beer brewers cannot be held responsible for municipal water issues.

I agree, but if I were setting up a brewery in Coastal North Carolina, I'd invest in an RO system, the water is known to be all kinds of bad in the area. I have some relatives in the area and their town had to install a municipal RO system because they were facing law suits, however not everywhere in the region has done so.

Using a well-maintained pH-remineralized RO system isn't exactly rocket science. In this day and age, it is a basic expectation.