Last month businesses in Carterville, IL suffered extensive fire
damage when a water
hydrant failed in the midst of firefighting efforts. City water managers
explained that the system was old and no longer functioning well. Aging
infrastructure is a problem we think about a lot here at IWRC, partly because
our news feeds have been filled with stories of water main failures in Illinois, like here,
here,
and here,
to name only a few.
It turns out that everyone else is thinking about crumbling
infrastructure, too. Not only did members of the water industry testify
before Congress, just last week, but their
suggestions on how to address urgent water structure needs were also recently
echoed by a new Government Accountability
Office report.
To top things off, the American Society of Civil Engineers
issued their 2013 Infrastructure report card yesterday, assigning
a D+ as the overall grade for American structures. This is a marginal improvement from
the last reports, issued in 2009,
when the overall score was a D-. 2013 grades for water-related infrastructure
were all low, with Dams receiving a D, a grade shared by Drinking Water and
Wastewater. Levees received a D-, as did Inland Waterways. Bridges were a
brighter spot on the card, earning a C+.
In Illinois
specifically, infrastructure received a grade of D+, while necessary upgrades
to drinking water over the next twenty years were estimated to require $15
billon. Wastewater needs were estimated at $17.5 billion. This is an increase
from the 2009 report, where these numbers were estimated at $13.5 billion and $13.41 billion, respectively.
Likewise, high hazard dams in the state (those which could potentially cause
human harm and property loss if they failed) rose from 187 to 201.
In the midst of this doom and gloom, however, Illinois is making
some progress. This past fall Gov. Quinn established the Clean
Water Initiative, which makes $1 billion in water project funding available
to Illinois communities through low interest loans. It is funded
through the equity of existing State Revolving Fund loans, Federal grants, and
Federal stimulus funds. Thus far, projects in Perkin,
IL and Chicago
have received loans to address both drinking water and wastewater. Villages
like Kenilworth,
however, are pursuing another avenue of funding and have asked residents to
vote on a referendum that would raise property taxes to address aging infrastructure
causing flooding basements and insufficient water flow at fire hydrants.
