As Things Wear Out

I've been involved with some infrastructure repairs. They were enlightening, since the things never seen have a huge impact on the health of a community. 

Storm sewers are one thing. Water needs to be drained, and the amount of water can increase to uncontrollable amounts with the construction of a subdivision or shopping center. Water can't soak into the ground, the velocity increases, and even a small blockage by elevation changes can turn an area that never flooded into a raging torrent. When the fact most storm drains are never cleaned, debris restricts the flow, and increases in water come into play, the result can cause destruction, a decrease in property values, and and increase in insurance rates. Trying to prevent this is a huge problem with engineers, and in rural areas, there may only be minimal amounts of drainage studies that prevent understanding of long term effects that influence future development. 

Sanitary sewers are another problem. Law requires a separation between them and water lines, with the sewer below the water line. This presents a problem with water line leaks finding cracks, or open joints in sewer pipes, which leads to an increase in the amount of sewage to be treated, the loss of money required to treat the water, and in worst cases, sinkholes developing after failures from the soil being washed away. 

Water lines aren't supposed to leak, but they do. Aging systems have pipe that was wonderful as designed, but certain ground conditions cause problems. This pipe, which is called AC pipe (a mixture of asbestos and cement) is hard, but brittle. To compound the brittleness problem, the joints are narrow, which can lead to the male end of the pipe slipping past the gasket in the female end. Ground movement can either crack the pipe, or separate the joint. This may lead to long term leak that can be hard to find, or a catastrophic failure leading to a massive water loss, the introduction of pollutants into the pipes, and a boil water notice for consumers. 

Every larger city I worked in had infrastructure that was very old. Water lines could be everything from cast iron pipe, to AC pipe. Sewer pipes could be everything from brick, to concrete, to ductile iron. All are prone to failure, and with sewage, the acid formed from the gas attacks concrete. The result of that may be a shape of a pipe, with the top almost gone, except for a thin layer of concrete, or packed earth. Water lines break when subjected to ground movement due to drought. 

From what I've seen, there is either no, or a poorly run, master plan including funding for the upkeep. It's just a finger crossing hope somehow money will be found, or granted. This never has worked, and the deterioration continues.