Over 2.1 trillon gallons of clean water are lost each year due to faulty water infrastructure across the United States, as reported by NPR in 2014. Cold winter weather results in a large number of water main breaks, however warmer weather has a fair share as well. What happens in the warmer weather is connected to the deteriorating roadways and soft material patches done to it. Areas with a lot of industrial traffic carrying heavy loads see the most damage year round.
The nation has moved further and further from localism and in turn increased transportation needs dramatically. This puts a strain on those roads and the infrastucture lying beneath or near them — water pipes and electrical.
The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks Drinking Water for the US with a D. Stating $3.6 trillion needs to be invested by 2020 (within 4 years). There are an estimate 240,000 water main breaks across the US annually.
Over the next 20 years to protect our drinking water and create up to 945,000 jobs. Please sign in support of House Resolution 5313, the WATER Act (Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability). You can also track the bill at GovTrack.us.
Detroit and other areas going through demolition (aka blight removal) see construction traffic which at times don’t watch or care about the load limits on residential streets. I witnessed this on the street I live in 2014. In fall a house was demolished and the dumpster used by the demolition crew broke through the surface of the street. A soft patch was applied to the street, but damage to the pipes below wasn’t evident until they burst in the cold and covered the street in 8” of ice for several days.
Restructuring Older Cities
Many aging cities are seeing a decline in population, Detroit in the 1960’s was over 2 million residents and now is around 700,000. The response over five years ago was to convene working groups around the city to redefine how land would be used. The Detroit Future City project created 31 zoning types (shown on the 31st page of this PDF, labelled as page 120). Some of these areas would see decreases in residential infrastructure. The proposed plan also advises that downspouts from residential houses which have been flowing into the sewer system contribute to combined sewerage overflows (CSO) and advises localized catchment systems should be installed. Also in the plans are consideration of “rubblizing” areas of streets such that storm water doesn’t flow as rapidly into storm drains.
There is plenty of criticism of DFC’s 31 zoning types in a city with less than half that many at present. The opportunties created through restructuring the city can result in employing many of Detroit’s long term unemployed, however looking at the workforce on many current job sites shows many workers and subcontractors from outside the city. When your neighborhood is being worked on by people with a vested interest as fellow residents delivering results matters much more.