A 30 Inch, 93-year-old Pipe

It’s hardly news that California, particularly southern California, is in the midst of one the most severe droughts in recorded history. It’s also not particularly noteworthy that there is an awful lot of infrastructure in the United States that is well-beyond replacement or at least repair time – from bridges, highways, levees, dams, and power grids to sewage lines and water pipes. With most of the modern water and sewage infrastructure beginning to be introduced in eastern states in the late 19^th century and in the western states in the early 20^th century, we may well have the beginning of a perfect storm for expected catastrophic failure.

It’s not a pretty picture out there, and in times of budget deficits, the costs of fixing or upgrading just our water and sewage systems is outrageous, but nothing compared with constant grind of costs associated with not fixing the mess. “The EPA estimates that it will cost between $331 to $450 billion to repair or replace the nation’s sewer system over a period of 20 years. Sewer pipes represent about 75% of the capital needs… A report by the American Water Works Association estimates it will take $1 trillion dollars to repair or replace the drinking water system over 25 years.” pddnet.com, January 1^st.

That’s $23 billion a year for sewers and $40 billion per annum for water. And that’s only a fraction of the nation’s overall infrastructure needs. Power grid: $24 billion a year. Highways, waterway and bridges: $220 billion a year. And so it goes. Add a slam from a hurricane, tornado, ice storm, flood, earthquake, etc. and the costs go up accordingly.

But even when these mega disasters do not occur, everyday failures are taking their toll. The EPA tells us that there are an average of 240,000 water main breaks and 75,000 sewer overflows every year. Whew! And some of these can be spectacular.

Back to drought-plagued Los Angeles, where a wasteful water moment can bring a homeowner an instant $500 fine. What would happen if a really big water main broke and began spewing 35,000 gallons a minute… for between three and four hours… into a really inconvenient part of the city (like there would be any “convenient” place for such a disaster)? Try the massively huge campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (see above).

“The 30-inch, nearly century old pipe burst under nearby Sunset Boulevard on [July 29^th] afternoon, sending water 30 feet into the air, opening a 15-foot hole in the street and inundating part of the campus that was soon swarmed with police and firefighters... ‘Unfortunately UCLA was the sink for this water source,’ UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said…

“The flooding hit the part of campus that is home to its athletic facilities, with the greatest danger coming in a pair of parking structures that quickly began filling with water… Firefighters, some using inflatable boats, saved at least five people who were stranded in the structures where more than 100 cars were stuck, city fire officials said. No injuries were reported… Water cascaded to the entrance of Pauley Pavilion, considered one of college basketball's shrines since it was built in 1965, then poured on to the court named for legendary coach John Wooden and his wife Nell.” AOLNews.com, July 29th. The damage was considerable. According to the Department of Water & Power, somewhere around 20 million gallons were wasted, and there may be more ground leaks that have not yet been detected! The above illustration (from the USGS) shows you what just one million gallons looks like.

This wasteful event represents a critical water loss to a city parched from the effects of global climate change that has flooded some parts of the United States but brought fire and drought to many western states. Since our infrastructure has a critical impact on our consumption of natural resources (even a bad highway increases gasoline usage big time), we need to prioritize those element in our physical environment that are necessary investments in our future. INVESTMENTS. They pay dividends and save money in the longer term, creating jobs, increasing competitiveness and protecting the direct and immediate quality of our lives: education, infrastructure and research. Not wasteful “spending.” INVESTMENT.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if we believe in ourselves, we need to back up that belief with action and invest in our future.