NY governor seeks $2B to fix some of nation's oldest pipes

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ny-governor-seeks-2b-fix-nations-oldest-pipes-163126534.html

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants $2 billion to address some of the nation's oldest water and sewer systems — and while that sounds like a lot of money, it's a drop in the bucket of what the state's experts say is truly required.

They say it would actually cost $80 billion in the coming years to replace crumbling water mains, modernize sewer systems and remove lead pipes.

Many of the state's water systems began wearing out long ago. The Erie County Water Authority had 1,453 water main breaks in 2015. There were nearly 400 the same year in Syracuse, where local officials calculated last year that they'll need $726 million to fix 550 miles of pipe. In New York City, an estimated 20 percent of the treated water that enters municipal pipes leaks out before it makes it to a faucet.

"It's becoming more and more of a problem," Cuomo said when he announced the $2 billion proposal. "The time to address it is now."

One of the reasons why the state's pipes have gotten so bad is many people don't think about the need for maintenance until a pipe bursts, a river is contaminated by sewage or a toxin is found in tap water. And funding for water systems has repeatedly lost out to other pressing needs like rising education and health care costs.

This past year, however, water quality became front-page news when the industrial chemical PFOA was found to have tainted the tap water of the upstate village of Hoosick Falls.

[underpants]

1. Careful. That's what bankrupted Birmingham Alabama

When JP Morgan pays Goldman to stay out* you know there some serious graft going on.

*it could be the other way around.