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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Experts: U.S. water infrastructure in trouble
2011-01-21
Kramer's disaster was just one of an average 700 water main breaks nationwide that experts say occur each day. They warn that this is the latest sign of an aging water delivery infrastructure that results in property loss, inconvenience, and threats to public health.
That's 14 breaks per state on the average. Does that sound right? They must be including little ones.
How much would it cost to fix? Every year, according to the EPA, the estimated price tag for repairing the nation's water infrastructure rises. The best guess at a total cost over the next 20 years has skyrocketed from about $198 billion in 1999 to the latest estimate -- $335 billion.
No problem! We can take a teeny fraction of the savings we will surely realize by implementing Obamacare and buy a whole new system!
To keep prices down, O'Toole suggested privatizing community water utilities. "In the 19th century, almost every major American city had private water companies," said O'Toole. "And then we had this wave of socialization where the government took everything over and mismanaged it so the quality of tap water is lower and costs are higher."
They trust us to build it, but somehow we can't maintain it.

Here's a picture of what the inside of a corroded water main looks like.
Posted by:gorb

#18  D *** NG IT, IFF JAPAN'S DEBT-To-GDP RATIO CAN BE 210% COME YEAR 2012, SO CAN AMERICA'S = AMERIKA'S!

Lest we fergit, 1990's NET > CLINTONISM = Among other, good Americans = Amerikans demand to be attacked + bankrupt as per our sacred National Commmunism.

You know - FASCISM!

AND DON'T YOUSE FERGIT WHAT WE NEVER TOLD YOU!
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2011-01-21 23:16  

#17  Google Deeprock Well drilling in Opelika Alabama I drilled 14 and all good clean water, it's not that hard. takes around two days each.
Cost about $1,400 each piped well pump and pressure tank, turn the faucet and good clean water, In the city they're usualy banned(Sanitation reasons) But many exist. (Quietly)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2011-01-21 22:27  

#16  The sleazy water company Link
Posted by: Water Modem   2011-01-21 21:40  

#15  My water-company keeps getting bought up by foreign owners. Currently they bill $135/month for damn near no Chicago Water.
It's a racket.
I'm tempted to drill an illegal well.
Posted by: Water Modem   2011-01-21 17:32  

#14  I don't know about the other parts, but large sections of the highway system construction binge was a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme based on bond-underwriting authority. What we're paying for *now* is what was contracted for *then*, as they repeatedly paid off construction & government unions with pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye pension benefits in lieu of immediately-bankrupting wage increases.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2011-01-21 13:59  

#13  Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not

We couldn't afford it then, either, not really. It all went into the deficit spending pot, which means that those of us who were children then worked all our lives to pay the interest on the debt, and our children will, too, until the debt is paid off... or we admit bankruptcy.

It's like when the Japanese were taking out 90 year mortgages to buy an apartment, binding their children to the repayment even though the children didn't have the benefit of living there.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-01-21 13:28  

#12  no more uro:

Like this?



(And I'll bet most of you thought coopers just made barrels!)
Posted by: gorb   2011-01-21 10:46  

#11  Much of the problem is "penny wise, pound foolish". It used to be that water and sewer lines were made of high quality pipe.

But then, some Harvard MBA came along with the idea of making super cheap pipe out of PVC or the equivalent. He likely used the sales pitch that, "It is so cheap that when it busts, you can replace it three or four times for the price of the good stuff."

Which would have been okay, if labor costs had remained in the basement. They didn't.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-01-21 09:04  

#10  Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

And don't forget the start of the Great Society Programs and Medicare all of which they did by cooking the books and opening the Social Security funds to embezzlement to pay for it. That's when the IOUs started to show up that would never be repaid.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-01-21 08:52  

#9  @#8

It makes one wonder just what one pays for when one pays their "water bill". If it doesn't include a funds to adequately maintain the system, then I reckon they aren't charging enough.
Posted by: eLarson   2011-01-21 08:08  

#8  #4, #5

What went wrong is simple, very simple.

1. Middle class entitlements.

2. Failed "war" on poverty.

3. Hyperregulatory environment on small and medium firms that stifles business and simultaneously creates legions of highly paid public sector lifer functionaries who are loyal democrats but whose "jobs" produce nothing of real worth.

4. Too-large public sector pensions.

5. Too large public sector, generally speaking.

Eliminate these, let those fired useless public sector flunkies take the jobs that are now done by illegal immigrants, spend the tax money we save on infrastructure.

Problem solved.
Posted by: no mo uro   2011-01-21 07:58  

#7  The problem with raising taxes for this is that, in many cases, the funds won't get to the projects at a local level (and especially at a state (California) or Federal level).

It all comes down to priorities. Does a city spend funds acquiring new park land (or get that over-priced-and-ugly piece of art the major's favorite artist wants to create), or hiring (or in many cases retaining) more law enforcement / firemen / parametics?

Many cities / counties / states chose the former - hoping that the taxpayers will raise taxes for the later essential services (which they would then try to reallocate if they can).
Posted by: CrazyFool   2011-01-21 07:56  

#6  > Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three

I think you just answered your own question there.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2011-01-21 07:50  

#5  Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not

Well stated Bobby, Eisenhower Administration (Republican) set ALL of these programs into action.....yes,the rocket program, satelite program, the interstate highway program, national science education achievement program.... You felt like the country was going some place .... not like now, we took a wrong turn here some place.
Posted by: Goodluck   2011-01-21 07:35  

#4  Just another example of why we need to raise taxes some more - roads, water-delivery, sewer-removal - all falling apart.

What can we afford to pay for, instead of infrastructure? Where is all the tax money going, and why can't some of it be shifted to water mains and potholes?

Remember, kiddies, in 1969 we sent a man to the moon, fought the commies with 500,000 troops, and were in the middle of the largest public-works project in history - the Interstate highway system. All paid for with tax dollars.

Today, we can't afford any of that, let alone all three. Ask your politicians why not.
Posted by: Bobby   2011-01-21 06:30  

#3  It seems like your PW department made a good investment in maintaining their income stream security, TW.

Gorb, that pic looks pretty awful but water mains can be a lot worse than that.

A long time ago I was living in Boston and they were replacing the last of their wooden (you didn't misread that, WOODEN) water pipes in the system. I asked a guy who was working on the project how they looked after more than 100 years underground and he told me that sometimes there wasn't any wood at all, just water running through a pipe-shaped tunnel in clayey soil. The end users had drunk up all the rotten wood, over the years, and were drinking water that had leached out whatever was in the soil as it passed through.
Posted by: no mo uro   2011-01-21 06:27  

#2  Our neighborhood was built in the late 1980s to the mid-90s. At the time, the cutting edge thing in the way of bringing water from the main to the house was something called "blue pipe". Blue pipe, as it turns out, is very good at breaking. For the better part of ten years the water company has had a team that's done nothing but go from break to break, digging up the lawn to replace the broken bit with a section of white pipe. My yard has been dug up twice thus far, and the road in front where several houses tie into the main as well. I anticipate several more incidents before the entire length of my blue pipe has been replaced.

In my case, we're dealing with a brief period when the township made a poor choice of materials during a building boom, not aging mains at all.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-01-21 05:25  

#1  It's time to replace the water mains while doing repaving projects. I just had a break in my front yard. It was a mess.
Posted by: crosspatch   2011-01-21 02:14  

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