I’ve been keenly watching water policy over the last couple of years. Much of that ground plowed to find compelling items for posting – yet has me brushing up against water usage and the building water crisis facing every state.

… and it’s going to be every lawyer’s wet dream …

Using EPA estimates, communities will need an estimated $300 billion to $1 trillion over the next 20 years to repair, replace, or upgrade aging drinking water and wastewater facilities; accommodate a growing population; and meet new water quality standards.[5] EPA projects a $650 billion shortfall between current spending levels and money that will be needed over the next 15 years. The Water Infrastructure Network claims spending will need to increase by $23 billion a year for the next 20 years in order to meet the growing water/wastewater treatment needs. Also, in May 2002, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure over the next 20 years would be $492 billion under a low-cost scenario and $820 billion under a high-cost scenario.

Charles Duhigg’s six-part series on drinking water for the New York Times is the latest in a series of exposes on how large farming and industrial interests get to operate with impunity, ignoring The Clean Water Act, as most states are strapped for staff or lack the desire to enforce clean water standards.

Fresh potable water is going to be as expensive as gold, and that puts you and I squarely in the cross-hairs of those same powerful lobbies – and with our puny conservation efforts and tiny organizations, we’re going to suffer considerably more than the rest of the population.

It’s likely we’ll be barred from fishing in public water – as it won’t be public much longer.

The root issue is infrastructure. Cities and states both lack the billions of dollars to address burgeoning populations concentrated in cities. Drinking water isn’t close by – so billions must be spent to ditch, pipe, and canal water from where it “lives” to where it’s needed.

Politicians are reluctant to raise taxes (albeit not at all reluctant to blow the proceeds) and privatization of the water supply is thought as a method to remove local government’s responsibility for pipes and infrastructure onto a for-profit company with deep pockets.

Naturally your rates will climb as the new owner recoups the millions spent on replacing earthen dikes, rotting pipes, Quagga mussel infested pumps, and the brick canals built in the 1800’s that are still supplying critical freshwater to our expanding cities.

You can expect “No Trespassing” as a result. Boaters and anglers are know vectors for invasives that damage the water infrastructure – and felt soles be damned – they’ll bar you from the waterway entirely.

… ditto for duck hunters and ski barges …

Atlanta tried it, now Chicago is thinking about it.

Considering that all of the hallowed Catskill streams of fly fishing fame are sent through mountains and brick-lined tunnels to slake New York City’s thirst, if you’re thinking those geographic barriers will save you – they won’t.

If you’re lucky you live near the coast, making desalinization an option. Eventually someone will figure out how to dispose of the salt, so toxic it rivals nuclear waste, but some canny fellow will figure out a way to cleanse it and sell it to you at the supermarket.

The lawsuits that result from Spanish Land Grants, international treaties with both Canada and Mexico, imminent domain, and all the cities dependent on the same river – yet further downstream, will likely bottle up significant movement for the next couple of decades.

In the meantime about all that’s left is investing in the next conglomerate that will own Southern California’s water supply – hoping that the proceeds will allow you to retire somewhere’s else.

Just one of the reasons why the brown water is so compelling. Little crappy creeks that no one drinks (yet) with inferior-mouthed fish that no one protects (yet) – that may afford you a spot to teach your kids to fly fish.

Tags: Chicago’s water supply, privatizing drinking water, desalination, Spanish land grant, agribusiness lobby, Charles Duhigg, New York Times, No trespassing, brownlining