Water Problems In California's Drinking System

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The vast majority of California's water infrastructure was constructed during the Great Depression era. In fact, most of our pipes were put under ground in three phases – in the late 1800's, the 1930's and recently after World War II (AWWA, 2015). The general problem is our water infrastructure is failing and breaking down across the nation at an alarming rate. Consequently, the specific problem is leaky water pipes are having contaminants filtering into our drinking systems, leading to illnesses and disease outbreaks (Amwater, 2014).
Background
Water is expensive, but what is even more expensive is wasted water. Approximately two trillion gallons of purified drinking water (that's a two followed by 12 zero's!) are wasted across the nation …show more content…
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that each year averages around 75,000 sanitary sewer overflows across the country, resulting in the discharge of three to ten billion gallons of untreated waste-water back into the environment (EPA, 2010). Just from the year 2009 to 2010 alone, there were a total of 33 recreational water-associated outbreaks (such as swimming, drinking, etc) ending in 85 hospitalizations and nine deaths. Another 12 cases were from non-recreational water use (such as farming and watering) causing 51 hospitalizations and six deaths. Examples of diseases that were contracted from contact with untreated waste-water include Legionella and Camplyobacter, which are both bacterial infections that induce excessive diarrhea and flu-like symptoms while its bacteria attacks the lung like a pneumonia infection (Wikipedia). These diseases were accounted in 57.6% of affected plumbing systems, 24.2% in untreated ground water, and 12.1% in weak water-distribution systems (CDC). These numbers draw a strong correlation that a healthier and more functional water distribution system could prevent many outbreaks and …show more content…
Although many whose lives revolve around water understand the issue, there's just not enough of us to make the essential changes. The lack of awareness or apathy of the general population worsens the severity of the problem every year as we lack the necessary funds to change and implement new infrastructure. It is not a stretch to say financing the upgrade of our aging pipes is a challenge. In fact, municipal spendings for water-distribution and waste-water infrastructure rank as one of the highest spending in all categories, trailing only second to education (Amwater, 2006). It doesn't help that the cost to replace water infrastructure far surpasses the spending power of many municipal water utilities (AWWA, 2015). Many cities believe that either the federal or state government will award grants and other means of funding as a way of dealing with this infrastructure challenge (Associated Press, 2008). Despite local governments spending billions of dollars each year, there is still a huge annual gap of 19 billion dollars in what we need to invest compared to what we currently do invest to replace the aging infrastructure nearing the end of their functional life (NLC, 2011). This short fall does not even account for the inevitable growth in demand of drinking water over the next 20 years. In addition, fundings that have been directed towards
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