Our Aging Water Systems

The Forgotten and Failing Infrastructure

A proper plan must invest in water and promote innovation and planned maintenance.

What lies beneath? In many cities and towns, the mystery of our aging infrastructure isn’t apparent until something goes wrong – possibly a water main break or a sewage back up.

It often takes a service crew to unveil the age, location, quality and condition of the pipes and pumps and unfortunately, our aging systems often take a backseat to repairing highways, tunnels and bridges.

But, why is it so important to find and fix the buried treasure?

The systems that collect, treat and pump our drinking and waste water are out of sight and out of mind. And, while they must remain a priority, Federal funding for water infrastructure has fallen over the last 40 years from 30 percent in 1977 to only 4 percent today.

This results in a failure to invest, a failure to implement preventive maintenance, and most importantly, in a failure to innovate. The mindset of “Run to Fail” can be solved by utilizing Planned Maintenance Programs.

Current advancements in water technology decrease energy use and life-cycle cost while promoting sustainability and helping to provide clean water and affordable service. But, as with anything, there are barriers in the adoption of these advances.

An additional roadblock to innovation is most municipalities do not know what their infrastructure entails. The age, condition, and location of the pump systems and pipes remains a mystery.

Comprehensive Planned Maintenance Programs and inspections may have prevented these situations. A few cities like Syracuse, New York took an innovative approach to monitoring … Continue Reading

Contact your local PumpMan today to learn more about Planned Maintenance and how we can help you prevent a disaster before it occurs.