US water pipelines are breaking

[Phred42]

$300 bln - there's a familiar number.

And the next 'logical' step for the Fascists? Privatization - sell it all off to Trans-national corporations. Enron in control of your fresh water. 10 months is a damned long time. We will be lucky to have anything left to build on by next January.


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US water pipelines said 'breaking'

Water Pipelines Across the US Are Breaking; Repair Costs Put at Nearly $300 Billion

Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a marsh the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a country road. They are such a marvel that people come from miles around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it is bubbling up from a hidden natural spring.

he truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked 70-year-old tunnel hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.

The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries drinking water from a reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful warning sign of a larger problem around the country: The infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly aging and in need of repairs.

The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion.

Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear the majority of the cost through rate increases, according to the American Water Works Association, an industry group.

[Bluzmann57]

1. But these pipes can't be federally funded

Don't you know that the war in Iraq needs millions more dollars? We can't worry about trivial things like water. Priorities man, priorities!

[whistle]

2. It's the infrastructure stupid!

...All segments of the U.S. infrastructure during the past three decades but in particular in the last eight years has fallen into a state of disrepair and increasing deterioration due to deliberate neglect by the Bush administration

[Horse with no Name]

3. our infrastructure is seriously fucked

Never mind that our tax money and utility bills should have been paying for upkeep all along instead of lining the pockets of the private corporations that now run the majority of these entitities...we WILL be paying again.
Think of a car that has had no upkeep. One of these days, it will just quit and you will be forced to buy a new one.
Same thing with our infrastructure.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. Atl's water system has been falling apart for

at least a decade. Each administration passes the buck to the next...patching the emergencies and hoping 'the big one' doesn't happen on their watch...

sP

[kestrel91316]

5. Public infrastructure is a communist plot.

If people want drinking water and water for their laundry and toilets, let them pay for it from private corporations. If they don't have the money, tough luck.

:sarcasm:

[Blackhatjack]

6. It's from the same playbook used in 'making loans' to central/south american countries...

You demand that cities and states turn over their infrastructure needs(water, energy, etc.) to private corporations in order to get federal assistance.

The US infrastructure problem is a 'gold mine' waiting for private corporations to exploit.

[Phred42]

7. Probably a chapter in Shock Docrtine on this.....