Isn't ongoing replacement of worn out pipes considered basic maintenance? Shouldn't they be including the cost of basic maintenance in our existing water bills? Or does all the money go to maintaining their $50 million Oracle licenses and improving their Solitaire skills.

Many consumers could see their water bills double or even triple, as the country attempts to overhaul its aging water system over the next 25 years.

2011 (Some Guy) Who should pay for the aging water infrastructure? Baby boomers whistle and point out that they got theirs, so f*ck you (199)

2008 (usatoday.com) So you've managed to escape the collapsing bridges and crumbling roads that define American infrastructure, right? Well, good luck with the sewers (123)

2008 (MSNBC) FEMA: Levees likely to be overtopped. Rest of the nation: Uh, can we get a refund or something? (313)

2008-09-01 10:32:38 AM
Crumbling nation? U.S. infrastructure gets a 'D'

Mayors ask Congress to help fix U.S. infrastructure



Crumbling U.S. Sewage System Undermines Public Health


Compare with the financial toll of the Iraq war

/we need to take care of some crap here, at the moment.

Where's Wally Hickel when we need him most.

This is such a non-issue, its not even funny. Running out of water? The most abundant resource on the planet? Right.

The fact is, humans are horribly inefficient with their use of resources.. energy, water, food, everything. The scarcer the resources become, we'll simply start being forced to be smarter about our usage and collection/storage methods. Hell, just catching rain water off your gutters would be enough drinking water to sustain your home.

I guess replacing pipes can be expensive, but I've got well water, and active fast flowing fresh water throughout my property. Sucks to be you.

If only there was this major shortage of jobs due to something like a depression and the need to upgrade infrastructure then we could put together some organization funded by the government to bailout the unemployed and renew our infrastructure. We could call it --- Bank Bailouts!

Pincy: So you have to replace aging infrastructure every once in a while? Color me shocked!

Not when there's pointless wars to piss away trillions on.

generallyso: What's going to happen when people truly run out of money because wages still aren't farking rising to keep pace with rising expenses?

They'll have to use the same iPhone for several years...

What's going to happen when people truly run out of money because wages still aren't farking rising to keep pace with rising expenses?

meat0918: I looked at that, not enough space to do it properly for myself and my family. It'd be interesting if they actually start municipal gray water reclamation (i.e. a gray water pipe as well as the black water/sewer pipe.)

Rain barrels for garden irrigation are available at just about any nursery nowadays. Whether or not they are terribly effective depends a lot on your local climate (For example, in Seattle, the need for irrigation is in the summer when we don't have any rain, sometimes for months. Don't tell tourists, but Seattle is one of the nicest places to be in the lower 48 in the summer).

Usually, however, gray water systems today are buliding or campus wide systems. I don't know of any utility-wide graywater systems that are beyond the brainstorming stage.

IrateShadow: You guys are nuts to worry about what's going to happen over the next few decades. Jesus is gonna be back any day now.


Jesus was back a couple of weeks ago. He took a look around, said "fark this - ya'll are on your own", and split.

Is this the thread where well owners come to be smug?


/well owner
//smug

Just switch to

Oh... and another reason I live on a well!. I can power my pump by gas, electricity and good'ol human power(tm).

Water is free as in beer :-)

Lando Lincoln: You realize that LA is right next to an ocean, right?

Desalinization is really expensive and impractical for large scale industrial and agriculture use.