Failing/non-existant Water Infrastructure in the US

[Yuwipi Woman]

Woke up this morning to news that the capital city of Mississippi shut down their water system. They're had infrastructure problems for years without the money to repair it. A couple of years ago, their water system was shut down for quite some time. Their mayor said they need up to $200 million dollars to fix it.

The city of Jackson, Miss., which has struggled with a crumbling water infrastructure for years, has no reliable running water, authorities said.

Pumps at the city’s main water-treatment plant failed Monday, Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference, leaving the state capital with little to no water—and sometimes raw reservoir water—flowing through the pipes.

Jackson, Miss., Is Out of Running Water After Treatment Plant Pumps Fail

State authorities said that, because of the poor-quality water and the low water pressure, it wasn’t safe for people to drink or use. Instead, officials are distributing cases of water to the capital city’s roughly 150,000 residents.

www.wsj.com

This isn't the only place where water infrastructure improvement is desperately needed. There's the ongoing problem in Flint, MI. There's also places that have never had access to running water, such as parts of the Navajo Nation. Again, climate change is going to make this problem worse. You also can't separate infrastructure from racial issues and environmental racism.

 

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Join the club - it seems we're surrounded by shit these days courtesy of the government not giving a toss about regulating the water companies.

How is the system run in the US - is it privatised like in the UK?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Join the club - it seems we're surrounded by shit these days courtesy of the government not giving a toss about regulating the water companies.

How is the system run in the US - is it privatised like in the UK?

Depends on the jurisdiction. It can be either one in the US.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Depends on the jurisdiction. It can be either one in the US.

Same here - think it's just in England they're privatised (not sure about Wales). Pretty sure Scotland and NI are publicly owned (as they should be). There's been some failures of supply in smaller areas in recent weeks due to the drought/weather, etc., but I think that's only affected small village type communities - the cities have been fine thankfully. But given the ongoing weather who knows if the towns and cities will be affected in those areas in drought.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Same here - think it's just in England they're privatised (not sure about Wales). Pretty sure Scotland and NI are publicly owned (as they should be). There's been some failures of supply in smaller areas in recent weeks due to the drought/weather, etc., but I think that's only affected small village type communities - the cities have been fine thankfully. But given the ongoing weather who knows if the towns and cities will be affected in those areas in drought.

Thanks for informing me about that. I had no idea.

There's some real problems shaping up in the western US, as the years-long drought continues. Lake Mead looks to be in serious trouble, and 25 million people get their water from there. As usual, it seems like its mainly corporate interests that are laying claim to the water, rather than residential users.

Terrifying Lake Mead photos show how bad the drought has gotten

Dead fish, washed-up boats and dried out lakebeds are all consequences of climate-fuelled drought

news.yahoo.com

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Difficult to tell what the future holds in England - the south and east of the country have always been drier due to the rain shadow effect, and its doubtful whether there is a will to build new reservoirs in the region (mainly due to nimbyism I guess), so it might become a problem further down the line if the climate continues to become drier - unfortunately most of the arable land is in that area because it's flatter. Other parts of the UK are OK at present as they get quite a bit of rain - Wales, Scotland and North West England.

The situation in the US west looks dire - the future doesn't look promising at all.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The situation in the US west looks dire - the future doesn't look promising at all.

The main problem with the western US, is a complete lack of will to do anything other than wring their hands. They aren't even properly rationing water. If you look at their water restrictions, its laughable, and they're still allocating more water than was possible to come up with when the reservoir was full. It's going to get crazy when 25 million people wake up one day and there's no drinking water, let alone water for yards, washing cars, swimming pools, etc.

 

[bcuster]

I'm glad we have a thread for this issue. I'm very concerned...

 

[spring-peeper]

Depends on the jurisdiction. It can be either one in the US.

Do you know if there are federal or state requirements for the quality of the drinking water?

(sorry, just too lazy to google it)

 

[skyscraper101]

The main problem with the western US, is a complete lack of will to do anything other than wring their hands. They aren't even properly rationing water. If you look at their water restrictions, its laughable, and they're still allocating more water than was possible to come up with when the reservoir was full. It's going to get crazy when 25 million people wake up one day and there's no drinking water, let alone water for yards, washing cars, swimming pools, etc.

There was a good article in Time recently saying how Southern California should take a leaf out of Cape Town's book and basically threaten water rationing and having to wait in line at municipal taps if individual households exceeded 13 Gallons of water a day.

Drought-Ridden California Should Learn From Cape Town's Water Crisis

Almost half the global population will experience “severe water stress” by 2030

time.com

Amazingly it worked ^^

It's rather a shame desalination hasn't reached economically viable levels tbh. Especially given places like LA have abundant access to the sea. And there's too much sea. It seems like a problem aching to be solved.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Do you know if there are federal or state requirements for the quality of the drinking water?

(sorry, just too lazy to google it)

Yes, there's all kinds of regulations for water quality. We regularly get a report on what the well testing showed. We get numbers for anything from the concentration of nitrates, atrazine levels, and radioactive particles.

 

[bcuster]

I'll repost this here. I can foresee drought being the final nail of the coffin of the Republic

As Colorado River Dries, the U.S. Teeters on the Brink of Larger Water Crisis

The megadrought gripping the western states is only part of the problem. Alternative sources of water are also imperiled, and the nation’s food along with it.

www.propublica.org

 

[skyscraper101]

Not sure if you can watch this Yuwipi Woman (it's unavailable here in the UK but on Amazon Prime to rent if anyone interested)

Tubi is the largest free movie and TV streaming service in the US. We are not available in Europe due to changes in EU laws.

tubitv.com

I've seen it before and it's quite an insight into the history of water supply in LA, and the politics involved in the siphoning of the Colorado.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Not sure if you can watch this Yuwipi Woman (it's unavailable here in the UK but on Amazon Prime to rent if anyone interested)

Tubi is the largest free movie and TV streaming service in the US. We are not available in Europe due to changes in EU laws.

tubitv.com

I've seen it before and it's quite an insight into the history of water supply in LA, and the politics involved in the siphoning of the Colorado.

Looks like I can. I'll try to watch it later tonight.

 

[High Voltage]

This is worth a watch as well - they were allocating more water than the Colorado river flows and new about it 100 years ago

Then you get to the subject of "Magic Water"

And I don't even know where to start with Gov Spencer Cox (Utah) suggesting that a solution is for all denominations to pray for rain

 

[Pickman's model]

There was a good article in Time recently saying how Southern California should take a leaf out of Cape Town's book and basically threaten water rationing and having to wait in line at municipal taps if individual households exceeded 13 Gallons of water a day.

Drought-Ridden California Should Learn From Cape Town's Water Crisis

Almost half the global population will experience “severe water stress” by 2030

time.com

Amazingly it worked ^^

It's rather a shame desalination hasn't reached economically viable levels tbh. Especially given places like LA have abundant access to the sea. And there's too much sea. It seems like a problem aching to be solved.

They'll have to desalinate at a rate of knots if they want to suck up all the anticipated sea level rise

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

This is worth a watch as well - they were allocating more water than the Colorado river flows and new about it 100 years ago

Then you get to the subject of "Magic Water"

And I don't even know where to start with Gov Spencer Cox (Utah) suggesting that a solution is for all denominations to pray for rain

I saw that a while back. The parrot of doom usually makes some good points.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Depends on the jurisdiction. It can be either one in the US.

It was a public authority that poisoned Flint IIRC.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

It was a public authority that poisoned Flint IIRC.

At the time Flint had been taken over by a law that allowed the governor of the state to take control and assign a manager. It was the imposed management who made the decisions that caused their current problems. The locally elected officials had no say in the matter.

 

[petee]

Depends on the jurisdiction. It can be either one in the US.

where is it privatized?

here in nyc, water quality is monitored and water supply is managed by the city.

Drinking Water - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

reservoir levels are a little blow average

Reservoir Levels - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

tunnel #3 has been in contruction for 52 years

New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

where is it privatized?

here in nyc, water quality is monitored and water supply is managed by the city.

Drinking Water - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

reservoir levels are a little blow average

Reservoir Levels - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

tunnel #3 has been in contruction for 52 years

New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Water privatization in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[spring-peeper]

where is it privatized?

here in nyc, water quality is monitored and water supply is managed by the city.

Drinking Water - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

reservoir levels are a little blow average

Reservoir Levels - DEP

www1.nyc.gov

tunnel #3 has been in contruction for 52 years

New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Up here in Ontario, there are private companies that run some of the municipal water systems.

In my township, the town owns and runs it's own water treatment plants.

The requirements for drinking water and sewage treatment are set down by the province.
All treatment plants are audited by the province on a regular basis to ensure that everyone is getting clean water and that sewage is adequately treated prior to releasing it back into the environment.

I took a two year course to become qualified to work in the water treatment sector.
On the first day of job shadowing, I realised that I would not be able to get a job in this field - I can not drive a truck.

 

[yield]

It's a shame that some of the military budget couldn't be spent on mass producing something like this

Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination
Passive solar evaporation system could be used to clean wastewater, provide potable water, or sterilize medical tools in off-grid areas.
MIT News Office. February 14, 2022

So far, the team has proven the concept using small benchtop devices, so the next step will be starting to scale up to devices that could have practical applications. Based on their calculations, a system with just 1 square meter (about a square yard) of collecting area should be sufficient to provide a family’s daily needs for drinking water, they say. Zhang says they calculated that the necessary materials for a 1-square-meter device would cost only about $4.

 

[stdP]

This sounds like a convenient excuse to post this excellent picture. It's tangentially related to abuse of water sources for infrastructure rather than a lack of infrastructure, but I think it also presents a huge problem.

File:Gwsanjoaquin.jpg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The pic shows a chap standing on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley in California, next to a large pole. The pole marks the altitude of the valley floor over the years, with the level in 1925 being about 10m higher up than 1977. This is caused by too much water being pumped out of the underlying aquifer - as the water is removed, the porous sediment starts to settle and you end up with subsidence. Remove sufficient water, and not only does the aquifer not contain water any more, but it collapses so much as to become non-porous, and will never be an aquifer again.

The only known method to prevent this condition is by pumping less groundwater, which is extremely difficult to enforce when many people own water wells. Attempts are being made to directly recharge aquifers but this is still a preliminary effort.

Lots of people over the years, including the hydrologist in the picture above, have been banging on about this sort of systemic collapse in water tables - especially california - for decades, but as ever the can is always kicked down the road, because as it turns out when you build a whole bunch of cities and farms in an area that's largely desert, you need all the water you can get and if you tell people they can't have the water they need to keep on living/working there, they tend to get quite irate.

The more the rain fails to fill the rivers and lakes, the more aquifers tend to be relied upon but I think at some point california might have to make a choice between cities or farms. One of the craziest things about the whole shebang though is that california is (or at least was until very recently) an immensely huge producer of almonds, which are a very water-intensive crop to grow and apparently almond production used 10% of california's water in 2015.

 

[bcuster]

Crisis in Mississippi:

 

[not-bono-ever]

I'll repost this here. I can foresee drought being the final nail of the coffin of the Republic

As Colorado River Dries, the U.S. Teeters on the Brink of Larger Water Crisis

The megadrought gripping the western states is only part of the problem. Alternative sources of water are also imperiled, and the nation’s food along with it.

www.propublica.org

The history of the Colorado is utterly appalling. It’s been a political issue for both Mexico and the US. It doesn’t even reach the sea anymore. It’s horrifying that it got to this stage

 

[Nylock]

Thanks for informing me about that. I had no idea.

There's some real problems shaping up in the western US, as the years-long drought continues. Lake Mead looks to be in serious trouble, and 25 million people get their water from there. As usual, it seems like its mainly corporate interests that are laying claim to the water, rather than residential users.

Terrifying Lake Mead photos show how bad the drought has gotten

Dead fish, washed-up boats and dried out lakebeds are all consequences of climate-fuelled drought

news.yahoo.com

There are only four comments after that article but the attitude that 50% of them express makes for a short yet fucking depressing read.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

There are only four comments after that article but the attitude that 50% of them express makes for a short yet fucking depressing read.

Never read the comments.

 

[Nylock]

Never read the comments.

Yeah, I know.

I'm a bit of a masochist on that front. Sometimes the discussions are thoughtful and thought provoking. But, more often than not, it's a depressing parade of semi literate bottom-feeders revelling in the sheer breadth and depth of their ignorance and misanthropy.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Yeah, I know.

I'm a bit of a masochist on that front. Sometimes the discussions are thoughtful and thought provoking. But, more often than not, it's a depressing parade of semi literate bottom-feeders revelling in the sheer breadth and depth of their ignorance and misanthropy.

Me too. It amazes me the depth of assholery that people are capable of when they're given access to an anonymous place to post their shitty opinions... unlike Urban, of course.