NY Times: Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly

[marmar]

Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly
By CHARLES DUHIGG

Published: March 14, 2010


WASHINGTON — One recent morning, George S. Hawkins, a long-haired environmentalist who now leads one of the largest and most prominent water and sewer systems, trudged to a street corner here where water was gushing into the air.

A cold snap had ruptured a major pipe installed the same year the light bulb was invented. Homes near the fashionable Dupont Circle neighborhood were quickly going dry, and Mr. Hawkins, who had recently taken over the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority despite having no experience running a major utility, was responsible for fixing the problem.

As city employees searched for underground valves, a growing crowd started asking angry questions. Pipes were breaking across town, and fire hydrants weren’t working, they complained. Why couldn’t the city deliver water, one man yelled at Mr. Hawkins.

Such questions are becoming common across the nation as water and sewer systems break down. Today, a significant water line bursts on average every two minutes somewhere in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data.

In Washington alone there is a pipe break every day, on average, and this weekend’s intense rains overwhelmed the city’s system, causing untreated sewage to flow into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/us/15water.html?hp

[opihimoimoi]

1. Ya get to thinking about these matters when ya get thirsty and no water comes out the pipe/faucet

[Statistical]

2. This would have been a good place to spend $100 B or so stimulus money.

The again we never had a real stimulus bill.

Imagine how many people would be put to work spending $100B to upgrade water system and another $100B to upgrade electrical grid. Not just laborers either but engineers, analysts, IT people, city planners, accountants. A good mix of blue collar and white collar workers.

Instead we took a lot of un-targeted spending and called it "stimulus" instead of "spending". It was regular spending "rebranded".

[Captain Hilts]

6. Yep. nt

[HereSince1628]

3. Get a well and septic

Screw taxes for public works, why can't city slickers just do what we rural folk do?



:sarcasm:

[trotsky]

4. "Why couldn’t the city deliver water, one man yelled"

Because dumbfuck Republicans have been starving government for necessary funds for decades.

Pity, Grover Norquist will never get to live his dream of drowning government in the bathtub, because there won't be any water left to do it!

[juajen]

5. This is so important, but the country is broke. How can they

expect people in this country to welcome a raise in sewer rates when our utility bills just keep rising, but our salaries go down?

Gee, maybe it would have been a good idea to spend money on infrastructure instead of killing people overseas? I've got it. Make the damn corporations pay for infrastructure. Most of them get out of paying any taxes; yet, they are also dependent on infrastructure. I believe the answer is simple, but first we have to make laws to prevent our corporations from ducking their responsibilities by moving operations to foreign countries who care nothing for human rights, or the pollution and destruction going on in their own countries. Of course, since these very corporations own our congress, chances of passing reasonable regulations that benefit the people vs. corporations simply won't happen.

Are we watching the demise of the American Empire? Unfortunately, I believe so.

[pscot]

7. This is optional?

Oops, I forgot. We're racing to the bottom. Soon we'll quit paving the streets.

[babyblonde]

8. END WAR FOR

THE PROFITEERS
BRING MONEY TO THE USA and her citizens
that is all!:mad: :nuke: :kick: :dem: :patriot:

[hatrack]

9. Guess we'd better not do it then, huh? Just TOO pricey!!

:eyes: