Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Replacement: The Only Option
A big part of the solution would seem to be a no-brainer: replace
the pipes. The only problem is the cost to do that is gargantuan.
When many of the pipes were laid underground years ago, the
ground above likely had few structures or infrastructure. Today
it's a very different landscape, creating huge complications for any
replacement projects.
Not only Boston is losing its drinking water to leaky pipes.
Many of the invisible underground pipes that crisscross America's
metropolitan areas are wearing out or are already worn out.
That's a big reason contributing to the growing numbers of
broken water mains across the country. These pipes have lived
a long and useful life, but now they need to be replaced. Cost
estimates for that replacement range from $485 billion to nearly
$1.2 trillion for both drinking water and wastewater infrastruc-
ture over the next 20 years, according to estimates from the EPA,
the Congressional Budget Offi ce, and the Water Infrastructure
Network, a consortium of industry, municipal, state, and non-
profi t associations. 9
The American drinking water infrastructure network spans more than
seven hundred thousand miles—more than four times the length of
the total National Highway System, according to EPA estimates.*
*“The True Cost of Water,” The WaterSense Current , no. 8 (Fall 2008), http://epa.gov/
watersense/about_us/fall2008.html.
Another industry report from the 60,000-member nonprofi t
American Water Works Association (AWWA) pegs the cost of replac-
ing only drinking water infrastructure at about $250 billion over the
next 30 years. That report, by AWWA's Water Industry Technical
Action Fund, involved an analysis of 20 major utilities. 10
Here are some of the more sobering fi ndings of the report:
￿
The oldest cast-iron pipes, which date to the late 1800s, have
an average life expectancy of about 120 years. Pipes laid in
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