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For those without it, water amounts to an ongoing crisis.
就缺乏清洁用水的民众而言，水问题不亚于一场持久的危机。
But no great urgency is felt in Washington, D.C., or in state capitals.
不过，华盛顿特区及各州首府尚未陷入明显的用水紧迫局势。
Laws may be out of date, and existing rules ignored,
无论是因为有关法律规定已经过时，还是因为有关方面对现存规定视而不见，
but as an "issue," water seems to sprout up only when a seemingly one-off event like the Flint water crisis captures public attention.
用水问题作为一个问题，似乎只会在恶化到弗林特（铅）水危机——这一危机看似只是一起独立事件——这样的地步，引起了社会轰动时才会引起人们的关注。
But Flint is not a one-off event.
问题是，弗林特危机并不是一起独立事件。
In Michigan, officials put an entire community at risk to save money, then lost a bet that the risks would go unnoticed.
为了省钱，密歇根官员选择了拿整个地区民众的健康做赌注，以为自己能瞒天过海，不想却阴沟里翻了船。
Similar wagers are placed by politicians and policymakers across the country.
其他地方的政治家和政策制定者也下了类似的赌注。
"Legal standards are often compromises between what the data shows in terms of toxicity and risk, and how much it's going to cost,"
“一边是数据显示的毒性和风险，一边是代价，法律标准往往都是二者折衷的结果，”
says Alexis Temkin, a toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization.
研究机构兼倡导组织“环境工作小组”毒理学家亚历克西斯·坦金说道。
The odds are getting worse.
形势正在朝着恶化的方向发展。
A 2017 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation's drinking-water infrastructure a rating of D,
2017年，美国土木工程师协会曾在一份报告单里给美国饮用水的基础设施评了D级，
and assessed that the U.S. needs to invest $1 trillion in the next 25 years for upgrades.
据他们估计，未来25年，美国仍需投资1万亿美元对其进行改善升级。
The alternative is more erosion, not by water but by the damage that occurs in its absence.
否则，情况将会继续恶化，恶化的原因将不仅不是水太多，反而是因为无水可用。
In Inez, Ky., where the local riverway has been contaminated since 2000 by a giant runoff of coal-mining by-products,
肯塔基州伊内兹的河道自2000年以来一直深受煤矿开采产生的大量外溢的副产品污染，
water bills have skyrocketed, and yet the residents say the problem hasn't been fixed.
当地的水费翻了一番又番，居民们却表示用水问题并未得到解决。
The tap produces what one resident called "fishy water."
用当地一位居民的话说，水龙头流出的都是“鱼腥味儿的水”。
But local police made news when they arrested a resident for refusing to pay for water.
然而，当地警方以拒绝支付水费为由逮捕某居民一事引起了轰动。
"They've destroyed the waterways to mine coal," says Nina McCoy, an Inez resident.
“他们为了开采煤矿就破坏我们的水路，”伊内兹居民尼娜·麦考伊说道。
"We're all fighting our little fires, and we're not realizing that the fire is coming from above, and it's raining down on us."
“我们大家都在忙着灭火，不成想，火是从上面烧下来的，就像下雨一样地往下烧。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
