No less than $540 billion is the estimated shortfall between the sum of money communities need to keep up their drinking-water, storm-water and sewage systems and the funds they expect to have for the job.
Operating, maintaining and updating the nation's water systems is the subject of a new documentary, "Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure." KUED-Channel 7 plans to air it Wednesday at 9 p.m. and Oct. 21 at 11 p.m.
And, for many Utah communities, the subject is timely as they try to make do with systems that have outlasted their expected lifetimes even as they need to grow to handle more people.
Ogden, for instance, has raised its water and sewer rates to update its old, leaky system, which the documentary refers to as "the fundamental public health system we all take for granted." Southwestern Utah communities plan to spend more than $1 billion tapping into Lake Powell to keep up with demand.
And, in West Bountiful, leaders spent part of their last City Council meeting looking at fractured, split and blown-out pipe from their 50- to 60-year-old water system. They looked at photos of the 60-foot geysers that have shot up through city streets. They also have talked about the mix of fees and borrowing needed to undertake more than $25 million in updates the next two decades.
"Hopefully that will get us there," said Craig Howe, deputy city administrator and finance director for the Davis County community.
Nationally, about 2 million miles of pipe form an invisible circulatory system that is vital to our health, safety and economy, says Steve Allbee, an expert on the cash flow of American water-management systems. And they will require an investment of about $540 billion over the next 20 years if we hope to maintain our standard of living.
"The general direction of the country is that more and more of the cost of these services are going to be borne by the ratepayers and the taxpayers," he said.
Currently, a gallon of clean water costs about a third of a penny, he added. A key to controlling costs will be conservation and smart management of existing resources.
In the West, with its influx of people and limits on new water supplies, the problem can potentially have a dramatic impact on quality of life, he said.
Penn State University's Elaine Brzycki, who worked on the public outreach program for "Liquid Assets," called it "a national problem requiring local discussion."
She helped create educational materials that can be found at: liquidassets.psu.edu.
"The goal," she said, "is to raise public awareness, plain and simple."
