What’s the deal with infrastructure?
In the several months since my appointment to the Lake
County Public Water District Board of Trustees, one topic has occupied my
attention above all; the fundamental importance of civil infrastructure.
Infrastructure consists of everything we take for granted as
essential elements of our modern society; roads, bridges, electricity, flood
control, dams, waste treatment, and drinking water.
According to the “American
Society of Civil Engineers 2013 Report Card For America’s Infrastructure” the
national status of drinking water infrastructure rates a "D", due to the advanced
age of most of the delivery systems, many of which are 100 or more years old,
and nearing the end of their operational lifespan. Just replacing pipes and mains over the next
couple of decades is estimated to cost close to $1 Trillion according to the
American Water Works Association.
Here in Illinois, it is estimated that we will need at least
$15 Billion in drinking water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years. I
want to emphasize this; $15 Billion,
just for drinking water.
A little research, so you don’t have
to.
Here in Northeast Illinois we benefit from having access to
Lake Michigan for the bulk of our water needs, but it is not an unlimited
resource. As part of my research into
water infrastructure I have been studying the “Water 2050: Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply/Demand Plan” that
was issued by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning in March 2010. If you aren’t the type of person who enjoys
curling up with a 200 plus page report on current water usage and the long term
trends for the 11 counties that comprise the Northeast Illinois region, I
wouldn’t recommend it, but there are some relevant facts that can be gleaned from
this tome.
Using data from 2005 as a baseline, the report projects
three supply/demand scenarios:
1. Current
Trend (usage remains at current levels, increased by population growth).
2. Less
Resource Intensive (usage is moderated by conservation and “true-cost” pricing).
3. More
Resource Intensive (usage is increased to a level at or above available
supply).
There are five water use sectors to be considered in any
supply/demand scenario:
1. Public
Supply
2. Power
Generation
3. Industrial
and Commercial
4. Agricultural
and Irrigation
5. Domestic
Self-Supply
The annual average per-capita usage per day is 169.3
gallons, for the region the average is 1,408.3 million gallons per day (mgd).
The source of all this water can be broken down as follows;
69% from Lake Michigan, 17% from groundwater (wells), and 14% from rivers.
As fortunate as we are to have such an abundance of fresh
water so readily available, we should keep in mind this is not a static
condition.
The report outlines a
projected population growth of 38% over the 45 years between 2005 and
2050. The Less Resource Intensive
scenario keeps the growth in water demand down to 7.24% over that period of
time, but under the Current Trend that demand raises to 36%, and the More
Resource Intensive increases demand to 64% above current usage.
If you want an example of a water resource over-used to the
point of its demise, you only have to look at the Colorado River, which has
been diverted so much that it no longer flows to the Gulf of California. The image of Lake Michigan reduced to a plain
of cracked dry mud surrounding a shallow shadow of its former glory may seem
far-fetched, but it isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility.
Closer to home, communities in western Lake County that rely
on groundwater , are already discovering their limitations, and have started to
consider joining up with existing water districts that supply Lake Michigan
water. The biggest roadblock to making
the switch is the financial costs that their residents would have to bear to
put the infrastructure in place.
Eventually, a tipping point will be reached where the need for reliable
and safe water service will (probably) overtake the financial concerns.
In short, if we don’t take common sense steps to use our
water resources efficiently, the long term costs both financially and
environmentally will be staggering.
One of those steps is to ensure our water infrastructure is
well maintained and upgraded as needed.
Littoral Drift and the Water Intake Pipe
Littoral transport has
been defined as the movement of material along the shore in the littoral zone
by waves and currents. The material thus transported is referred to as the
littoral drift. The littoral drift originates from beach material, being picked
up by the water and transported along the shore and deposited in another
location. Shore erosion, littoral
transport, and deposition of drift are all factors in the littoral process. –
from the abstract of the report; Littoral
Transport in the Great Lakes, by Dr. L. Bajorunas, U.S. Lake Survey, Corps of
Engineers (1960).
One of the great things I have discovered since deciding to
run for office, and engaging in public service, is the many opportunities to
learn about something new. After I sat
in on my first meeting at the Water District, Don White, the Operations Manager
took me for a tour of the Water Filtration Plant. At the end, he pulled out a set of
engineering drawings that diagrammed the water intake pipe. He explained that the intake pipe extends
approximately 3000 feet out on the lake bed, and had been covered by four feet
of sand.
But, in the years since the construction of the North Point
Marina at Winthrop Harbor, most of the sand has eroded away, exposing and
undermining large sections of the pipe, apparently due to the marina
interrupting the natural flow of the littoral drift. In effect the break walls
surrounding the marina are keeping sand from being deposited on the lakeshore
to the south, resulting in greater beach erosion, and thus exposing the water
intake pipe. This is how I first learned
the importance of littoral drift in coastal engineering projects.
How important is illustrated in a recent announcement by
Governor Quinn, of a $1.3 million dollar project to protect the shoreline at
Illinois Beach State Park, due to the extensive erosion just south of the North
Point Marina. This includes the area where the water intake pipe is
located. Here is a relevant quote from
the story about the announcement that appeared in the Lake County News-Sun on January 29, 2014; “The problems on the shoreline of the Adeline Geo-Karis Illinois Beach
State Park have been ongoing ever since North Point Marina and another marina
just into Wisconsin began trapping the natural movement of sand south along the
shoreline.”
In 2013, the Lake County Public Water District commissioned
an inspection of the Intake Pipe. A
diver examined the length of the pipe from the intake cones, back to the
shoreline. The resulting report notes
that there are sections of the pipe, especially on the southern side, where the
lake bed has definitely eroded; in some instances the drop-off extends to
depths over a dozen feet.
So, we know we have a problem, how do we fix it?
Introduction to “The Bent”
To protect the pipe, the Water District has undertaken a
project to install a system of “bent clamp supports” which are designed to
secure the exposed sections of the pipe to the lake bed independent of the
level of the surrounding sand. Each
“bent” is a large steel clamp that is secured around the outside of the
pipe. On either side of the clamp is a
channel through which a steel piling is inserted. Each piling is driven down
until it hits hard pan under the lake bed, the excess portion of the pilings
are then cut flush with the top of the clamp, and the whole assembly is then
secured. Each bent can support 32 feet
of pipe, which, if you do the math, gives you a total of 93 bents to cover the
entire 3000 feet.
Photo of an open bent to be deployed.
The long-term goal is to place bents along the entire length
of the pipe, as needed, and once they are in place, they are expected to last
50 or more years. The short-term goal last year was to install six of the bents
in the most critical areas. I say that
it was the goal, because there is
another facet of infrastructure that often isn’t considered by the casual
observer; obtaining permits.
Hey, have you got a permit for that?
In an extensive examination of the Obama Administration’s
$800 billion dollar stimulus, and it’s often unrecognized successes; Michael
Grunwald’s book “The New New Deal, The
Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era”, also describes one of the biggest
hurdles, that a “shovel-ready” project is a lot harder to get underway than you
might think.
In the case of our water intake project, the hurdles consist
of getting approvals from various agencies to conduct the necessary work in
Lake Michigan. These are the; U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (COE), Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and
the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).
When I sat down for my first official meeting with the Water
District Board in July of 2013, the hope was to complete the permit process
soon enough to allow the contractor time to install three of the bents before
the end of the season when the coming winter weather would put a halt to any
underwater work on the lake.
The district had submitted a request for a ten-year permit,
to the IDNR, which had filed for a 30 day public comment period regarding the
request, scheduled to conclude on the 26th of July. At the time, the IEPA had not made any
substantial comment on the request.
Since that meeting, the IDNR completed its comment period, the COE
determined it needed its own comment period, and the IEPA included another
comment period. All of which meant, that 2013 ended without obtaining the
permit, and none of the projected work had been done. But, that wasn’t the last hurdle, because
after the IEPA comment period completed, someone there took a look at the file and
determined that yet another requirement had to be met before they could sign
off on the project. Sediment and water
samples had to be collected from the site, and sent to a lab for analysis to
determine what kind of contaminants might be released from the material that
would be moved in order to place the bent around the pipe. If the quantities
are considered hazardous, then the contractor would be required to place the
disturbed material in barrels, which would be transported to an inland waste disposal
facility.
At the time of this writing, in March 2014, the District is
awaiting the lab results, and hopefully will finally receive the final approval
for its permit, almost a year since beginning the process.
Looking at the bureaucratic labyrinth it is very easy to get
frustrated, you have to wonder how anything can get done, and if we are going
to effectively tackle that $15 billion in water infrastructure we better figure
out some ways to streamline the process. But, we shouldn’t do so in a way that
puts our natural resources at risk. Ask the citizens of West Virginia who had
their entire water supply contaminated if they would prefer a little more
environmental regulation or not.
In the end, despite all the hurdles, I believe that our
little infrastructure project will move forward, and I will do my small part to
make sure that it is successful.
Final Thoughts
Our society, our economy, our very civilization depends upon
a network of interdependent systems, many of which are taken so much for
granted that they are essentially invisible to our day-to-day consciousness,
until they fail.
Highways, railroads, electric grids, sanitation, and water
systems aren’t as glamorous as a skyscraper or a sports stadium but they touch
us, and support us in our daily lives beyond mere monetary measure. It is our
responsibility to ourselves and the generations that follow that we not only
maintain them, but make them better; an investment in our posterity. So that
one day, they will look back on what we accomplished and say that they truly
stand on the shoulders of giants.
Postscript, April 30th
Earlier this week, I received word that the Illinois EPA has issued the permit for the intake pipe project, and the paperwork will be finalized with the Corps of Engineers.
