Decaying drinking water infrastructure hemorrhages trillions of gallons across America annually. This staggering leakage highlights an urgent economic and public health crisis stemming from deferred maintenance stretching back generations.
The situation proves particularly dire in declining industrial cities and rural towns, leaving behind largely poor minority populations relying on systems losing over half their water.
What's Causes the Hemorrhaging?
Ageing pipes dating over a century leak up to 70% of treated water in Detroit's Highland Park enclave as the population halved. Meanwhile, analysis suggests over 40% flows straight from Chicago's suburban mains underground.
Even worse, examined Georgia utilities register over 80% loss levels, revealed Virginia Tech researcher Sunil Sinha. Freezing weather commonly ruptures weakened lines, as January breaks in Memphis and one Arkansas community attest, but chronic leakage persists year-round.