The Blue Death (book)
Mar 9, 2011 15:10:03 GMT
Post by giga on Mar 9, 2011 15:10:03 GMT
"The EPA has estimated that simply maintaining our water distribution systems in the United States will cost $100 billion in today's dollars over the next twenty years as we replace about 1 million miles of pipes. After that it gets expensive. During the twenty years after 2026, we will need to replace 6 million miles of pipe, at costs in excess of half a trillion dollars.
A peculiar bit of manufacturing history is helping to drive this problem. The first iron pipes were installed in the nineteenth century and have now reached or exceeded their design life of 125 years. About twenty-five years later, manufactures learned to make a thinner pipe. The thin walls made it less expensive and easier to work with, but reduced the design life to about one hundred years. Another twenty-five years passed before the introduction of a new pipe with still thinner walls. It's design life? Seventy-five years. As if part of some grand, unintelligent design, this pattern of manufacturing innovation has synchronized the decay of all three different types of pipe such that they will all reach the end of their useful life at roughly the same time."
The Blue Death is basically an overview of the flaws in our water distribution systems.
A peculiar bit of manufacturing history is helping to drive this problem. The first iron pipes were installed in the nineteenth century and have now reached or exceeded their design life of 125 years. About twenty-five years later, manufactures learned to make a thinner pipe. The thin walls made it less expensive and easier to work with, but reduced the design life to about one hundred years. Another twenty-five years passed before the introduction of a new pipe with still thinner walls. It's design life? Seventy-five years. As if part of some grand, unintelligent design, this pattern of manufacturing innovation has synchronized the decay of all three different types of pipe such that they will all reach the end of their useful life at roughly the same time."
The Blue Death is basically an overview of the flaws in our water distribution systems.
