{"id":1651,"date":"2016-03-28T10:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T14:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2016-03-28T10:21:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T14:21:50","slug":"the-nations-growing-drinking-water-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-nations-growing-drinking-water-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"THE NATION’S GROWING DRINKING WATER CRISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent events in Flint, Michigan and here in New York, the troubles in Hoosick Falls, Binghamton, Syracuse, Western New York, and Long Island, have focused public attention on the problems of keeping drinking water clean.<\/p>\n

But those problems are not isolated incidents: drinking water problems exist across the nation.\u00a0 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects it will cost $384 billion over 20 years just to maintain<\/em> the nation’s existing drinking water infrastructure. Replacing pipes, treatment plants and other infrastructure, as well as expanding drinking water systems to handle population growth, could cost as much as $1 trillion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Water infrastructure problems are not the only problem.\u00a0 As the planet heats up, water shortages will also strain the nation.\u00a0 According to the\u00a0U.S. Government Accountability Office<\/a>, 40 out of 50 states expect some level of water shortage in the coming decade.\u00a0 Droughts, floods, emerging climate change, water quality degradation, and aging infrastructure pose serious challenges to America\u2019s water and wastewater systems.<\/p>\n

It was against that backdrop that last week the White House marked \u201cWorld Water Day\u201d to \u201craise awareness of water issues\u201d in the United States, and to help \u201cbuild a sustainable water future through innovative science and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States will need innovative new technologies and management strategies to solve its growing water challenges, including continued population growth, climate change, and aging infrastructure, in the decades ahead.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0New York<\/a>, many regions are not only contending with aging, overburdened water facilities\u2014including areas with lead pipes similar to Flint<\/a>\u2014but are also confronting an\u00a0enormous backlog of costs<\/a>,\u00a0severe financial constraints<\/a>, and difficulty in coordinating action across\u00a0thousands of individual community water systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the near term, the biggest issue may simply be identifying\u00a0where the problems exist<\/a>. Often, water piping systems are more than a century old.\u00a0 As a result the most important maintenance needs can be difficult to identify, as the risk for widespread leaks and other public health concerns mount over time.<\/p>\n

With some of the oldest infrastructure in the nation, the pipes under New York’s cities and towns are failing at an alarming rate: New York City saw 513 water main breaks last year; estimates are that as much as 20 percent of the treated water that enters the New York City\u2019s pipes leak out before it even makes it to the faucet. \u00a0In western New York, there were 1,453 water main breaks last year.\u00a0 The revelations of dangerous lead levels in the drinking water of Flint and in Binghamton underscore the dangers caused by apparent lax oversight and crumbling, century-old infrastructures.\u00a0 \u00a0The toxic chemicals found in Hoosick Falls and on Long Island underscore the hazards resulting from weaknesses in health regulation.<\/p>\n

The problems will only get worse and the cost of fixing them is already huge. Estimates for fixing New York State\u2019s water system range from $22 billion to $39 billion in costs over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n

In response, the state has offered zero- and low-interest loans and grants. The state’s Environmental Facilities Corp. has approved more than $400 million for drinking water projects in the past year. \u00a0Lawmakers approved $200 million in additional water funding earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But the money is merely a down payment on the billions needed to address the problem.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the plans to offer support fall far short of the need and the situation at the local government level is murky at best.\u00a0 The state needs to step up with a plan that includes aggressive monitoring coupled with big bucks.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers are advancing legislation to require regular, public reporting of water tests.\u00a0 For example, Senator O\u2019Mara and Assemblywoman Lupardo are advancing legislation to require testing for lead in the drinking water supplies of schools.\u00a0 Both have had schools in their districts report high lead levels.<\/p>\n

While laudable, such reporting is only the first step in a long journey.\u00a0 The state will need aggressive, public reporting programs and will have to put together a significant financial package \u2013 one that may entail a \u201cdrinking water bond act.\u201d\u00a0 A bond act allows the state to borrow money if it is approved by voters.<\/p>\n

But the state\u2019s leaders simply cannot ignore this festering problem.\u00a0 It is time to act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent events in Flint, Michigan and here in New York, the troubles in Hoosick Falls, Binghamton, Syracuse, Western New York, and Long Island, have focused public attention on the problems of keeping drinking water clean. But those problems are not isolated incidents: drinking water problems exist across the nation.\u00a0 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1653,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}