The problem with water treatment is that maintenance is quite expensive. The water company I worked for replaced all of its filters every other year and opened up as many fire hydrants as they could in the spring to try to flush the entire pipe system (while switching from chloramines to free chlorine during this period). Then again, said water system also has the benefit of operating a system which was constructed almost entirely in the late 20th century.<p>Considering that maintenance ultimately boils down to looking at things that are currently working and throwing them away so they don&#x27;t stop working, it&#x27;s easy for a manager looking to cut costs to decide to try to avoid (&quot;defer&quot;) maintenance and gamble that things don&#x27;t break down.