We Need to Fix our Plumbing

by David Chavern

Did you ever have to spend a lot of money on plumbing for your house?  It is doubly annoying because once you have spent the money, the very best you can hope for is to get the house to just look and function like it did before the problem.  For most people, having clean and readily available water is just one of those background assumptions that we make and hope to never have to think about.

Well, unfortunately, our nation now has some major plumbing problems and the time has come to make some major investments.  The time when we can just assume that clean water will always be available for us when and as we need it is long past.

The U.S. Chamber hosted an event on water infrastructure today on Capitol Hill, entitled Water Infrastructure: Why Congressional Action is Urgently Needed (CSPAN-2 was there).  We had some big thinkers on the topic, including Ben Grumbles from the EPA, Dan Coody, Mayor of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Jerry Johnson from WASA and Hank Habicht from the Global Environment & technology Foundation.  The basic message was that there is a crises brewing and unless we want to go back to the days of dropping buckets down wells for water, we better mobilize every possible public and private investment source we have and deeply reinvest in our local water systems.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a large organization with a lot of issues on its plate.  We are fighting back against the trial lawyers, making the case for free trade and the protection of intellectual property and working hard to improve our capital markets (just to name a very few issues).  But we view infrastructure issues generally, and water issues in particular, as some of the very largest challenges we face as a nation.  We have been living off the investments of prior generations too long – and most of the time without ever even thinking about it.  The Chamber is committed to working with all interested parties, including companies, unions and state and local representatives, to educate the public and forcefully make the case that failing to invest in our plumbing would be one of the worst mistakes we ever made.

There will be more to come on this in the future.

Comments

[Chris T]

I think a few people have taken your plumbing analogy a little too far. Great article

[Sydney plumber]

Great reading. Look forward to seeing the next chapter in plumbing.

[How to fix a leaking toilet]

Very informative article about plumbing

[Blocked drain]

I think if you have Plumbing repairs around the house can be done easily if you have the right tools.

[utah plumbing]

Great post.Is there any designs in plumbing?

[CP Solutions, Inc.]

There are ways to mitigate corrosion of our existing buried water infrastructure, but they require both recognition of the problem (asset management)and long-term funding by our water utilities. Visit www.cpsolutionsinc.net to find more information on this topic.