alt Hacker News"The people who care enough about the quality of the water do tend to test it, and will refrain from drinking it if it's polluted. But the vast majority of people do not care enough to go through the hassle. So polluting that drinking water for our own interest is a no-brainer."
Yes, that’s pretty much literally what’s happening with a lot of industrial plants or pig farms, for example.
Note that I didn’t endorse this stance, but it’s very much the calculation made in many cases.