Slippery slope for U.S. sewers: Age, rains, funding shortfalls a bad mix

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2007 | by Lynn Hicks

Recent flooding in the Midwest has brought to the surface another crisis involving the nation's aging infrastructure: Heavy rains regularly overwhelm sewer systems, causing lake and river pollution.

Overtaxed sewer systems send 860 billion gallons of raw or partially treated sewage each year into the nation's waterways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The problem of aging sewers -- some cities have sewage pipes that are 50 to 100 years old, the EPA says -- is growing worse as federal funding for repairs has fallen, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The society gave the nation's wastewater treatment plants a grade of D-minus in its latest Report Card for American's Infrastructure. That 2005 grade was down from a D in the...