I love Bittman's work and this is an interesting overview of what I'm sure is a great book, but I can't help but be hung up on this line:
it is perhaps not surprising that the largest municipal water treatment plant in the world is required to allow the people of Des Moines to drink the tap water.
That seems nuts to me so I did a quick search and almost instantly figured out that the author's statement is totally inaccurate. All of the world's largest municipal water treatment plants are in major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Moscow, and Shanghai. What the author meant was Des Moines is home of one of, if not the largest nitrate removal facilities in the world. Which to me is even more damning than having a huge municipal water treatment plant for a small city.
I get the intention, and maybe the author understood the difference but just didn't want to waste words explaining it, but I think they could incorporate something on nitrate pollution ruining their rivers alongside the 'world's largest' comment.
This episode of Frontline does a really good job of walking through the timeline of what was discovered and when, and how long they sat on that information before taking action.
a:Starlink Beta will begin in the Northern United States and lower Canada, with those living in rural and/or remote communities in the Washington state area. Access to the Starlink Beta program will be driven by the user's location as well as the number of users in nearby areas. All beta testers must have a clear view of the northern sky to participate.