Funds awarded for water infrastructure projects

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 6:26 am

From the Kern Valley Sun:

In a move that stands to create jobs, boost local economies, improve aging water and wastewater infrastructure and protect human health and the environment for the people in the State of California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $440 million to California. This new infusion of money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will help the state and local governments finance many of the overdue improvements to water projects that are essential to protecting public health and the environment across the state.

“This remarkable opportunity to provide much-needed support for sustainable water and energy-efficient drinking water and wastewater systems throughout the U.S. is unprecedented,” said Laura Yoshii, acting Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Pacific Southwest. “This funding will allow California to identify its highest infrastructure priorities, protect human health and surface water quality, address climate change, and create critical green jobs as a foundation for a sustainable future.”

Read more from the Kern Valley Sun by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Structural aluminum roof for water reservoir in California

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 6:31 am

From Water & Wastewater.com:

A common problem facing cities across the U.S. in the first part of the 21st century is the deterioration of water and wastewater infrastructure. Specifically, potable and non-potable water tanks all over the country are in dire need of rehabilitation. In 2007, the City of San Diego along with consulting engineering firm, Simon Wong Engineering, concluded that the existing concrete roof on the Rancho Bernardo Reservoir was in need of replacement.

Temcor was subcontracted to design, fabricate and erect a maintenance-free aluminum roof cover. The massive aluminum roof, 250′ x 320′, covering nearly two acres, is supported by 72 stainless steel columns (provided by Temcor). The roof stands at a mere 6ft from the top of tank to the top of the roof ridge. A permanent non-glare (sandblast) finish was also incorporated into the aesthetic aspect of the design. The cover fits in well within the surrounding environment.

More from Water & Wastewater.com by clicking here.

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Ground broken on state’s largest ultraviolet water plant

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 15, 2009 at 7:57 am

From Stockton’s Record:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom climbed onto the rubber-tired backhoe and fiddled with the levers. Before the machine roared to life, he turned to San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas and said: “For the record, supervisor, I have OSHA-approved hair. My old hard hat is right here,” pointing to his famously-slicked mane.

And with that bit of self-deprecating humor, Newsom turned earth on a $112 million water treatment plant which - combined with a larger-scale upgrade of San Francisco’s water supply infrastructure - will create an estimated 2,300 construction jobs in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

A liberal, big-city mayor and would-be governor might have little in common with a right-of-center county supervisor and dairyman, but for one day at least Newsom and Ornellas were allies. They sat arm-to-arm during Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony on golden fields south of Tracy, and, when it was over, shared a laugh or two.

“We’re buds now,” Ornellas said with a smile, linking two fingers. “We’re like this.”

Many people don’t realize that San Francisco’s waterworks run through the southwestern portion of the county, part of a complicated linkage of canals and tunnels bringing Sierra Nevada water to the Bay Area.

The treatment plant - the largest in the state to use advanced ultraviolet technology - will clean that water before it flows to the taps of 2.4 million people.

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

May 15, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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U.S. water infrastructure needs seen as urgent

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 10, 2009 at 7:19 am

From Reuters News:

The crumbling U.S. infrastructure is routinely in plain sight, from potholes strewn across interstate highways built during the Eisenhower administration to rusting Depression-era bridges connecting those old highways. At its most extreme, neglect can turn catastrophic: Experts had long expressed concern that New Orleans’ aging levees could fail in the face of a major hurricane and they did dramatically in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

By contrast, the condition of the nation’s water infrastructure is often hidden from view. Drinking water and efficient sewage disposal is taken for granted along with the safety of the buried pipes, but was much on the minds of several guests at this week’s Reuters Infrastructure Summit.

Out of sight, water infrastructure remained largely out of mind for U.S. policymakers in the federal economic stimulus effort. The $787 billion program allotted less than $10 billion for drinking and wastewater projects. State and local officials will not turn the cash away but they say much more is needed to fix and add capacity to the nation’s water systems.

“It’s something that concerns me, because we pay so much attention to things we see and this is something we don’t see — until it’s too late,” Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp told Reuters in a recent interview. “In Maryland and other eastern states there have been repeated episodes in which pipes carrying clean water or sewage have collapsed,” Kopp said. “Over the next 20 or 30 years, water systems are likely to hit obsolescence.”

Read more from Reuters News by clicking here.

May 10, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Aging of water mains is becoming hard to ignore

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 19, 2009 at 6:32 am

From the New York Times:

It has been 2,000 years since the Romans built their aqueducts, and 200 years since Philadelphia began using cast-iron water mains. But the 6-inch-wide city pipe that still delivers drinking water to a block on Nixon Street here uses an even more primitive technology: wood. Its wooden planks are lashed together with a coil of metal as if each section of pipe were a long, narrow barrel. And while the small stretch beneath the ground here may seem more Swiss Family Robinson than 21st century, it is not unique to Chelan.

Water officials say they believe that a handful of wooden water mains are still in use in South Dakota, Alaska and Pennsylvania, among other places. The old wood pipes offer a vivid reminder of the age and fragility of the nation’s drinking water systems, many of which rely heavily on old pipes that often remain out of sight and mind — until they burst.

And they are bursting with alarming frequency in many areas these days, particularly in systems coping with septuagenarian, octogenarian, and even century-old pipes. There are an estimated 240,000 water main breaks each year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program, and some water experts fear that the problem is getting worse.

“We believe that the number of breaks is increasing,” said D. Wayne Klotz, the president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He warned that the breaks not only waste millions of gallons of clean, treated drinking water, but also can cause tremendous damage, pointing to a major break in Maryland just before Christmas that stranded motorists on a flooded road. “When most people think of a leak, they think of a drip in their sink,” Mr. Klotz said. “These are not like that. They were rescuing people by helicopter!”

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

April 19, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Secretary Salazar announces $260 million in economic recovery investments to help California address long-term water supply challenges and devastating drought conditions

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 18, 2009 at 9:05 am

Sorry, don’t know why I didn’t catch this before, but here is the press release from the Department of the Interior on the stimulus money for California water infrastructure:

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, at a press conference with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California congressional leaders, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the Department of the Interior will invest $1 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) in America’s water infrastructure to create jobs and get the economy moving again. Overall, the Department of the Interior will manage $3 billion in investments as part of the recovery plan signed by the President to jumpstart our economy, create or save jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st Century.

Of the $1 billion that Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is investing in water projects across the country, $260 million will go to projects in California that will expand water supplies, repair aging water infrastructure, and mitigate the effects of a devastating drought the state is currently experiencing. An additional $135 million is available for grants for water reuse and recycling projects; California is emerging as a leader in the development of these projects and is expected to also significantly benefit from this funding.

“In the midst of one of the deepest economic crises in our history, Californians have been saddled with a drought that is putting tens of thousands of people out of work and devastating entire communities,” said Secretary Salazar. “President Obama’s economic recovery plan will not only create jobs on basic water infrastructure projects, but it will help address both the short- and long-term water supply challenges the Golden State is facing. From boosting water supplies and improving conservation to improving safety at our dams, these shovel-ready projects will make a real and immediate difference in the lives of farmers, businesses, Native American Tribes and communities across California.”

Secretary Salazar, who earlier in the day toured the Sacramento Delta with Governor Schwarzenegger, announced that more than 30 Bureau of Reclamation water infrastructure projects will be funded in California under the ARRA, including:

* $40 million for immediate emergency drought relief in the West, focused on California. These investments will allow for the installation of groundwater wells to boost water supplies to agricultural and urban contractors, the facilitation of the delivery of Federal water to Reclamation contractors through water transfers and exchanges, and the installation of rock barriers in the Sacramento Delta to meet water quality standards during low flows;
* $109.8 million to build a screened pumping plant at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam to protect fish populations while delivering water to agricultural users irrigating approximately 150,000 acres;
* $22.3 million to address dam safety concerns at the Folsom Dam near Sacramento, which is currently among the highest risk dams in the country for public safety;
* $8.5 million to repair water-related infrastructure at Folsom Dam;
* $20 million for the Contra Costa Canal to protect water supplies for 500,000 Californians and to build fish screens to restore winter-run Chinook salmon and the endangered Delta smelt;
* $4.5 million to restore the Trinity River and honor the Federal government’s responsibility to the Native American Tribes;
* $26 million for Battle Creek Salmon/Steelhead Restoration project, which will help restore fisheries that support thousands of jobs in northern California.
* $4 million to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan for conveyance systems to move Central Valley Project and State Water Project water, habitat restoration and adaptive management;
* $4 million to broaden scientific knowledge of Klamath River sedimentation for future management decision-making;
* $20.7 million in smaller water infrastructure and related projects across California.

With an array of projects identified by stakeholders as critical, the Bureau of Reclamation worked through a rigorous merit-based process to identify investments that met the criteria put forth in the Recovery Act: namely, that the project addresses the Department’s highest priority mission needs; generates the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time; and creates lasting value for the American public.

The $1 billion announced by Secretary Salazar today will go to programs including:

* Meeting Future Water Supply Needs (including Title XVI water recycling projects and rural water projects) – $450 million
* Improving Infrastructure Reliability and Safety – $165 million
* Environmental and Ecosystem Restoration – $235 million
* Water Conservation Initiative (Challenge Grants) – $40 million
* Green Buildings – $14 million
* Delivering water from the Colorado River to users in central Utah under the Central Utah Project Completion Act - $50 million
* Emergency drought relief in the West, primarily in California - $40

“President Obama and this Department have ambitious goals to build America’s new energy future, to protect and restore our treasured landscapes, to create a 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps,” added Salazar. “These Bureau of Reclamation projects will help us fulfill these goals while helping American families and their communities prosper again.”

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department of the Interior’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery. Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force. Henderson and the Task Force will work closely with the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General to ensure that the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency that President Obama has set.

April 18, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, Infrastructure

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The dam infrastructure problem: New report says over 1,800 dams pose significant risk to human life. Fixing them will cost billions, but can we afford this in addition to roads, bridges and other projects?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2009 at 7:12 am

From CNN Money:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Kentucky’s Wolf Creek dam has been a hazard for years. Some 150 miles northwest of Nashville, the 270-foot high, 1950s era dam on the Cumberland River has been leaking for decades. The problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years. The dam poses such a threat that in 2008 counties down river installed emergency evacuation horns.

Although the Army Corps of Engineers is working aggressively to fix the problem and says the dam should be stable in seven years, the consequences of a breach are huge. The pent-up water in Cumberland Lake would spread over over 200 miles - flooding Nashville. The Corps estimates over 100 lives could be lost, and cause over $3 billion in property damage.

It’s against this backdrop that the American Society of Civil Engineers recently said over 1,800 dams nationwide are deficient, and their failure could result in loss of life. That’s almost a five-fold increase from 2001.

“There’s a huge gap between what we’ve been able to repair and what we need to repair,” said Brad Larossi, a dam safety manager who helped author the engineer society’s report. “And the number has been growing dramatically.”

Read more from CNN Money by clicking here.

April 9, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Bay Area sewer, water projects to get federal stimulus funding

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 20, 2009 at 6:13 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Cities with badly outdated sewer and water infrastructure saw a ray of hope in February when it became clear that federal stimulus funding for “shovel-ready” projects would include the sort of crucial water-based repairs that the public rarely thinks about and is reluctant to pay for.

Cities, wastewater agencies and special districts around the Bay Area rushed to pre-apply for federal grant funds that may become available to expand wastewater plants, implement water recycling programs, and replace old and leaky water mains, according to Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, which will distribute some of the federal money.

Much of that hope may be in vain as his staff wades through more funding requests than it can ever possibly meet.

The department has already received 2,274 project proposals with a total value of $6.8 billion, but California can only expect to receive $168 million from the federal stimulus signed this month by President Barack Obama.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

March 20, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Infrastructure: Water in the west

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2009 at 8:11 am

From Reuters News, this video:

Pat Fitzgibbons hosts a discussion of the drought in the Western U.S. with Reuters Los Angeles Bureau Chief Mary Milliken and Jonas Minton, Water Policy advisor of the Planning and Conservation League in Sacramento.

Enjoy!

March 19, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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In hard times, money for water: Funding is tougher, trickier, and leaner, but ultimately available

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 18, 2009 at 11:05 pm

From the Water Efficiency Journal:

Just when water agencies were getting used to rainfall droughts, comes a financial one. In the wake of the housing market collapse, towns and cities have seen revenues plummet for over a year. A recent survey by the National League of Cities found that falling property and other tax revenues were impacting nearly 80% of the communities polled, and shortfalls were anticipated to continue at least two more years. Many state governments are now also running in the red or facing deficits. Departments and agencies must wrangle over what dwindling income remains. The federal deficit continues to explode beyond control.

Water agencies—which in sunnier times have enjoyed relatively easy access to funding—also are finding that times have changed. As a fact sheet from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) put it to its state water agencies in mid-2008: “The days of 100% construction grants are long gone, and the reality is that all communities will have to borrow money for water and wastewater infrastructure at some point.”

Borrowing for water projects has long been routine in most places, of course, but here too, the late-2008 capital crisis applied unprecedented pressure on bond markets, adversely impacting interest rates and affordability.

Taking stock of this drastically altered funding landscape, the same MoDNR fact sheet noted that water agencies (even during a relatively easier bond market) have sometimes unwisely balked at drawing upon subsidized state-revolving funds to pay for projects, protesting the many attached strings (e.g., meeting state wage rates). Impatient with such requirements, agencies are thus tempted to explore independent financing and, in an almost eerie parallel to bad subprime mortgage deals, have sometimes been lured into debt financing, such as lease-purchase arrangements or issuing their own bonds. As the fact sheet cautioned, these have sometimes resulted in doubling, and even tripling, a project’s total cost.

Read more from the Water Efficiency Journal by clicking here.

March 18, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Another tool in the water main repair tool box

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 18, 2009 at 11:03 pm

From the Water Efficiency Journal:

When it comes to repairing aging water mains, municipalities are always on the lookout for cost-effective and less-intrusive technologies. Every repair made means more of the community’s water is making its way from the plant to the user. But every repair has a price tag.

The EPA estimates that in the last 20 years, communities across the US spent over $1 trillion to repair drinking water treatment and distribution structures and wastewater treatment and disposal systems. But with a growing population, continually aging water and wastewater infrastructure, and increasingly limited funds, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be shortfall in funding that could reach $500 billion.

With EPA’s data supporting it, and communities relying on their own experience, new technologies for improving water delivery are growing in number. But each technology must be evaluated for its effectiveness and applicability, and just how it will work in the water main repair toolbox. One Denver, CO, suburb tested a new solution and was pleased with the outcome.

Read more from the Water Efficiency Journal by clicking here.

March 18, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Numbers: Dams, from Hoover to Three Gorges to the crumbling ones

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 9, 2009 at 6:06 am

From Discover Magazine:

845,000 Number of dams in the world. The United States has 80,000, with a total storage capacity of 48 trillion cubic feet of water. Hoover Dam, straddling the Nevada-Arizona border at Lake Mead, is the country’s largest, storing 1.2 billion cubic feet.

49 Number of dam failures in the United States between 2000 and 2007. Overtopping due to poor design accounts for 34 percent of all failures. Some 85 percent of all large dams will have passed their projected life spans by 2020. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that it would cost $10.1 billion to repair the dams most in need of rehabilitation.

Click here to read the rest of this article from Discover Magazine by clicking here.

February 9, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Plumbing the planet: The 5 biggest projects taking on the world’s water supply

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 5, 2009 at 8:02 am

From Popular Mechanics:

The dire statistics are well-known, but deserve repeating: One in six people in the world live without regular access to clean water, according to the United Nations, and one in three lacks access to decent sanitation. Even countries with good water supplies—like the U.S.—will experience trouble sustaining them in the near future, as panelists discussed at the water roundtable PM hosted last fall.

The United States has its share of ambitious water infrastructure—that’s how cities such as Los Angeles exploded from the desert—but it doesn’t solve the problem of vanishing supplies. The snowpack in the California mountains is down to 61 percent of a normal year, authorities there say. U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently expressed his concerns for the long-term consequences. “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” Chu told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going,” either.

At the same time, urban areas like New York and Tokyo are grappling with the problem of too much water all at once. A projected consequence of global warming, besides drought, is the accelerated cycle of what used to be 100-year storms. Around the world, countries are trying to combat these problems with ever-more-clever engineering: bigger and badder treatment plants, pipelines, tunnels and reservoirs. Here are five projects hoping to be big and bad enough.

Click here to read the rest of this article from Popular Mechanics, which profiles the Ashkelon desalination plant in Israel, the North-South Transfer project in China, the G-Cans Tunnel System in Japan, the Marina Reservoir project in Singapore, and Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment System.

February 5, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure, International Water Issues

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PPIC’s new report, “Paying for infrastructure: California’s choices”, notes California needs new fiscal tools to rebuild aging infrastructure

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 22, 2009 at 8:18 am

From the Public Policy Institute of California:

California’s system for financing its transportation, water, education, and other critical infrastructure needs is seriously flawed—a problem compounded by the state budget crisis and the larger economic downturn—a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California concludes.

California has increasingly used borrowing through state general obligation bonds to finance infrastructure projects. But the need for infrastructure investment—an estimated $500 billion over the next 20 years—far exceeds the capacity of these bonds, according to the report, Paying for Infrastructure: California’s Choices. Years of declining investment have left the state with crumbling classrooms, congested roads, and an aging levee network that puts many homes and businesses in harm’s way. Problems in the government bond market are making it more difficult to sell the bonds already authorized, and in the long term, large projected budget shortfalls will limit the state’s ability to rely on these bonds to meet California’s future needs.

“The Obama administration may include funding for state infrastructure projects in an economic stimulus package,” says Ellen Hanak, PPIC research director and author of the report. “But California needs a long–term solution. There’s an opportunity here for the state to rise to the challenge and improve the way we finance the investments in our future.”

January 22, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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House plan for infrastructure disappoints advocates for major projects

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 20, 2009 at 6:29 am

Looks like the dreams of big bucks for infrastructure from an Obama stimulus package are fading away… From the New York Times:

When President-elect Barack Obama announced last month that he would revive the economy with the largest public works program since the dawn of the Interstate System of highways, advocates for the nation’s long-neglected infrastructure were euphoric.

Some hoped that the time had finally come to bring high-speed rail to the United States, or to wean the nation from its dependence on foreign oil with new or transformed public transit systems, or to take bold action to solve the problems of rising populations and falling reservoir levels across the Southwest.

But those hopes are fading. As the details of the plan come into focus, big transformative building projects seem unlikely. And the plan does not begin to provide the kind of money that civil engineers believe is needed to bring the nation’s aging bridges and water systems and roads and transit systems to a state of good repair.

Less than one-third of the $825 billion plan that was introduced Thursday in the House would go to infrastructure, and much of that would go to high-tech projects, rather than traditional concrete-and-steel building and repair work. The rest would go to tax cuts and aid to help states pay for health care and education. At a time when the American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that $1.6 trillion is needed to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, the proposal calls for spending $30 billion on roads and, to the consternation of transit advocates, only $10 billion on transit and rail.

(The House bill, though, was only the opening salvo in the push to pass a bill quickly, and some senators are already talking about adding money for more transit programs.)

The requirement that the money be spent quickly, in order to get it coursing through the parched economy, means that many ambitious projects that require more planning will have to give way to smaller ones considered “shovel ready.”

The plan also calls for using existing federal formulas to send transportation money quickly to the states, giving policy makers in Washington little say as to where or how the money should be spent.

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

January 20, 2009 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Hetch Hetchy upgrade project ready for public hearings; $4.4B of work includes upgrades, a new pipeline and ‘crossover’ stations

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 11, 2009 at 6:43 am

From the Modesto Bee:

San Francisco and other Bay Area residents sip Tuolumne River water through a long straw that runs from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park to the San Francisco Peninsula.

That straw is actually three pipelines running through the Modesto area, and they need upgrades. As part of a $4.4 billion project to improve the safety and reliability of San Francisco’s water supply, a draft environmental impact report has been prepared for the Stanislaus County portion of the project. There will be three hearings on the report. The first is Tuesday in Modesto.

The Stanislaus work includes construction of 11 miles of new pipeline from western Stanislaus County to a point west of Interstate 580 in San Joaquin County, construction of two “crossover” facilities in eastern and western Stanislaus County to allow water to flow from one pipeline to another, and repair or replacement of 6.5 miles of pipeline running from western Tuolumne County to Emery Road east of Oakdale.

The new fourth pipeline from just west of the San Joaquin River to just west of I-580 would increase reliability of the system, according to Jim Marks, community outreach coordinator for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The new pipeline would be 92 inches in diameter, or almost 8 feet tall. “It’s 11 miles of very large pipe,” Marks said.

Read more from the Modesto Bee by clicking here.

January 11, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area, Infrastructure, San Joaquin Valley

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Push for public-works projects expected: Construction jobs could aid economy

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 17, 2008 at 6:36 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

Now that taxpayers have received rebates, banks have gotten bailouts and the auto industry is lobbying for help, unemployed construction workers are hoping Uncle Sam dusts off an old standby to boost jobs and the economy – public works.

When the new Congress convenes next year, Democrats are expected to push for an economic stimulus package that would create high-paying jobs, in contrast to the immediate but temporary boost provided by last spring’s tax rebates. The amounts for the package being considered range from $61 billion to $500 billion, with $300 billion most often mentioned.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said funding infrastructure is “the quickest way to create jobs in America.” “We have two major problems – jobs and people forced out of their homes,” Filner said. “You have to have two different kinds of programs aimed at each and hopefully supplement each other.”

Because public-works construction often takes so long to get started that its impact isn’t felt until the economy has begun to recover, cities and states with infrastructure projects in the pipeline are likely to get first priority. To be ready for handouts, San Diego’s 18 cities and county government are sending wish lists to the San Diego Association of Governments, whose board is scheduled to discuss priorities Thursday.

Local officials hope they will receive 1 percent of whatever infrastructure funds end up being adopted; that figure is roughly the county’s share of the nation’s population.

Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

November 17, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Why big banks may end up buying your city’s public water system

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 8, 2008 at 6:18 am

From AlterNet:

Water is the new oil for global financial powerhouses and water is being commoditized and traded in global stock exchanges.

Today in addition to being able to buy water rights and purchase lakes on private land, an individual or a corporation can invest in water-targeted hedge funds, index funds and exchange-traded funds (EFTs), water certificates, shares of water engineering and technology companies, shares of multinational private water utilities, shares of multinational banks and investment banks that own water companies, and a host of other newfangled water investments in this U.S.$425 billion industry which is expected to become a U.S.$1 trillion industry within five years. And if one happens to be a tycoon, one can also create his or her own private water districts and water utilities.

The recent media coverage on water has centered on individual corporations and super-investors seeking to control water by buying up water rights and water utilities. But paradoxically the hidden story is a far more complicated one. The real story of the global water sector is a convoluted one involving “interlocking globalized capital”: Wall Street and global investment firms, banks, and other elite private-equity firms — often transcending national boundaries to partner with each other, with banks and hedge funds, with technology corporations and insurance giants, with regional public-sector pension funds, and with sovereign wealth funds — are moving rapidly into the water sector to buy up not only water rights and water-treatment technologies, but also to privatize public water utilities and infrastructure.

Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.

November 8, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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The new corporate threat to our water supplies: Neglect of public infrastructure has private companies swooping in to buy public systems, like water, with grave consequences

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2008 at 6:12 am

From AlterNet:

In the last few years, the world’s largest financial institutions and pension funds, from Goldman Sachs to Australia’s Macquarie Bank, have figured out that old, trustworthy utilities and infrastructure could become reliable cash cows — supporting the financial system’s speculative junk derivatives with the real concrete of highways, water utilities, airports, harbors, and transit systems.

The spiraling collapse of the financial system may only intensify the quest for private investments in what is now the public sector. This flipping of public assets could be the next big phase of privatization, and it could happen even under an Obama administration, as local and state governments, starved during Bush’s two terms in office, look to bail out on public assets, employees, and responsibilities. The Republican record of neglect of basic infrastructure reads like a police blotter: levees in New Orleans, a major bridge in Minneapolis, a collapsing power grid, bursting water mains, and outdated sewage treatment plants.

Billions in private assets are now parked in “infrastructure funds” waiting for the crisis to mature and the right public assets to buy on the cheap. The first harbingers of a potential fire sale are already on the horizon. The City of Chicago has leased its major highway and Indiana its toll road. Private companies are managing major ports and bidding for control of local water systems across the country. Government jobs are also up for sale. For the first time in American history, the federal government employs more contract workers than regular employees.

This radical shift to the private sector could become one of history’s largest transfers of ownership, control, and wealth from the public trust to the private till. But more is at stake. The concept of democracy itself is being challenged by multinational corporations that see Americans not as citizens, but as customers, and government not as something of, by, and for the people, but as a market to be entered for profit.

Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.

October 6, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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New documentary highlights nation’s water infrastructure: Urge your local PBS station to put “Liquid Assets” on the air in your area

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:30 am

From the ACWA:

A new documentary hitting PBS stations in October educates viewers about the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity. A friendly reminder to your local PBS affiliate can help ensure the program airs in your area.

Liquid Assets, a 90-minute documentary produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, tells the story of essential infrastructure systems: water, wastewater and stormwater. These systems — some in the ground for more than 100 years — provide a critical public health function and are essential for economic development and growth. However, largely out of sight and out of mind, these aging systems have not been maintained, and some estimates suggest this is the single largest public works endeavor in our nation’s history.

The documentary explores the history, engineering challenges, and political and economic realities in urban and rural locations, and provides an understanding of the hidden assets that support our way of life. It tracks how cities and regions are confronting infrastructure rehabilitation, both economically and politically.

Visit http://liquidassets.psu.edu/ for more information and to view the trailer.

Liquid Assets will be released for broadcast on Oct. 1. To request that your PBS station air Liquid Assets, send a letter to your local station. A sample letter and PBS station contact information can be found at http://www.acwa.com/issues/liquid_assets.asp. A community toolkit is available in conjunction with the documentary to facilitate local involvement.

September 30, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Huge increase in spending on water urged to avert global catastrophe; Infrastructure investment must double, say experts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 13, 2008 at 6:31 am

From the Guardian U.K.:

Countries across the world will have to dramatically increase investment in dams, pipes and other water infrastructure to avoid widespread flooding, drought and disease even before climate change accelerates these problems, experts have warned. Investment needs to be at least doubled from the current level of $80bn (£45.5bn) a year, an international congress was told this week, and one leading authority said spending needed to rise to 1.5% of gross domestic product just “to be able to cope with the current climate” - one thousand times the current level.

The warnings follow a summer of dramatic events, from hurricane flooding in the Caribbean and the east coast of America to desperate measures in drought-stricken Mediterranean countries, including importing water by ship.

Rich nations suffer huge under-investment, but the threat of poor infrastructure to populations in developing countries is even greater, said Dr Olcay Unver, director of the United Nations’ Global Water Assessment Unit. So serious is the problem that next year the UN’s World Water Assessment Report will make one of its main messages the need for investment to “accelerate substantially”, said Unver.

“You can’t justify the deaths of so many children because of lack of infrastructure or lost productive time of people [who are] intellectually or physically incapacitated because of simple lack of access to safe water or sanitation,” he added.

Read more from the Guardian U.K. by clicking here.

September 13, 2008 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply, Infrastructure

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Neglect threatens infrastructure says U.S. security chief

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 10, 2008 at 6:02 am

From Reuters News:

The United States has increased security to protect its levees, dams and power grids from terrorists, but neglect of ordinary upkeep exposes such critical infrastructure to dangerous decay, the U.S. homeland security chief said on Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff accused political leaders of playing a game of “musical chairs” by ignoring maintenance and needed upgrades and hoping facilities can avoid disaster until after they leave office.

“It’s kind of like playing Russian roulette with our citizens’ safety,” Chertoff said in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank. Private companies have shown a similar short-term attitude over infrastructure maintenance, he said. “We’ve made a lot of progress in terms of these common goods, publicly owned and privately owned, when it comes to protecting them against terrorist attacks,” Chertoff said. “When it comes to making long-term investments simply to maintain things we rely upon … we have failed time and again,” he said.

A 2005 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated it would cost $1.6 trillion over five years to bring U.S. physical infrastructure to acceptable levels. Other studies have also recommended spending more on maintenance.

Read more from Reuters News by clicking here.

September 10, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Water’s three Rs: retrofit, reuse, recycle: $4.4B Hetch Hetchy project and conservation efforts help protect supply

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 15, 2008 at 7:35 am

From the San Francisco Business Times:

June’s declaration by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California’s first drought in 16 years is turning up the pressure on Bay Area governments, developers and business owners to safeguard supplies — and efficiently wring every precious drop out of existing water.

That involves upgrading existing sources like San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy water system. It will involve new projects that promote technologies like desalination, and that encourage water conservation or reuse. And it’s going to involve new, stricter municipal requirements on major water users like developers and businesses.

Such a three-pronged approach — maintaining water infrastructure, promoting water-saving systems and developing new water technology — can keep the water service flowing to Bay Area residents despite the distant and often-precarious sources on which they depend.

“People aren’t used to turning the tap and not getting water,” said Julie Labonte, director of the water system improvement program at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “They’re used to the electricity going out, but not water. People have no idea how destructive that would be.”

Read more from the San Francisco Business Times by clicking here.

August 15, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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EBMUD leaking millions of gallons of water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2008 at 9:57 am

From KTVU News, a story about how the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s water system is leaking millions of gallons of water - enough in a year to supply U.C. Berkeley with 133 years of water. Just how are these leaks occurring?

Among the principal findings, internal EBMUD engineering reports show:

* Longtime reservoir leaks are common in the system that serves 1.3 million people in much of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the most populous region of the Bay Area. Pardee Reservoir, for example, in the Sierra foothills, leaks an average of 70,000 gallons daily. In the East Bay, Central Reservoir in Oakland leaks 36,000 gallons each day, and North Reservoir in Richmond leaks an average of 11,000 gallons each day.

* Pipeline leaks are also longstanding, according to EBMUD internal documents. Pardee Tunnel, for example, leaks an average of 18,000 gallons daily and has for at least half a century.

* Lafayette Aqueduct No. 1, which carries water for more than half of EBMUD customers, has been leaking more than a quarter of million gallons daily until very recently. Although water agency documents show the leaks have been a problem for more than 80 years, EBMUD management ordered repairs just in the last weeks, almost immediately after the disclosure of the situation to KTVU.

A spokesperson said that fixing the leaks at this time would not be a prudent use of ratepayer funds. As you might imagine, this does not sit well with residents, whom EBMUD has called upon to cut back their water usage as much as one-fifth.

Read more and view a video from KTVU by clicking here.

August 5, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation, Infrastructure

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Senate Dems urge Interior to address aging infrastructure issues

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 6:11 am

From First Source:

Senate Democrats yesterday renewed their push to require the Interior Department to conduct annual inspections of the nation’s aging water infrastructure.

“Our forefathers did a good job developing infrastructure — things like irrigation projects and water for towns, and dams for flood safety,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at a Water and Power Subcommittee hearing yesterday. “But now it’s long past time in my opinion that we take a real proactive stand on infrastructure, particularly water infrastructure in this country, and make an investment that I think is in dire need.”

Tester is a cosponsor of S. 2842, which would require the Interior Department to carry out annual inspections of canals, levees, tunnels, dikes, pumping plants, dams and reservoirs under its care. The bill, introduced by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), would also require the agency to publish a national list of those projects most urgently in need of repair.

But Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson said the legislation was too far-reaching.

Given the huge number of dams, levees, and other water facilities overseen by the agency, “we think it would be probably impossible to meet the time frames that are included in here,” Johnson said. With more than 8,000 miles of canals under Reclamation’s inventory, Johnson said it was not realistic or cost-effective to provide the degree of information about each facility that the bill would require.

Read the rest of this story from Reed’s First Source by clicking here.

July 10, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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Infrastructure: the cracks are showing

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 7, 2008 at 7:09 am

From the Economist:

THE Mississippi River pushed relentlessly past dozens of levees this month. Towns were submerged, their buildings tiny islands in murky water. Ducks paddled on ponds that had once been farmland. Some flooding was inevitable, given the force of the swollen Mississippi. But a poorly managed flood-defence system did not help.

For the past few years it has been hard to ignore America’s crumbling infrastructure, from the devastating breach of New Orleans’s levees after Hurricane Katrina to the collapse of a big bridge in Minneapolis last summer. In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that $1.6 trillion was needed over five years to bring just the existing infrastructure into good repair. This does not account for future needs. By 2020 freight volumes are projected to be 70% greater than in 1998. By 2050 America’s population is expected to reach 420m, 50% more than in 2000. Much of this growth will take place in metropolitan areas, where the infrastructure is already run down.

If America does not act, says Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a body that plans for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, it will have the infrastructure of a third-world country within a few decades. Economic growth will be constricted, and the quality of life will be diminished.

Water is not excluded from this:

America’s ageing water infrastructure is sorely underfunded: the Environmental Protection Agency forecasts an $11 billion annual gap in meeting costs over the next 20 years. One heavy storm can cause ageing urban sewerage systems to overflow. Last summer an 83-year-old pipe in Manhattan burst, sending a geyser of steam and debris into the air. Competition for water itself has become vicious. Georgia and Tennessee are in an all-out brawl over it.

Read the full text of this story from the Economist by clicking here.

“America 2050″ is an effort to address America’s aging water, energy, and transportation infrastructures. Michael Campana of Water Wired has a post about America 2050, with links to the prospectus and panel discussions. He will himself be sitting on a panelist discussion today regarding infrastructure issues. Check it all out from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.

July 7, 2008 · Filed Under Infrastructure

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