Flush with Pride

American sewage and water systems were installed into the nation’s major cities in phases. The first major phase of such infrastructure development was at the end of the nineteenth century; another surge began in the post-WWI era, and of course, the public works projects of the Great Depression expanded this infrastructure considerably. In the post-WWII era, as the West expanded, there was yet another surge in sewer and water management systems, and as new cities, towns and suburbs grew, modern water/sewage systems grew with them.

But if you think of it, and run some numbers, you can see that some of our systems are well over a hundred years old. New York City is reputed to lose about a billion gallons of water per year in leaky pipes. Contaminants have made their way into so many systems that many refuse to drink tap water, preferring the wasteful practice of buying bottled water (which consumes energy in shipping the water, making the containers – which often become un-recycled waste) instead. But really, given water quality standards “at the tap,” who can blame them?

Combine old systems with population growth, and our nation’s sewer and water systems are in a state of significant disrepair, amplified by budget crunches and “deferred maintenance.” When heavy rainfall crashes systems, overflow often results in the most dangerous failure of sewage systems, in which vile effluents are released into oceans, lakes, rivers, creeks and public waterways or simply back up the existing systems.

Congress passed the Clear Water Act of 1972 in part to deal with upgrading our antiquated sewage systems. Over the next two daces, about $60 billion was poured, if you’ll excuse the pun, into these upgrades, an effort to keep nasty overflows from polluting public waters. But there was so much wrong with old, under-maintained systems, that this seemed to be… er… a mere drop in the bucket. The November 23^rd New York Times: “But despite those upgrades, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage is spilling into waterways… In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency…

“As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches… There is no national record-keeping of how many illnesses are caused by sewage spills. But academic research suggests that as many as 20 million people each year become ill from drinking water containing bacteria and other pathogens that are often spread by untreated waste…

“When a sewage system overflows or a treatment plant dumps untreated waste, it is often breaking the law. Today, sewage systems are the nation’s most frequent violators of the Clean Water Act. More than a third of all sewer systems — including those in San Diego, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Jose and San Francisco — have violated environmental laws since 2006, according to a Times analysis of E.P.A. data.”

The costs necessary to bring the aggregate of our nation’s sewage systems up to snuff are staggering. Just stopping the overflows in New York City is estimated to cost $58 billion dollars! The EPA and the Government Accountability Office suggest a wildly conservative number of $400 billion required over the next decade to solve this problem, but environmental scientists believe that the number may well be a multiple of this sum. The stimulus package has allocated a mere $6 billion to this issue.

The Times: “‘The public has no clue how important these sewage plants are,’ said Mr. [Bob] Connaughton of the Brooklyn [Owls Head Water Pollution Control Plant]. ‘Waterborne disease was the scourge of mankind for centuries. These plants stopped that. We’re doing everything we can to clean as much sewage as possible, but sometimes, that isn’t enough.’” Essentially, the confluence (sorry) of an economic collapse, the failure of state and local governments to fund public works, the rise of new superpowers, the taking on of massive public and private debt combined with the depreciation of America’s infrastructure have all hit at precisely the same time. If we truly cannot afford the “big fix,” then we will soon face another serious decline in our standard of living as untreated sewage and unmanaged back-ups and overflows test whatever healthcare system we have at the time. Learning to live with less is not only a bitch… it’s downright scary.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.