States pressed to fix local water systems

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http://stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=511293


When a cold snap hit the Southeast last January, water pipes broke all over Jackson, Mississippi, including those that fed the state capitol and the governor’s mansion. Like everything else in the city of 140,000, state government ground to a halt for three days.


To prevent a repeat occurrence, Jackson’s Democratic Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. asked the state to underwrite a no-interest bond for $6 million to upgrade the pipes that supply drinking water to state buildings. Lawmakers agreed, but Republican Governor Haley Barbour and other top officials declined to approve the proposal, saying the water system in Jackson is Jackson’s problem.

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How big is the problem?

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, water main breaks result in the loss of up to 1.7 trillion gallons of clean water each year, at a cost of $2.6 billion. That loss is an issue of increasing concern as regional water shortages become more common. In addition to breakdowns in delivery, the failure of antiquated sewerage systems results in as much as 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater flowing into the nation’s drinking water sources each year.

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A growing gap

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At the heart of the problem is the fact that most cities and communities do not charge their customers rates high enough to cover the true cost of providing clean drinking water and removing wastewater. Among developed countries, the United States and Canada have by far the lowest rates for clean drinking water and sewerage.Yet despite a growing awareness that most U.S. water rates do not cover the costs of maintaining the infrastructure, most mayors are loathe to support unpopular water fee increases.

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As it turned out, Mississippi wasn’t entirely unconcerned about the Jackson water problem hampering state government. The state Department of Transportation decided to use its own money to drill a well right outside its main office near the Capitol building in downtown Jackson. That well will prevent future city water breakdowns from paralyzing the DOT. But it won’t help solve the rest of Jackson’s water problems.
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but of course