My taste buds tell me water quality is better in San Antonio. The greater burden is on the less affluent. I have seen on EPA servers, the claim that once a regulation is in place, the cost is zero. That is a childlike view. The opportunity cost is forever.
Opportunity cost is what matters.
Doing a useless annual backflow preventer inspection, perhaps decreasing risk 10 to the -15, but potentially increasing it instead, is not the same as productive plumbing work. When anyone puts their hands on something well designed and constructed, risk increases. Check the yellow pages for Radon testing and remediation. Big, big, mostly useless business. If anything, we should be adding Radon to homes.