April 14, 2008

Leaking infrastructure exacts costly toll across United States

NEW YORK

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.

The 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 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than US$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 US$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.

Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation’s water systems, especially in older cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels were built in the 1800s and are now nearing the end of their life expectancies.

“Our generation hasn’t experienced anything like this. We weren’t around when the infrastructure was being built,” said Greg Kail, spokesman for the water industry group.

He said the situation has not reached crisis stage, but without a serious investment, “it can become a crisis. Each year the problem is put on the back burner, the price tag is going to go up.”

Catastrophic problems can arise when infrastructure fails. An 84-year-old steam pipe erupted beneath a New York street last year, creating a mammoth geyser that rained mud and debris down on the city.

In Chicago, an 80-year-old cast-iron water main broke earlier this year, spilling thousands of gallons and opening up a 25-foot hole in the street.

The amount of wasted water from these breaches is staggering.

The 36 million gallons a day that leak from the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct in New York state amounts to more than 1 billion gallons a month.

Even monitoring pipes for vulnerabilities can be expensive and tricky, since it’s not possible to shut down a city’s water supply to test for leaks.

If New York were to do that to the Delaware Aqueduct, for example, the 13.5-foot-diameter tunnel might crumble under the crushing weight of the land without the water to support the duct.

The amount of water being lost is inconsequential, given that reservoirs are so full, said Environmental Commissioner Emily Lloyd. But she said it is important to fix the leaks now because there is no way to tell how the system might deteriorate in the next 30 years.

New York has spent decades digging a new $6 billion tunnel that will create an alternative source of water delivery and allow for easier inspection and repair of the other tunnels. It is expected to be completed by 2020.

Associated Press

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