What frequent water main breaks say about America’s aging infrastructure

John Yang:

For nearly a week earlier this month, the 6th largest city in one of the world’s wealthiest nations told its residents to boil the tap water because it may have been contaminated. That city was Atlanta.

U.S. drinking water is among the world’s safest and most reliable. But an aging infrastructure is posing challenges. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that there’s a water main break every two minutes.

Earlier, I spoke with Shannon Marquez, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s School of Public Health. I asked her why these problems are so common in the United States.

Shannon Marquez, Columbia University School of Public Health: Well, you know, there are a combination of things that are happening now, John, aging infrastructure from years of neglect, under financed systems, and having to make decisions that are more like Band-Aid approaches to addressing these challenges, as opposed to comprehensive rehabilitation.

That, coupled with what we are seeing with extreme weather events and climate change, are also really putting our water systems in jeopardy. Many of these systems were constructed for a capacity that is really outgrown at this point.