By By Agnel Philip, Elizabeth Sims, Jordan Houston and Rachel Konieczny News21 Editor's Note: This report is part of a project on drinking water contamination in the United States produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. WOLFFORTH, Texas – As many as 63 million people – nearly a fifth of the country – from rural central California to the boroughs of New York City, were exposed to potentially unsafe water more than once during the past decade, according to a News21 investigation of 680,000 water quality and monitoring violations from the Environmental Protection Agency. The findings highlight how six decades of industrial dumping, farming pollution, and water plant and distribution pipe deterioration have taken a toll on local water systems.