Editorial: Ignoring Infrastructure Like Abusing ‘Plastic’

Ignoring infrastructure is like abusing credit cards. If we don’t pay attention and keep up payments, the bills will eventually “rise up like shoals beneath the sea and sink the ship.”

A perfect example of what we discussed last week in our column “U.S. Infrastructure Is Approaching ‘Kaputness’” was reflected in the January 23 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wherein it reported that “Flagging levees threaten $5 billion in growth [in three counties across the Mississippi River from St. Louis], officials say.” Our conclusion last week was that too much infrastructure is losing functionality due to neglect. The sad part is that the five Metro East levees are far from being the only ones in the country suffering from neglect.

The levee system at issue stretches in Illinois from Alton on the North to Columbia in the south. As the Post reports, the area is home to 156,000 people and 4,000 businesses. County officials are working with legislators to find solutions, which could cost up to $180 million. The St. Louis Engineer District has been warning officials for several years about the condition of the levees, some of which are 60 years old. The problem is not with the height of the levees but with underseepage and old and deteriorated pumps, pipes, gates and electrical panels, the Post reported.

We owe the Post a debt of gratitude for reporting this infrastructure need, because the public cannot say it has not been informed. Generally, issues having to do with the river get attention only if they involve endangered species or someone thinks projects will mess up the environment.

The people who settled this nation made up their minds centuries ago to move where they wanted to. But having decided to live on riverbanks, seashores and floodplains, these people took on, or should have taken on, a distinct responsibility to maintain the infrastructure (in this case levees) that hold back the sea, so to speak.

Just like with the locks and dams, money flowed freely like Mississippi waters when everyone was excited and the projects were new, and when their benefits were more thoroughly recognized. But now, half a dozen decades later, a scour hole under a dam—a problem that could ultimately result in severe damage to the dam and surrounding area—doesn’t gather much public attention. Fortunately, we have the Corps to evaluate and maintain those facilities (when there is money to do it). The money is not always available, and that is another story.

The Metro East problem, however, is twofold. After Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ordered to evaluate flood risks nationwide. New maps to be made public this spring are expected to designate most of the Metro East flood plain at risk in a base flood, the Post reports. In any year there is a 1 percent chance of a flood of that magnitude occurring. The levees could be decertified as soon as 2009.

Though the federal government usually pays 65 percent of flood control projects, it would take up to 15 years, and the project can’t wait that long. Levee failure could threaten billions in existing investments. However, decertification alone could threaten another $5 billion in planned projects, including an oil-refinery expansion, a new business park, added investment by U.S. Steel, etc.

The Post report said that if the money were readily available, the levee work could be completed within 12–18 months.

Yet another negative exists. If the levees are redesignated as expected, it could “mean new and costly building requirements, for many property owners to buy federal flood insurance and probably hurt property values.” County officials told the Post that while a new Mississippi River bridge is important, the levee repairs are more important. It is the No. 1 issue, they said.

Officials are scrambling to find ways to ease the impact of the Metro East levee situation. Illinois state Sen. William Haine, Alton, is planning to introduce a bill this week that would allow Illinois counties to impose a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for emergency repairs.

We wrote earlier that Metro East is not the only area in trouble with levees. In November, Missouri officials learned that a number of Missouri levee systems also fail to provide base flood protection.

The answers may be evasive, but the cause is obvious; we should not fail to recognize the potential danger of procrastination when it comes to proper maintenance of our infrastructure.

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