{"id":923,"date":"2012-01-03T13:17:33","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T18:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=923"},"modified":"2012-01-03T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T18:17:33","slug":"washington-post-water-and-sewer-systems-are-more-vital-to-civilized-society-than-any-other-aspect-of-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2012\/01\/03\/washington-post-water-and-sewer-systems-are-more-vital-to-civilized-society-than-any-other-aspect-of-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post: &#8220;water and sewer systems are more vital to civilized society than any other aspect of infrastructure.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Failing infrastructure is an enormous, very expensive problem &#8212; and a political third rail, which is why we rarely hear politicians talking about it. But bursting water pipes tend to focus attention &#8230;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"carousel-full\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/white-house-2011-the-year-in-photos\/2011\/12\/30\/gIQAUiIYRP_gallery.html#photo=1?tid=ts_carousel\">The year in photos<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-leaf-page\">\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h1>Billions needed to upgrade America\u2019s leaky water infrastructure<\/h1>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ashley-halsey-iii\/2011\/05\/26\/AGriQzBH_page.html\" rel=\"author\">Ashley Halsey III<\/a>,\u00a0Published: January\u00a02<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<div id=\"article_body\">\n<div>\n<article>At first glance, the pizza-size hole that popped open when a heavy truck passed over a freshly paved District street seemed fairly minor.<br \/>\nThen city inspectors got on their bellies with a flashlight to peer into it. What they discovered has become far too common. A massive 19th-century brick sewer had silently eroded away, leaving a cavern beneath a street in Adams Morgan that could have swallowed most of a Metro bus.<br \/>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-side-rail\">\n<div>\nIt took three weeks and about a million dollars to repair the sewer, which was built in 1889.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<article>Time and wear \u201chad torn off all the bricks and sent them God knows where,\u201d said<a href=\"https:\/\/www.georgehawkins.net\/p\/georges-biography.html\">George S. Hawkins<\/a>, general manager of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcwater.com\/\">District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority<\/a>. \u201cWe have to find them and see if they\u2019re plugging up the system somewhere farther down the line.\u201d<br \/>\nIf it were not buried underground, the water and sewer system that serves the nation\u2019s capital could be an advertisement for Band-Aids. And it is not much different from any other major system in the country, including those in many suburbs and in cities less than half as old as Washington.<br \/>\nAlthough they are out of sight and out of mind except when they spring a leak, water and sewer systems are more vital to civilized society than any other aspect of infrastructure.<br \/>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8212;<br \/>\nFor the whole story:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/billions-needed-to-upgrade-americas-leaky-water-infrastructure\/2011\/12\/22\/gIQAdsE0WP_story.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Failing infrastructure is an enormous, very expensive problem &#8212; and a political third rail, which is why we rarely hear politicians talking about it. But bursting water pipes tend to focus attention &#8230; &nbsp; The year in photos Billions needed to upgrade America\u2019s leaky water infrastructure By\u00a0Ashley Halsey III,\u00a0Published: January\u00a02 At first glance, the pizza-size&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Washington Post: &quot;water and sewer systems are more vital to civilized society than any other aspect of infrastructure.&quot; - Alex Prud&#039;homme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2012\/01\/03\/washington-post-water-and-sewer-systems-are-more-vital-to-civilized-society-than-any-other-aspect-of-infrastructure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington Post: &quot;water and sewer systems are more vital to civilized society than any other aspect of infrastructure.&quot; - Alex Prud&#039;homme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Failing infrastructure is an enormous, very expensive problem &#8212; and a political third rail, which is why we rarely hear politicians talking about it. 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