Water, something we take for granted every time we turn on the faucet is in dire straights according to U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Much of the country may not be aware of water shortages, the way the West is, due to drought and personal water conservation, but the entire nation is at risk.
Experts say that the biggest threat to the water supply is that antiquated infrastructure.
Some of the oldest pipes still in use, built from cast iron in the late 1880s, were expected to last about 120 years. Newer pipes, built during the post-World War II boom, were designed to last about 75 years.
“It’s a huge problem nationwide,” said Erik Olson, director of the health and environment program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “A lot of [the water infrastructure is] now 100 years old or more. We haven’t been taking care of it.”
One example of a town that has experience this water supply disaster is Flint, Michigan, where thousands of systems are facing “serious compliance problems and serious lead problems.”
In the next 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the total cost of revitalizing water pipes and treatment plants would run about $384 billion.
The nonprofit group, American Water Works Association, says the cost of just maintaining current systems and fitting them to the needs of a growing population would require $1 trillion over 25 years. Without that funding, customers will see drastic changes in their water services, including increased risks of lead contamination.
Another issue that represents a dangerous problem is that lead water pipes were commonplace until the late 1980s; tt was at this point the EPA began setting policy to keep lead out of the public water systems.
Leaders in Madison, Wis., began replacing lead pipes almost immediately after the EPA tightened lead standards in 1991. The project cost $15.5 million and spanned 11 years, ultimately resulting in the removal of 8,000 lead water pipes, according to NPR.
Other cities are doing the same thing, like Wichita, Kansas which has almost completed a ten-year-long project “to replace about 1,500 lead service pipes with copper or plastic.” They replaced between 100 and 200 per year, each pipe costing around $1,200.
Other concerns are that of bursting and leaking pipes.
Water main breaks are becoming more common, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which estimated that there are about 240,000 each year.
The city of Troy, N.Y., declared a state of emergency in January 2016 after a water main break flooded several streets and distrusting life in several neighboring towns. The year before, the town of Brockton, Mass., was forced to close schools and limit hospital services as it raced to fix a pipe that had burst.
One town in Michigan had 107 breaks in one month resulting in a state of emergency. Yet, when breaks happen, pipes are usually patched, not replaced.
Olson, of the NRDC, said that if water lines continue to be replaced at the current rate, it will take 200 years to replace all of them.
In 2014, water managers in 40 out of 50 states said that they would experience water shortages and that California was not the only state of the union with drought conditions. Although there has been a substantial reduction in America’s water use since 1980, due to “more efficient water systems”, more needs to be done.
One such proposal to help California, came before Congress, which has been dealing with a drought for several years.
A bill that passed the House last year, spearheaded by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), would have authorized two water storage projects that Republicans say are long overdue. It called for a new system of dams, reservoirs and aqueducts to help move water from California’s wetter areas to its dryer ones.
Because of the progressive environmental crazies that represent the state of Califonia, Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, the bill went nowhere in the Senate. Their plan calls for desalination, recycling and efficiency projects, which they think would be more reliable, “even if it wouldn’t be satisfactory to California’s agricultural interests.”
The issue for Boxer and Feinstein, who are beholden to the environmentalist, is that building dams and resevours takes away land for critters or so they believe, and thus humans come in last when it comes to the environment.
“Obviously there is a real conflict of visions, and we understand the, shall we call it, philosophy, that more water is just growth-inducing and they don’t want to see growth,” Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), who helped move the House bill, said in a recent interview.
“It’s not as though we don’t have a blueprint or strategy to deal with the problem. It’s the blocking and tackling that’s done at the federal agencies or Gov. [Jerry] Brown’s,” Royce said.
California has been suspended in animation for decades as the left has controlled the government. Rational water conservation is ignored, regulations and fees are assessed and California remains in limbo as the environmentalist rule from Sacramento, hurting humans to protect their special interests.
Something has to give and it won’t be a cheap fix, but kicking the can, or in this case the water pipe down the road is not an option.
If water companies don’t see funding from the government to fix water infrastructure, they could force their customers to pick up the tab.
The American Water Works Association estimates that in the hardest-hit areas, families’ water bills could triple.
Someone will pay the price, either in a larger water bill, a tax bill or with their health because no one fixed that problem and drinking supplies became contaminated.
Source: The Hill
Must be a global warming thing!