Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The effects of inadequate delivery of water to needed locations go
beyond drinking water. In some cities, fi refi ghters deal with water pres-
sure in hydrants inadequate to supply the amount of water needed to
fi ght house fi res. In the nation's capital in 2007, a 100-year-old 6-inch
water main was unable to supply water quickly enough to put out a fi re
in a four-story condominium building. Thirteen percent of the area's
underground water mains have only 6-inch diameters, and, of course,
many of these aged pipes leak.
The seriousness of leakage from water pipes is compounded by the
fact that a break in a water pipe can be a gateway for harmful bacteria.
Estimates are that microbial pathogens in public drinking water supplies
sicken hundreds of thousands of people each year, in part because of
breaks in water mains.
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Making accurate estimates of the amount of money needed to mod-
ernize the nation's water and wastewater infrastructure is diffi cult
because of the lack of a national database to gauge the age and condition
of existing infrastructure, as well as uncertainty surrounding future regu-
latory requirements and technological breakthroughs. Studies by govern-
ment and utilities agree that cities and towns will need to spend $250
billion to $500 billion more over the next twenty years to maintain the
drinking water and wastewater systems required for modern living.
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Currently local governments and ratepayers provide 90 percent of
the costs to build, operate, and maintain public water and sewer systems.
Federal funding for drinking water and wastewater treatment has
declined 24 percent since 2001.
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Americans can easily afford to pay
for maintaining and improving their water distribution systems. We
pay about $2.50 for 1,000 gallons of water, less than half the amount
paid for tap water in other developed countries. If we continue to
ignore our water and sewer systems (fi gure 2.2), the nation can expect
increased threats to public health, environmental degradation, and severe
economic losses.
Pipes for Sewers
The EPA estimates that 1.2 million miles of sewers snake underground
across the United States. Another EPA report in 2001 found that each
year in the United States, sewers back up in basements an estimated
400,000 times, and municipal sanitary sewers overfl ow on 40,000 occa-
sions.
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The main pipes under the street are the city's responsibility; pipes
from the street to a home, called service lines, are the responsibility of
