Kramer's disaster was just one of an average 700 water main breaks nationwide that experts say occur each day. They warn that this is the latest sign of an aging water delivery infrastructure that results in property loss, inconvenience, and threats to public health.That's 14 breaks per state on the average. Does that sound right? They must be including little ones.
How much would it cost to fix? Every year, according to the EPA, the estimated price tag for repairing the nation's water infrastructure rises. The best guess at a total cost over the next 20 years has skyrocketed from about $198 billion in 1999 to the latest estimate -- $335 billion.
No problem! We can take a teeny fraction of the savings we will surely realize by implementing Obamacare and buy a whole new system!
To keep prices down, O'Toole suggested privatizing community water utilities. "In the 19th century, almost every major American city had private water companies," said O'Toole. "And then we had this wave of socialization where the government took everything over and mismanaged it so the quality of tap water is lower and costs are higher."
They trust us to build it, but somehow we can't maintain it.
Here's a picture of what the inside of a corroded water main looks like.
