COLLEEN LONG, AP, April 8, 2008
NEW YORK - Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a marsh the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a country road. They are such a marvel that people come from miles around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it is bubbling up from a hidden natural spring.
The truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked 70-year-old tunnel hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.
The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries drinking water from a reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful warning sign of a larger problem around the country: The infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly aging and in need of repairs.
The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion.
Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear the majority of the cost through rate increases, according to the American Water Works Association, an industry group.
Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation's water systems, especially in older cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels were built in the 1800s and are now nearing the end of their life expectancies.
"Our generation hasn't experienced anything like this. We weren't around when the infrastructure was being built," said Greg Kail, spokesman for the water industry group. "We didn't pay for the pipes to be put in the ground, but we sure benefited from the improvements to public health that came from it."
He said the situation has not reached crisis stage, but without a serious investment, "it can become a crisis. Each year the problem is put on the back burner, the price tag is going to go up."
Catastrophic problems can arise when infrastructure fails. An 84-year-old steam pipe erupted beneath a New York street last year, creating a mammoth geyser that rained mud and debris down on the city.
In Chicago, an 80-year-old cast-iron water main broke earlier this year, spilling thousands of gallons and opening up a 25-foot hole in the street.
In Denver, up to 4 million gallons of water gushed from a ruptured 30-year-old pipeline in February, gouging a sinkhole across three lanes of Interstate 25. The lanes were shut down for nearly two weeks.
Cleveland has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure in the past 20 years but still must repair daily breaks. Last month, a break in a 2 1/2-foot-diameter water main turned a downtown square into a watery crater and knocked out other utilities.
The amount of wasted water from these breaches is staggering.
The 36 million gallons a day that leak from the 85-mile-long Delaware Aqueduct in New York state amounts to more than 1 billion gallons a month, enough to change the ecology of the area, say scientists from the Riverkeeper environmental watchdog group. That may be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of billions of gallons of water consumed in New York City every year, but the daily leak in the tunnel would meet the daily demands of drought-ravaged Raleigh, N.C.
Residents in Wawarsing, about 100 miles from New York City, blame tunnel leaks for the constant flooding in their yards and basements. Department of Environmental Protection engineers are trying to determine whether the aqueduct is really responsible for the soggy mess along Route 209 that has gotten considerably worse over the last 10 years.
David Sickles said the water just bubbles up from the cracks in the concrete in his basement — even when it doesn't rain.
"It's like there is too much water in the ground already," Sickles said, showing off the water line on the concrete wall of his basement. "There's no place for this to go."
Nearly every house has a black discharge hose running from the basement through the yard, gushing water into already-soggy patches of grass.
The land around Laura Smith's house turns into a lake when the snow melts, and her driveway is so muddy your feet sink when you walk to her front door.
Utilities currently spend about $10.4 billion annually on large-scale repairs and improvements on drinking water infrastructure, a figure that has been relatively flat during the past two decades, the EPA said.
Cities have a hard time convincing residents that they should spend money on something they never see, buried hundreds of feet underground. And often, public officials pawn the responsibility off on the next person elected, Kail said.
Repairs tend to be long and costly, especially since many systems were built nearly a century ago, deep underground, where buildings and major roads now stand.
Even monitoring pipes for vulnerabilities can be expensive and tricky, since it's not possible to shut down a city's water supply to test for leaks. If New York were to do that to the Delaware Aqueduct, for example, the 13 1/2-foot-diameter tunnel might crumble under the crushing weight of the land without the water to support the duct.
The Department of Environmental Protection monitors leaks by sending water through the tunnel and measuring how much comes out at the end. The department also sends robots that swim through the tunnels and collect data on their condition.
The amount of water being lost is inconsequential, given that reservoirs are so full, said Environmental Commissioner Emily Lloyd. But she said it is important to fix the leaks now because there is no way to tell how the system might deteriorate in the next 30 years.
New York has spent decades digging a new $6 billion tunnel that will create an alternative source of water delivery and allow for easier inspection and repair of the other tunnels. It is expected to be completed by 2020.
Around the country, water rates are going up to help pay for the repairs, estimated at anywhere between $550 and $7,000 per household during the next three decades.
Augusta, Ga., raised rates 11 percent from 2001 through 2007 for a $300 million program to improve the deteriorating water system. Cleveland gradually increased rates by about 6 percent for more than 15 years to fund a $750 million project to address aging and inefficient pipes. Springfield, Mass., doubled rates for its 250,000 customers. Philadelphia, Kenosha, Wis., Portsmouth, Va., and other cities have followed suit.
Many engineers and water utilities say water bills around the country are too low. In New York City, where a studio apartment can rent for more than $3,000 a month, the cost of water and sewage is about $60 for an entire single-family home.
"We are the only utility where the raw material is free, but the infrastructure is the most expensive," said Nick DeBenedictis, chief executive of Aqua America, a water company that serves 3 million people in 13 states. "We have to dig up streets in order to do it, but once we make investments it's good for years."
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Nuke Plant Shutdown Cuts Power in Fla.
AP, breitbart.com, Feb. 26, 2008
MIAMI (AP) - Florida's largest electric company shut down a nuclear reactor south of Miami for safety reasons Tuesday, causing sporadic power outages covering large portions of the state that could last well into the night. More than 3 million people are affected, the state says.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the two Florida Power & Light nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power point 30 miles south of Miami automatically shut down. Two other power plants farther north, the Crystal River reactor and St. Lucie twin reactors, in the state continued to operate, although officials at those two facilities noticed the grid disturbance.
"We don't know whether the grid disturbance caused the units to shut down or that their shut down caused the grid disturbance," said Kenneth Clark, a spokesman at the NRC regional office in Atlanta. He said the two reactors were automatically shut down and in safe standby.
"There are no safety concerns. The reactors shut down as designed," said Clark in a telephone interview. He said both reactor continued to have offsite electric power. He said two coal-burning power plants at Turkey Point also shut down.
FPL in several media interviews estimated that power should be up statewide within 10 hours. The company did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press or speak to a reporter in the lobby of its Juno Beach headquarters.
Outages appear to be concentrated in the southeast portion of the state, including Miami, but were also reported in along the southwest coast and northeastern part of the state as well as in the Florida Keys. The outages began shortly after 1 p.m. EST, though power in some affected areas had been restored an hour later.
In Collier County in the southwestern portion of the state, sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said officials were working to determine the extent of the outages.
"We really don't have a good picture of it," sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said. "It's not any one location."
In central Florida, the Orange and Volusia county sheriff's offices confirmed power outages at traffic signals across their jurisdictions.
"I don't have a handle on whether we're experiencing residential or commercial outages," said Gary Davidson, Volusia sheriff's spokesman. "I know we're receiving reports of traffic lights out virtually throughout the county, from Deland, Deltona, Ormond Beach, South Daytona to Debary."
Jaime Hernandez, a spokesman for Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Management, said the county is partially activating its emergency operations center. He said no injuries have been reported so far.
By 2 p.m., most of northern downtown Miami appeared to be back to normal operation, including a campus of Miami-Dade Community College and numerous stores and businesses. Traffic lights were out for a short time but appeared to be back in regular operation. In the Florida Keys, spokesman Andy Newman reported, areas were without power for about 15 minutes, but it was back up as well.
An official at the Miami International Airport says the facility is working on a generator backup but that no airline delays were reported.
In Collier County in the southwestern portion of the state, sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said officials were working to determine the extent of the outages.
"We really don't have a good picture of it," sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said. "It's not any one location."
MIAMI (AP) - Florida's largest electric company shut down a nuclear reactor south of Miami for safety reasons Tuesday, causing sporadic power outages covering large portions of the state that could last well into the night. More than 3 million people are affected, the state says.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the two Florida Power & Light nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power point 30 miles south of Miami automatically shut down. Two other power plants farther north, the Crystal River reactor and St. Lucie twin reactors, in the state continued to operate, although officials at those two facilities noticed the grid disturbance.
"We don't know whether the grid disturbance caused the units to shut down or that their shut down caused the grid disturbance," said Kenneth Clark, a spokesman at the NRC regional office in Atlanta. He said the two reactors were automatically shut down and in safe standby.
"There are no safety concerns. The reactors shut down as designed," said Clark in a telephone interview. He said both reactor continued to have offsite electric power. He said two coal-burning power plants at Turkey Point also shut down.
FPL in several media interviews estimated that power should be up statewide within 10 hours. The company did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press or speak to a reporter in the lobby of its Juno Beach headquarters.
Outages appear to be concentrated in the southeast portion of the state, including Miami, but were also reported in along the southwest coast and northeastern part of the state as well as in the Florida Keys. The outages began shortly after 1 p.m. EST, though power in some affected areas had been restored an hour later.
In Collier County in the southwestern portion of the state, sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said officials were working to determine the extent of the outages.
"We really don't have a good picture of it," sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said. "It's not any one location."
In central Florida, the Orange and Volusia county sheriff's offices confirmed power outages at traffic signals across their jurisdictions.
"I don't have a handle on whether we're experiencing residential or commercial outages," said Gary Davidson, Volusia sheriff's spokesman. "I know we're receiving reports of traffic lights out virtually throughout the county, from Deland, Deltona, Ormond Beach, South Daytona to Debary."
Jaime Hernandez, a spokesman for Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Management, said the county is partially activating its emergency operations center. He said no injuries have been reported so far.
By 2 p.m., most of northern downtown Miami appeared to be back to normal operation, including a campus of Miami-Dade Community College and numerous stores and businesses. Traffic lights were out for a short time but appeared to be back in regular operation. In the Florida Keys, spokesman Andy Newman reported, areas were without power for about 15 minutes, but it was back up as well.
An official at the Miami International Airport says the facility is working on a generator backup but that no airline delays were reported.
In Collier County in the southwestern portion of the state, sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said officials were working to determine the extent of the outages.
"We really don't have a good picture of it," sheriff's spokeswoman Karie Partington said. "It's not any one location."
New Everglades dike called unsafe
BY CURTIS MORGAN, Miami Herald, Sept. 12, 2007
A new reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Everglades restoration has already sprung leaks and is so rife with structural and design flaws that it can't be safely filled, state water manager said Wednesday.
The earthen dike needs at least $13 million in repairs and even then, it won't supply all the water it promised to restore to Ten Mile Creek and the St. Lucie River, according to an independent engineering report released Wednesday by the South Florida Water Management District.
Without the fixes, the dike near Fort Pierce -- like the 70-year-old levee around Lake Okeechobee the Corps is currently repairing -- poses a potential danger to homes that have since been built nearby, said George Horne, a district deputy executive director. In some spots, he said, the levee ringing the 550-acre reservoir is so weak that it could easily be loosened with a penknife.
''You can't consciously fill this reservoir any higher than 22 feet without those repairs,'' Horne said. ``Nobody needs to worry at 22 feet. Beyond that, we have concerns.''
But holding water that low also would badly compromise the intended environmental benefits of the $34 million project, providing only 38 percent of the water it was supposed to deliver. Repairs would improve things, but not completely.
Alan Bugg, chief of construction and operations for the Corps' Jacksonville district, which built the reservoir, said the federal agency was ''absolutely committed'' to fixing the flaws, which he blamed on contractor errors and money.
The Corps had hit its congressional budget cap, Bugg said. ``We can't spend another penny, by statute, at Ten Mile Creek.''
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Port Charlotte Democrat whose district includes Ten Mile Creek, said he was disappointed by the Corps' oversight and questioned whether the federal agency had ''operated in a vacuum'' in downsizing the reservoir's capacity.
''Now, you're in a situation, unfortunately, where you're trying to put lipstick on a hog,'' he said.
The reservoir and adjacent storm water treatment area, originally approved by Congress in 1996 as part of a $115 million suite of projects, is supposed to divert and cleanse water flowing into the north fork of the St. Lucie River. It is a sensitive coastal estuary that has been hammered by periodic releases of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee and algae blooms.
Horne described it as the ''keystone'' to a much larger, $1 billion-plus plan to clean up the Indian River Lagoon, a centerpiece of the $14 billion Everglades restoration plan. Unless the reservoir delivers enough water, he said, future projects will likely have to be changed and become more expensive.
It's only the most recent Corps project criticized by the district, which is co-managing Everglades restoration with the federal agency.
Last year, water managers hired BCI Engineering of Lakeland to examine the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee and the resulting report, which found the aging levee at high risk of failure, prompted the Corps to reexamine and overhaul its original repair plan.
This time, BCI uncovered numerous deficiencies at Ten Mile Creek, including rainfall runoff eroding embankments and seepage through levee walls -- despite the fact the reservoir nows contains only four feet of water, far short of the 29 feet it's supposed to hold. In addition, there were fuel and engine problems at a pumping station and a leaky pipe that could weaken and undermine the pump house.
The reservoir was designed before the district and Corps adopted new levee standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which overwhelmed flood-control structures around New Orleans. The levee designs for much larger water preserves now under construction in western Broward County, for instance, are massive in comparison, with armored walls.
To bring Ten Mile Creek to that level, which the district is recommending, would run at least $13 million and include adding a higher protective wall, reinforcing the existing levee and adding a new center levee as a windbreak to reduce wave damage during storms.
It's unclear when, and if, those fixes can be made. Bugg said the Corps would get more money for the project as part of $2 billion in Everglades funding in a water bill Congress is expected to sign off on soon. But President Bush already has threatened to veto it, calling the bill's $21 billion in nationwide projects excessive.
A new reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Everglades restoration has already sprung leaks and is so rife with structural and design flaws that it can't be safely filled, state water manager said Wednesday.
The earthen dike needs at least $13 million in repairs and even then, it won't supply all the water it promised to restore to Ten Mile Creek and the St. Lucie River, according to an independent engineering report released Wednesday by the South Florida Water Management District.
Without the fixes, the dike near Fort Pierce -- like the 70-year-old levee around Lake Okeechobee the Corps is currently repairing -- poses a potential danger to homes that have since been built nearby, said George Horne, a district deputy executive director. In some spots, he said, the levee ringing the 550-acre reservoir is so weak that it could easily be loosened with a penknife.
''You can't consciously fill this reservoir any higher than 22 feet without those repairs,'' Horne said. ``Nobody needs to worry at 22 feet. Beyond that, we have concerns.''
But holding water that low also would badly compromise the intended environmental benefits of the $34 million project, providing only 38 percent of the water it was supposed to deliver. Repairs would improve things, but not completely.
Alan Bugg, chief of construction and operations for the Corps' Jacksonville district, which built the reservoir, said the federal agency was ''absolutely committed'' to fixing the flaws, which he blamed on contractor errors and money.
The Corps had hit its congressional budget cap, Bugg said. ``We can't spend another penny, by statute, at Ten Mile Creek.''
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Port Charlotte Democrat whose district includes Ten Mile Creek, said he was disappointed by the Corps' oversight and questioned whether the federal agency had ''operated in a vacuum'' in downsizing the reservoir's capacity.
''Now, you're in a situation, unfortunately, where you're trying to put lipstick on a hog,'' he said.
The reservoir and adjacent storm water treatment area, originally approved by Congress in 1996 as part of a $115 million suite of projects, is supposed to divert and cleanse water flowing into the north fork of the St. Lucie River. It is a sensitive coastal estuary that has been hammered by periodic releases of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee and algae blooms.
Horne described it as the ''keystone'' to a much larger, $1 billion-plus plan to clean up the Indian River Lagoon, a centerpiece of the $14 billion Everglades restoration plan. Unless the reservoir delivers enough water, he said, future projects will likely have to be changed and become more expensive.
It's only the most recent Corps project criticized by the district, which is co-managing Everglades restoration with the federal agency.
Last year, water managers hired BCI Engineering of Lakeland to examine the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee and the resulting report, which found the aging levee at high risk of failure, prompted the Corps to reexamine and overhaul its original repair plan.
This time, BCI uncovered numerous deficiencies at Ten Mile Creek, including rainfall runoff eroding embankments and seepage through levee walls -- despite the fact the reservoir nows contains only four feet of water, far short of the 29 feet it's supposed to hold. In addition, there were fuel and engine problems at a pumping station and a leaky pipe that could weaken and undermine the pump house.
The reservoir was designed before the district and Corps adopted new levee standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which overwhelmed flood-control structures around New Orleans. The levee designs for much larger water preserves now under construction in western Broward County, for instance, are massive in comparison, with armored walls.
To bring Ten Mile Creek to that level, which the district is recommending, would run at least $13 million and include adding a higher protective wall, reinforcing the existing levee and adding a new center levee as a windbreak to reduce wave damage during storms.
It's unclear when, and if, those fixes can be made. Bugg said the Corps would get more money for the project as part of $2 billion in Everglades funding in a water bill Congress is expected to sign off on soon. But President Bush already has threatened to veto it, calling the bill's $21 billion in nationwide projects excessive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)