ASCE Water Report Card Overview | WWD Weekly Digest

On March 3, the American Society of Civil Engineers released the 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, giving U.S. infrastructure an overall grade of C-. Specific to the water industry, the score for Drinking Water was a C-, the score for Wastewater was a D+, and the score for Stormwater in its inaugural appearance was a D. The report highlighted the importance of robust asset management plans across the three water sectors for improving the scores and also noted the a funding gap of $434 billion over the next 10 years.

ASCE Infrastructure Report Card Committee Co-vice Chair Darren Olson discusses the scores for each of the water verticals, what their greatest challenges are and how the industry can address those challenges. From improving asset management plans to coordinating with local, state and federal legislators, Olson highlights the importance of communicating infrastructure needs.

• Intro: (0:00)
• An overview of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater grades: (0:44)
• What contributed to the drinking water grade increase: (2:20)
• How the LCRR and other regulations may result in grade improvements: (4:00)
• The keys to improving the wastewater grade: (6:10)
• Wastewater systems capacity challenges with inflow and infiltration: (8:50)
• Designing the storm water report and why it received its grade: (11:03)
• Shortfalls in funding and investment across the water sector: (16:02)
• Outro: (20:18)

Additional Resources

• Watch last week’s video: https://www.wwdmag.com/videos/how-winter-storm-uri-stressed-texas-water-plants-wwd-weekly-digest
• Read the complete ASCE Infrastructure Report Card: www.infrastructurereportcard.org
• Read WWD’s takeaways from the drinking water, wastewater and storm water reports: https://www.wwdmag.com/funding/asce-infrastructure-report-card-drinking-water-wastewater-storm-water-grades

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