Editorial: Time to replace old water pipes
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Aug. 20, 2014, Sacramento Bee.
After decades of neglect, the bill is coming due – in the neighborhood of $70 billion in water system fixes needed statewide, according to one estimate.
The $7.5 billion water bond on the November ballot would provide some help. The bond includes four pots of money that could potentially be used to replace or repair old pipes: $510 million in competitive grants for regional water management projects; $260 million in grants for small community wastewater projects; $260 million in grants and loans for small community safe drinking water projects; and $100 million for water use efficiency and conservation.
This, however, is primarily the responsibility of local agencies, and the tab is largely going to be paid by their customers.
Even when aging pipes don’t break, they exact a cost – the loss of treated water that leaks before making it to homes and businesses. Residents who are being urged, or ordered with the threat of fines, to conserve have a right to expect better.
No one knows exactly how much water is leaking because there’s no requirement or standard reporting procedure for the state’s 362 urban water suppliers. Based on audits voluntarily submitted to the state in 2010, the average loss was 10 percent, with a range of 5 percent to 30 percent.
The aging infrastructure in the US is clearly not confined to California.
With an economic system so focused on “growing”, we panic and start talking depression if the economy is not growing at 3 percent or so.
We therefore have little to no available funding to repair anything except in an emergency, a “when it breaks” basis.
What is it going to take to get the US to stop policing the world to the tune of trillions/year significantly reduce the support of foreign nations who soak up billions, bring the troops home and take care of ourselves?
The economy could benefit in a major sense by simply focusing our existing funds on the home front. There are hundreds of thousands of people who would happily work on utility and infrastructure projects. We need to quit studying, reduce the time and cost of the permits required and start repairing.
So far, our water/sewer/power companies seem to have failed to build maintenance in a more significant way into budgeting, focusing all the excess profit only on getting bigger. Their only thought is to increase rates after years of mismanaging the existing ones.
Observer. I agree, maintenance everywhere is in neglect. I was on a plane recently and when I sat down the armrest fell off. I ask the flight attendants and they shrugged their shoulders; I tried to fix it myself but needed some machine screws and a screwdriver.
This is a typical butter vs guns argument; we have spent the money in recent years on guns.
Well said, Observer.