Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Needed Water Supply Infrastructure Will Cost Over $1 Trillion by Linda Young

A new report has found that the cost of repairing and expanding drinking water infrastructure in the United States will exceed $1 trillion in the next 25 years.

In addition, the groundbreaking study by the American Water Works Association found that expense will likely be met primarily through higher water bills and local fees. The cost of needs will double from around $13 billion a year now to roughly $30 billion (in 2010 dollars) per year by the 2040s.

AWWA is an international nonprofit scientific and educational society that focuses on the improvement of drinking water quality and supply.

The organization analyzed many factors for its new report, titled “Buried No Longer: Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge.” Those factors included the timing of water main installation and life expectancy, materials used, replacement costs and shifting demographics. AA

AWWA found that needs in the U.S. are nearly evenly divided between replacement and expansion requirements.

“Because pipe assets last a long time, water systems that were built in the latter part of the 19th century and throughout much of the 20th century have, for the most part, never experienced the need for pipe replacement on a large scale,” the report states. “The dawn of an era in which the assets will need to be replaced puts a growing stress on communities that will continue to increase for decades to come.”

“The needs uncovered in ‘Buried No Longer’ are large, but they are not insurmountable,” said AWWA Executive Director David LaFrance. “When you consider everything that tap water delivers-public health protection, fire protection, support for the economy, the quality of life we enjoy-we owe it to future generations to confront the infrastructure challenge today.”

Although the world has as much water now as it did thousands of years ago, only about 1 percent of the world’s water is available for human needs, including personal, agricultural and manufacturing. Almost 97 percent of the world’s water is saltwater or brackish and another 2 percent is locked away in glaciers and ice caps.

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