Across the United States, residents of towns and cities find themselves increasingly concerned with their water supply. In 2022, attention shifted to Jackson, Mississippi, as over 150,000 residents of the majority Black capital city were left without clean water. In this thesis, I discuss this case study as well as cases in Baltimore, Maryland, Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, finding that across these cities, there exist patterns of environmental racism and divestment in public resources. Crisis is soon to follow when these patterns compound with the climate change consequences of more intense weather and pollution. To discuss this pattern of failure, I consider environmental justice literature to understand how such patterns came about and how policymakers may address those failures. A review of environmental justice literature produces a variety of argumentative frameworks, often recommending different frameworks for different environmental issues. In the case of arguing for water infrastructure and security, the best framework seems to be a sufficientarian one called the capabilities approach. Centered around the moral importance of well-being, this approach states that our well-being should be understood in the context of our functioning and capabilities. As they relate to water, our human capabilities of life, health, and bodily integrity rely upon our access to clean water. Turning to the Jackson Water Crisis, applying a capabilities approach finds it a complete moral failure, as it threatened or harmed three of the central capabilities of residents. Applying the capabilities approach in each crisis case shows divestment practices and environmental racism as failures because they jeopardize capabilities. To address these failures in the short term, communities both impacted by a water crisis or at risk must organize and be prepared to respond. In the long term, the capabilities approach prescribes renewed investment in infrastructure. Considering the ideas of environmental justice and water ...