal prices, and there are currently no strict regulations on the volume consumed. The Oglalla aquifer is America's largest aquifer making it one of the biggest in the world as well. The Oglalla aquifer lies in portions of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Most of the rights to pump water in Texas belong to T. Boone Pickens. Mr.Pickens realized that water has become a commodity, and that at our rate of growth, it is only natural that we will NEED this commodity for survival. He bought most of the rights for a measly $75 million dollars, and he expects to make at least a billion in profits within 30 years. Besides the fact Mr.Pickens might one day have a monopoly over water in Texas, he has also contributed to a projected water deficit. Over the course of time, the U.S (Boone included) has effectively drained the aquifer to around half it's original capacity. (Hermes Press) "More than 200,000 wells draw 13 million gallons from the aquifer a minute, faster than Nature can replenish it." Even with this knowledge of potential the U.S government allow Millionaires like Boone to pump and sell up to 65 billion gallons of water a year, thereby abusing our nations water resources. The government isn't helping by selling these water rights for undervalued prices.
Additionally, The Bush Administration has made no effort to put a reasonable value on water, and continues to subsidize the commodity with other revenues. (Money and Buisness) This "fake" price of water has made the nation complacent, and cause us to waste and reckless with this precious resource. This is especially important when Millions of people in the united states in America, at least 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, 2.4 million do not have access to safe sanitation systems, and 2-5 million people die each year from PREVENTABLE water-related diseases. (Pacific Insitute)
The bottled water industry in the US is also running amuck and is not properly controlled. In th US, there are very lax laws regulating the amount of companies that can be pumping in specific locations. ( Evergreen.edu) Therefore, large water bottling companies can then just go ahead and pay the very little to milk our precious resource. According to Green Nature, they have found that over half of Americans actually consume bottled water, and the companies sell it to use for 240-10,000 times more than the price we are charged by the government for tap water. Americans in a sense are addicted to bottled water, and thereby support this environmentally unfriendly industry. ( Evergreen.edu)

Texas and the ogalla aquifer states aren't the only ones that are suffering overpumping and drought conditions. Southwest Florida has been trying to avoid overpumping problems ever since the 1990's. There are various consequences of overpumping, and in Florida's case, it caused foreign bodies including salt to enter the aquifer and pollute it. Since then, they have been stricter on the acceptable "minimum levels" for pumping their Suwannee aquifer. (Gainesville Sun )
You would think the EPA would show a dire concern for the scarcity and magnitude of our water problem. In reality, the EPA has done little to nothing as far as campaigning to save water. The EPA website has very limited information on the reality of the issue, and offers very little solutions. We have a long way to go before water can be handled the way it should be.