As I’ve lamented before, blogging doesn’t pay the
bills. My work as an engineer and
environmental consultant does. I’m not
strictly a disinterested party when it comes to encouraging investment in drinking
water and wastewater
infrastructure.
I think we can look at the response to the Recovery Act (ARRA) to see
how ready we are to make this kind of investment. The Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving
Funds received additional appropriations as part of ARRA. They were tasked to commit the money in very
short order and they did. There aren’t a
ton of “shovel ready” water projects because of the way they are planned and
funded, but there is a great backlog of need.
In addition, interest rates for federal borrowing are very low. I’m not a fan of huge government debt, when
their borrowing to make ends meet. It’s
not something I recommend on an individual level, either. However, when borrowing is done for the
purpose of long-term investment an expected return of value, it makes
sense. Investing in water infrastructure
will pay back in jobs, health, reliability, and in the simple loan repayments
as local governments, and possibly even private utilities, pay back into the
programs that provided the financing.
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We agree Keenan! Thank you for this post. Our most vulnerable infrastructure asset (contrary to the soundbite of roads and bridges) is underground -out of sight, and so out of mind! Hence, we need to raise attention to counteract this neglect, especially by engaging the everyday users to pinpoint localized issues. Talking in the general of aggregate dollars needed will not motivate leaders until they know of items in their own backyards: main line breaks, sewer backups, water pipe leaks...
ReplyDeleteThanks to those who commented on this post. It is important to fund infrastructure that can keep up with our needs. Infrastructure Watch will continue to cover this issue.
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