- [Narrator] Every two minutes, there's a water main break
somewhere in the country's more than 2.2 million miles
of pipes according to the American Society
of Civil Engineers.
It's just one symptom
of the country's crumbling water infrastructure.
- Lead in the water supply in Flint, Michigan.
- The water crisis in Jackson.
- Tonight, America's fourth largest city
is under a boil water order.
- [Narrator] But it's not just the leaking pipes
and contaminated drinking water.
Dams and Levees that protect communities
from severe floods are also at risk.
So what are some of the structural factors
driving these problems?
Here's a look at how decades of underinvestment
brought America's water infrastructure
to a tipping point.
Typically, bridges, roads, and subways
are funded by federal taxes, but not water infrastructure.
Instead, local utilities are responsible
for the operation and upkeep of community water systems.
This financing structure can be traced back to the 1800s
when population growth and industrialization led U.S. cities
and towns to rapidly expand their water systems
for the first time.
Infrastructure was handled at a local level,
not a federal one.
This led to the sprawling and highly fragmented nature
of the country's water systems.
- There are over 50,000 utilities that manage just water.
- [Narrator] Upmanu Lall is a director
at Columbia University's Water Center.
He has led numerous studies
examining the nation's drinking water
and wastewater systems.
- We either have really big utilities
or thousands of small utilities.
The problem is that the thousands of small utilities
really don't have the technical or financial capacity
to manage things very well.
- [Narrator] Today, more than 90%
of the average utilities revenues
come directly from local water bills
according to state water directors.
But there's a limit to how much money can be raised
through bills to make essential upgrades.
Rate hikes, for instance,
often have to be approved by local governments.
And factors like a shrinking population
mean the maintenance costs
are spread across fewer rate payers.
- So as a result, especially in communities
that have been declining in population
and in communities of color
and communities of lower incomes,
there has been a lack of investment
and degradation of the infrastructure.
- [Narrator] Water bills have soared over the last 10 years,
along with the costs to fix problems
according to government data.
So why is water infrastructure
becoming increasingly expensive to build and maintain?
The simple answer, it's too old.
In 1972, Congress made sweeping revisions
to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
or the Clean Water Act.
This led to significant strides in improving water quality.
- The environmental agenda now before the Congress
includes laws to deal with water pollution.
- [Narrator] But the majority of the funding was directed
towards construction of new water systems
rather than the operation and maintenance
of existing systems.
- But the problem that comes with that
is that what's your plan for when that infrastructure ages?
- [Narrator] The majority of wastewater treatment systems
constructed in the 1970s are today
reaching the end of their 40 to 50 year lifespans
according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Dams are at risk too.
The ASCE found the amount of high-hazard-potential dams
has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
This means if a dam were to fail
like in the event of an earthquake or severe storm,
there would likely be a direct loss of human life.
- Our dams were designed to have a life
of 50 to 70 years with good maintenance.
- [Narrator] Today, the median age of U.S. dams is 57 years
and many pipes are even older.
On average, they're about 45 years old
with some dating back to the 1800s according to the ASCE.
- So essentially, two thirds of our system
is essentially due for replacement
and pipes cost a million dollars a mile to replace.
So if you don't have the million dollars a mile
to replace the pipe, what you do is you patch the pipe
then the pipe breaks in another place.
This becomes like a bandaid approach,
and so at some point you just end up with a disaster.
- [Narrator] As pipes aged water main breaks
and boil water advisories became more common.
In 1987, Congress switched from a grant system to loans,
specifically state revolving funds.
Before this, federal grants funded up to 75%
of state water projects.
- The logic there perhaps,
was that these would be low interest loans
and they would go to communities that are most in need.
And the concept perhaps, was that many of the communities
were already taken care of by that point.
- [Narrator] This meant local communities became responsible
for the majority of project costs
because they were required to repay the loans.
- The city council will meet to look over a final design
on the new water treatment plant
and decide whether they should take out a $3.5 million loan
to build it.
- [Narrator] While spending by state
and local governments were on the rise
the federal government's share of water spending
fell by about 69% between 1977 and 2017.
With limited funds, many cities and towns
neglected the repair and replacement
of critical water infrastructure.
- The challenge is that if they try to go
for the state revolving fund money
typically they don't have in-house capacity
to develop the proposals needed.
So it's not a surprise then that the smaller utilities
that serve poorer communities often are the ones
that are really unable to come up with ways
to compete for federal funds
or to even compete for products at the right price point.
- [Narrator] As federal funding dried up and systems aged,
local governments spent more to maintain
existing water infrastructure
rather than carry out important upgrades.
Between 1977 to 2017, local governments spent
about 70% more on the operation and maintenance of systems
then on capital expenses to replace
or install new infrastructure.
- If you look at how water bills have gone up
since 2000 to now, they have risen on average
twice the rate of inflation across the country,
and most of this is happening
because of the deferred maintenance catching up with people.
- [Narrator] In 2021,
president Biden signed an infrastructure bill
that sets aside about $55 billion
to improve the nation's aging water systems.
- This law is gonna start to replace 100%
of the nation's lead pipes and service lines.
So every American, every child can turn on the faucet
and drink clean water.
- [Narrator] The Biden administration has called it
the largest single investment in clean drinking water
in American history, but it only covers a fraction
of the $472 billion cost identified by the EPA in 2018.
Still, there are varying estimates for this price tag.
- There is not a benchmark of this number
because we as a nation, we have not done the exercise
of who is in trouble, to what extent.
So how do you actually source data
from 50,000 different utilities in a reasonable way
to get an idea of honestly, what really is the need.
- [Narrator] As a main focus of the infrastructure bill
White House officials said they are rolling out a new plan
to help 10 million U.S. households
replace lead water pipes.