The Looming Underground Crisis

A few items from a Post article on the problems with our water and sewer systems:

• On average, nationwide, 25 percent of drinking water leaks from water system pipes before reaching the faucet.
• The average D.C. water pipe is 77 years old, but a great many were laid in the 19th century. 
• DC emergency crews rush from site to site to tackle an average of 450 breaks a year.
• Firefighters are equipped with computerized cue sheets to tell them which of the 9,157 hydrants in the District have enough water pressure to put out a fire.

Estimated cost to bring America's water systems up to a healthy level: $335 billion. Sewer systems: $300 billion. And that's just to make them work the way they were designed to, not to improve them.

Civilization is expensive, and that is pretty much why we pay high taxes.