By John McLain, PE
The Water Innovations Alliance (WIA) recently completed an assessment of the state of the U.S. water infrastructure, which was given an overall grade of D- by the American Society of Civil Engineers in its most recent infrastructure report card.
Underlying that nearly failing grade, WIA produced some startling statistics in a recent newsletter (not yet posted to their website):
- More than 20% of U.S. water treatment systems – serving 49 million people — have violated provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act at some point in the past five years.
- About 15% of municipal water is lost to leaks, representing 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water PER DAY.
- The U.S. water system represents more than 4% of total U.S. electricity usage.
- Up to 20 years of significant investment are required to stabilize and modernize the U.S. water infrastructure, with about $300 billion capital required.
Learn more at http://advancedenergyblog.clevelandfoundation.org/, and contact john@baselinecorp.com to make infrastructure upgrades.
