Water Matters

“Water quantity and quality are the biggest environmental issues that we face in the 21st century.” That is according to former EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, who says that the US pipe infrastructure is in poor condition and is continuing to deteriorate each year.

In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) down graded America’s drinking water and wastewater systems to a “D -”. Looking forward it seems the trend getting worse if municipalities do not take proactive measures to improve their water facilities. In cities and towns throughout the U.S., our water infrastructure is usually 50 to 100 years old and well past its life expectancy. Our municipal water systems are aging fast, and it’s won’t get any better without serious intervention.

American’s aging wastewater management systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated sewage into U.S. surface waters each year. The EPA estimates that the nation must invest $390 billion over the next 20 years to replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demands. If this are not addressed now, the correction could be costly for taxpayers.

According to the Colcom Foundation, 36 states are anticipating water shortages by the year 2013. If that’s the natural course of freshwater availability then leaking, dilapidated piping systems are not the solution. “More than half of humanity will be living with water shortages, depleted fisheries, and polluted coastlines within 50 years because of a worldwide water crisis” (UN report, 2003).

Check out some of these figures:

• A survey of 46 jurisdictions, including 43 states found an average of 16 percent “unaccounted for” water leakage with some leakage as high as 50 percent.
• 2.5 billion gallons of drinking water (~22%) lost every day in the United States, most from leakage (AWWA? 2007).
• Over 48 million gallons of drinking water lost every day in each state, most from leakage (Rich Gottwald, PPI, 2003).
• 3.6 million illnesses reported every year caused by accidental release of sewage into drinking water systems from over-burdened or failed systems (Rich Gottwald, PPI, 2003).
• Over $36 billion are spent every year on pipe maintenance due to corrosion of metal pipes (CorrosionCost.com).

Read Report Card for America's Infrastructure published by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Visit ASCE website to learn more about the methodology and the condition of the infrastructure in your state.