In 2007, the American Society of Civil Engineers found more than 150 levees to be at high risk of failing due to poor maintenance; Over a quarter of the dams overseen by the Corps of Engineers have exceeded the lifespan for which they were designed and need major repairs to ensure their safety.
hosted.ap.org — Many of the nation's largest and most seriously deficient bridges aren't getting fixed because a federal program funding bridge repairs is unfocused and lacks sufficient standards, according to congressional investigators. "The federal interest in bridges lacks focus, there are no effective measures of program performance, and the impact of the increasing federal investment in bridges is unclear," the report finds.
Conservative governments have resolutely cut budgets and driven out the experts whose job it was to keep the country's public works in good working order. But they never expected there would be an Obama Moment—a moment of national renewal in which progressives would be able to seize the process and launch some bold, creative acts of our own. It's not an overstatement to say that we may never have a creative opportunity like this one again.
The conservative failure in public investment, and progressive solutions for addressing that failure, is the subject of my interview with Eric Lotke, the research director of the Campaign for America's Future, on WHMP-AM, where I was substituting for Bill Dwight. Lotke points out the consequences of years of disinvestment in public assets, including examples of how we are falling behind other countries, and discusses some solutions now being considered by progressive-minded leaders in Washington.
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that nearly 25 percent of bridges in the U.S.—over 152,000 bridges—are “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.”
usatoday.com — America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a new analysis shows. The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.
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