Around the country, local officials are already banking on the new administration’s proposed stimulus package, identifying infrastructure projects that could be tackled immediately with federal funding and announcing how many jobs these projects would create. Many of these projects are related to stormwater and combined sewer overflow (CSO) control. For example, a consortium of local governments in northwest Ohio and northeast Indiana—the area of the Maumee River watershed—are facing an estimated $1 billion cost to meet EPA clean water mandates, including reducing CSOs. Fort Wayne experiences CSOs approximately 71 days each year and plans to spend $240 million over the next decade and a half to solve the problem, according to city officials—that’s about $1,200 per person. Toledo will spend about $1,500 per person to deal with the same problem. Back in December, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown wrote a letter to president-elect Obama requesting funding for infrastructure projects and, specifically, recommending a total of $5 billion in grants for CSO projects.
Similarly, in Milwaukee, which has long been plagued by sewer overflows, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has requested more than $180 million in federal funds for 31 different projects. The District says this funding could create about 2,500 jobs—lining the leaking pipes that connect homes to the sewer system, disconnecting downspouts in local neighborhoods to prevent stormwater from overwhelming the sewers, building new pipelines, and carrying out other needed projects and upgrades.
What projects have been identified—or should be—in your area? Overall, do you think water- and sewer-related projects or energy-efficiency projects will be more likely to be undertaken first?