Repairs aren’t cheap

      Fix our underground dangers

In Life After People, the popular-yet-odd program on The History Channel, the brickand-mortar element of our cities — concrete and steel, buildings and pipes, all things manmade — is the star of the show.

The impossible premise is scientifically simple: If people suddenly disappeared from Earth, what would happen to our surroundings?

The result, scientists on the show say, is catastrophic. As decades pass, and without people to keep technology active, machines would malfunction, unstable buildings would crumble, decaying pipelines would burst, nuclear reactors and natural-gas facilities would be unattended, and fires would rage.

In essence, it’s a made-for-TV doomsday scenario that carries a message we shouldn’t ignore.

Infrastructure must be maintained.

Doomsday it is not, but hundreds of miles of Calhoun County’s underground water and sewage pipes are retirement-age old; some need repair. Call it a classic case of infrastructure that’s deteriorated from decades of either purposeful neglect, inattention or lack of concern.

In last Sunday’s Star, reporter Laura Camper explained how water and sewage pipes across the county map are old enough to cause major headaches for local water boards who manage them and residents who rely on the service they perform.

Each city has its own concerns — in most cases, aging pipes that need replacing, some of which are prone to leaks. Most local boards are doing what they can with the money they have. But the quintessential Calhoun County example is Anniston, which has more than 835 miles of water and sewage pipe. Approximately half of it is more than 50 years old.

The task’s difficulty is obvious. Buried deep underground, water and sewage pipes are expensive to repair or replace. It’s a timeconsuming, expensive, messy job. And, unfortunately, human nature gets in the way.

Over time, cities often have put off needed upgrades until there’s a leak, and neither residents nor city councilmen are as likely to see replacement as a priority — until there’s a crisis that forces a costly fix.

“Nobody sees it, so they just forget about it,” Wayne Livingston, general manager for the Oxford Water Works and Sewer Board, told The Star.

Clearly, the time of inactivity has passed. Proactive planning is needed. Yet, said Jim Miller, GM of the Anniston water board, “The question is, are we running the race fast enough? The answer is: I doubt it.”

Most problems have several solutions; that may not be the case for aging underground pipes. Repairs aren’t cheap, and some local water boards have increased their rates to pay those bills. That’s highly unpopular with residents, but infrastructure requires money for maintenance, just as public schools require tax dollars to pay teachers, upgrade classrooms and buy supplies.

In that sense, public services aren’t free.

It’s good to hear that local water boards long ago identified this as a critical need in Calhoun County. Don’t consider this a mundane, routine topic. It’s a big deal that should be treated as such.