Almost everybody in America takes their water for granted. They turn on the tap, and there it is. Beyond that, they may know about the water meter or, if they live in the country, they know about their well. But the source and how it gets to them are a big mystery. For the most part, this lack of knowledge is harmless, but occasionally people get manipulated by their ignorance.
A perfect example of this is the national brouhaha about hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. The public has learned a new word, fracking, and since they know nothing about it, they are skeptical. This is a natural human reaction, but it can be countered by education. They have been led to believe that fracking pollutes groundwater. This has been proven false by both the Department of Energy and the EPA. The only known source of water pollution in water wells occurred some years ago in Wyoming. It was proven that the pollution came from improper casing design and a bad cement job, but the anti-energy lobby has run with it as though it were true, and the general public, oblivious to the world around them, believes it.