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 amFrom 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blotter: levees in New Orleans, a major bridge in Minneapolis, a collapsing power grid, bursting water mains, and outdated sewage treatment plants.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.
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 amFrom 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.
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 amFrom 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.
Neglect threatens infrastructure says U.S. security chief
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 10, 2008 at 6:02 amFrom 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.
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 amFrom 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.
EBMUD leaking millions of gallons of water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2008 at 9:57 amFrom 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.
Senate Dems urge Interior to address aging infrastructure issues
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom 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.
Infrastructure: the cracks are showing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 7, 2008 at 7:09 amFrom 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.