Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
The Bills Are Coming Due
Most people don't worry about the problem ... unless their toilets
don't flush.
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By C.D. Bradley cdbradley@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
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The state and federal governments are expected to contribute $44 million for
sewer projects in Kentucky over the next two years.
The cost of those planned sewer projects is estimated at $1 billion and change,
more than 27 times that.
Roger Recktenwald, executive director of the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority,
believes the local systems need more help. The Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies goes further, calling Washington's lack of support an
embarrassment.
"The same reasons we needed to infuse the Clean Water Act with real funding have
been made more serious because of the decision to cease funding ... Until there
is a real local, state and federal partnership, these problems will not go
away," AMSA spokesman Adam Krantz said. "Without that, we risk losing all the
gains that have been made over the 30 years of the Clean Water Act."
Sewer systems, many with pipes long past their 100th birthdays, face the huge
task of finding the money to fix their existing systems as well as expanding
service to new users. Since there is so little outside help, nearly all that
money has to come from local ratepayers, who are reluctant to endure huge rate
increases so long as their toilets flush.
"As long as the wastewater goes away, people really don't care," said Mark
Davis, who deals with infrastructure issues for the Purchase Area Development
District. "There's not an easy solution. Nobody wants to talk about increased
rates. Hey, I don't like for my rate to go up. But it's just a fact of life that
somebody has got to pay the bill."
It used to be Washington, and AMSA argues it should be again. The group, a
consortium of publicly owned wastewater utilities, points out that more than 90
percent of the clean water infrastructure installed in the 1970s and early 1980s
under the auspices of the Clean Water Act was paid for with federal money.
Now the reverse is true. Federal funds cover less than 7 percent of
construction, and the spending has been flat for about a decade as local costs
continue to rise faster than inflation.
"What Paducah faces is what every city faces: a massive funding challenge,"
Krantz said. "They're raising rates, but it's insufficient to meet the demands,
the requirements of the Clean Water Act plus new demands every year from state
and federal regulations.
"The funding gap for wastewater infrastructure is between $250 billion and $500
billion over 20 years. Those are numbers from the Bush administration, from the
Environmental Protection Agency. What makes it so frustrating, and in a way
shameful, is that the government recognizes the need yet continues to turn its
back on the funding aspect."
The group cites a survey it asked the Luntz Research Companies to conduct that
shows overwhelming public support for increasing funding from Washington for
sewer systems. More than half said they believed they had a right to clean
water, and more than 90 percent said if the government invests billions annually
in highways and airways, it should do the same for waterways.
Krantz said the nation's highways have a $300 billion trust fund, while there's
a $60 billion fund for airports and airways. There's no fund for sewers, meaning
no dedicated funding. That leaves only the loans, which the current budget
proposal would cut from $1.35 billion to $500 million.
Kentucky now receives $17 million a year in federal money, matched with $5
million in state funds, Recktenwald said, calling that amount "the tip of the
iceberg."
"There are significant needs beyond that," he said. "In fairness to the feds, we
haven't done a good job of assessing our need and conveying it to them. What
difference will that make? Not a heck of a lot. They're not going to change the
formula to accommodate Kentucky if we have better information than we did 20
years ago."
The KIA has been compiling what Recktenwald called the best estimate of sewer
project needs the state has ever had. Besides the $1 billion in projects during
the next two years, current plans call for $675 million in three to 10 years and
$270 million in the decade after that.
Both numbers are sure to be added to because aging systems, built when outside
money was plentiful, are now giving small towns fits. Treatment plants are
undersized and outdated, and pipes carrying sewage to them have sprung so many
leaks that often large sections have to be dug up and replaced at great expense.
If the leaks aren't repaired, pipes are overwhelmed with groundwater and waste.
"All of a sudden, treatment plants are having to treat large volumes of water,
so they are overloaded," said Rod Martin, whose Paducah engineering firm
specializes in sewage treatment. "What we're seeing is that communities are
plagued with this, and unfortunately it's out of sight most of the time. It's
something they need to work continually on to remedy."
Many of those systems were started with federal funds in the 1960s and 1970s.
"The Clean Water Act grants demonstrated that the federal government believed
clean water was an interstate issue, a national issue, hence the need for
national funding and national legislation," Krantz said. "Then they turned their
backs on that concept ... It became sort of government's one moment of aid, but
they decided to pull out at the moment of expansion."
That leaves the burden on the local government, where the decisions can be more
difficult and more personal.
"The premise a lot of these systems started on was that the federal government
provided money to start the system, and local entity would set aside money for
replacement and repair," Davis said.
"Where it becomes difficult for the local commission is when you have people —
and they know the person personally — who are on fixed incomes who don't have
the money. So with the best intentions in the world, they don't raise rates.
Over the short term, there's probably nothing wrong with that. Over 30 years,
you've deferred so many maintenance costs that you have an almost insurmountable
maintenance problem."
And not enough money, from any source, to fix it.
Sun Business Editor Joe Walker contributed to this report.