America’s Infrastructure Earns a C-

Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) reveals its Infrastructure Report Card, using a simple A to F school report card format to rate America’s current infrastructure conditions. This year, ASCE gave our country’s infrastructure the overall grade of a C-, which if you’ll recall from grade school means the low end of average.

Aside from the overall grade, ASCE also provides individual grades for 18 infrastructure sectors – from broadband to levees to schools. This year was also the first time they separated stormwater infrastructure from wastewater infrastructure in grading. For the water infrastructure grades that are most relevant, here’s where they rated:

• Drinking water received a C-, an improvement from 2017’s D.
• Wastewater received a D+, no change from 2017.
• Stormwater received the inaugural grade of D.

While it can be hopeful to see some improvement, we shouldn’t be satisfied with low average and below average infrastructure.

The U.S. has water infrastructure problems. Our water infrastructure is failing, with more than 240,000 water main breaks per year wasting 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water annually, according to the American Water Works Association. Much of nation’s water infrastructure was installed more than 50 years ago, and many communities have failing pipes that are more than 100 years old – decades more than their intended service life.

We need continued investment so that we can not only build new sustainable water infrastructure for the 2 million people that don’t currently have access, but also replace the thousands of miles of drinking water and wastewater pipes that pose public health threats.

We can’t allow ourselves to settle for grades of C’s and D’s. Every American has the right to clean drinking water – we must #RebuildBetter and ensure the protection of our public health and environment.