Does our drinking water need a "Marshall Plan"
to restore crumbling infrastructure?

Joint storm sewer project, City of Brossard and St-Hubert, Quebéc. Photo - Béton Brunet Ltée.

It is alarmingly apparent that our water and wastewater infrastructure is in such bad shape that human health is increasingly at risk. Canadians are still wrestling with the Walkerton E. coli 0157:H7 drinking water tragedy in Ontario, as well as the North Battleford Cryptosporidium outbreak in Saskatchewan. Few seem aware that the Americans have had major E. coli and Cryptosporidium outbreaks in their drinking water. In 1993, 400,000 people became sick, 4,000 were hospitalized, and 50 deaths were attributed to Cryptosporidiosis from contaminated drinking water in Milwaukee. There has also been a lethal Cryptosporidium outbreak in Oxford, England in recent years.

A tiny protozoan parasite, Cryptosporidium lives and reproduces in the intestines of mammals, including humans, and gets into the water supply from the fecal material of infected mammals. American Water Works Association (AWWA) research indicates that Cryptosporidium is present in 95 percent of all surface water sources in the US. "It enters the water supply prior to maturity, early in its development," say AWWA researchers. It is encased in a tough outer shell, which makes it impervious to chlorine disinfection. Infection by a specific strain known as Cryptosporidium parvum, also causes Cryptosporidiosis in humans. Symptoms include stomach cramps and diarrhea. There is no cure but people with healthy immune systems recover naturally after approximately 14 days. For individuals who have weakened immune systems, such as those infected with HIV, the disease can be fatal.

Now the United States, the country that put men on the moon and later provided the Lunar Rover for them to drive around the satellite, has just been awarded a 'D' grade for the state of America's drinking water infrastructure. While we are used to alarmist, and often wildly exaggerated stories about drinking water safety, it is worthwhile enquiring about the validity of the source of the 'D' grade. Did this alarmingly low rating evolve from some emotional protest groups where scientific realities were discarded by the regular rent-a-mob malcontents; or was it shouted out as some global protester was dragged to a paddy wagon? It was not. This sombre warning came from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), one of the largest, learned associations in the world whose members and their predecessors had designed the water systems of North America. ASCE's data were immediately backed up by the American Water Works Association, which, combined with its Research Foundation, has been a world leader in drinking water research and development since 1871. Combine the two associations and you can go no higher in obtaining expert, unbiased testimony on drinking water quality.

The ASCE Report estimates a shortfall in drinking water infrastructure of (US) $11 billion per year. It notes that many communities continue to rely on water pipe networks that have long passed their prime; in some cases, they are more than 100 years old, some dating back to the 1800s. As a 'D' rating will not even get you a high school diploma, it is unconscionable that a nation that has spent trillions on some rather dubious military adventures, while becoming the richest country in the world, would risk the health of its population with such neglect.

But America's (US) $11 billion shortfall applies only to water mains. There's even more unwelcome news. If sewerage systems were added to the ASCE report they would almost certainly emerge as in as bad, and probably in worse shape than the water mains. As potable water systems operate under pressure, water leakages are quaintly designated as exfiltration. As sewer lines don't usually operate under pressure, they may take in liquids, a process called infiltration. If water mains pressure drops, and if the sewer pipes have leakage in the area, there is some chance of infiltration. Water and sewer pipes often are run alongside each other below ground. Interestingly, during wartime when foreign spies crossed borders, they were called infiltrators.

It must be stressed that North American water leakages are often modest by comparison to many other countries and when pressures drop, sometimes during repairs, there are adequate safeguards in place when boil water orders are issued. Efficient municipalities operate with regular pipe repair and replacement schedules but regrettably, their sterling work is buried underground and out of sight of the public it serves.

The same day the US report was released, some data emerged from a Water Environment Association of Ontario conference which gave some equally alarming figures on infrastructure neglect in Canada. Unlike the US report, the WEAO data dealt with both water and wastewater infrastructure. The Canadian report agrees with the figure of (US) $11 billion shortfall in water treatment funding but adds that an additional (US) $12 billion will be needed for wastewater needs in the US per year. Already some feel that even these large sums are woefully inadequate. Put in simple terms, North America is vastly overdrawn at the infrastructure bank. In the face of these massive fiscal shortfalls which, clearly, many communities cannot afford, perhaps an environmental Marshall Plan should be implemented.

Following the devastation of World War II, the Marshall Plan became one of the most successful political and economic programs ever initiated. The US, alone among the belligerent countries, had emerged richer and more powerful than any of the other combatants, while major European countries lay in ruins. George Marshall urged Congress to help restore Europe with funding and supplies. American investments in the Marshall Plan were amply repaid when a devastated Europe was fully restored to become a highly prosperous Democratic community. A second economic miracle followed the American occupation of Japan under General MacArthur.

George Marshall once served as America's most senior general during World War II. After he so deservedly won the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for his European Recovery Plan, history will remember him as a peacemaker, not a warrior.

It might be time for both the US and Canada to immediately undertake an environmental Marshall Plan for a shamefully neglected environmental infrastructure. The tainted waters of Walkerton and North Battleford have recently, and painfully demonstrated that, in addition to death and suffering, the economic consequences of infrastructure neglect are vastly in excess of any apparent monetary savings by not investing regularly in environmental restoration.

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