According to data collected and published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), federal, state and local governments in the United States spent more than $2.2 trillion in the last 59 years on operations, maintenance and capital infrastructure of water and wastewater utilities. That equates to more than $4,131,000,000,000 in 2014 dollars, adjusting for inflation of infrastructure-specific costs. Following our earlier blog post demonstrating that federal spending on water and wastewater utilities decreased since the 1980s, we analyzed the data and identified 4 more trends in how government spending on utilities changed between 1956 and 2014.
Tag: operation and maintenance costs
As the green infrastructure (GI) approach to water management gains momentum, the budget process needs to adapt to some of the characteristics that make green distinct from the more traditional gray infrastructure approach. As communities are embarking on GI, shortcomings in the budgeting process can falsely create a bad first impression. When inaugural GI projects are grossly over budget for their installation, or need more frequent maintenance than planned, future GI projects may be blocked before the current project’s vegetation can become established enough to produce the significant benefits for which it was designed. However, considering and planning for certain key attributes of GI can fend off this negative cycle. Continue reading
- RT @MottFoundation: Global energy investments are below what’s needed to ensure universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuels by…
- RT @MottFoundation: Water systems in the U.S. must meet the needs of all people — not just the privileged. Mott has joined over 240 groups…
- RT @LeeRingerWx: As the Earth gets warmer, North Carolina is not only getting warmer, but also wetter. Here's a look back to last year and…
Knapp-Sanders Building Campus Box 3330, UNC Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3330 T: 919 966 5381 | F: 919 962 065
© 2021 Environmental Finance Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑