| From West by Northwest.org Voices of the Northwest Sadler's Sense: Infrastructure Renewal Needed By Russell Sadler Mar 18, 2005
America is literally falling apart. That is the opinion of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Their recently released report on the condition of the nation’s civic infrastructure says crowded schools, transit cutbacks and traffic-choked roads and highways are eroding the nation’s quality of life. Conditions in these three categories of public works continue to deteriorate since the civil engineers last reports in 2001 and 2003. Conditions also worsened in such categories as local roads, drinking water, wastewater treatment, transit, hazardous waste, energy and navigable waterways. On a slightly brighter note, conditions remained the same for bridges, solid waste and dams. The civil engineers say $1.6 trillion dollars should be spent over the next five years to avoid serious problems in the nation’s public works. The engineers gave the condition of the nation’s overall infrastructure a D. That’s down from a D+ in the 2001 and 2003 assessments. The highest grade was a C+ for solid waste facilities, the lowest grade was a D- for drinking water systems, wastewater treatment and navigable waterways. Oregon rates slightly higher than the national average in some categories but the consequences of population growth threaten those rankings. After World War II the people who governed Oregon delighted in the private profits of growth, while militantly ignoring the public costs. The population of Oregon grew 50 percent in the 1950s, producing the largest growth in cities in Oregon history. Much of the growth consisted of unserviced suburban subdivisions that left a legacy of congested highways inadequate to move growing commerce, polluted rivers, crowded schools, failing septic tanks and polluted wells. Congested commerce scared complacent officials into action first. Oregon drew plans and had them on the shelf to take full advantage of the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act with revenue sharing as large as 90 federal dollars for every 10 the state supplied. Interstate 5 and Interstate 84 grew section by section replacing the aging north-south Route 99 and east-west Route 30. Local school districts struggled to construct new schools for what we now call the Baby Boomers. But the consequences of uncontrolled growth still hung over the state, especially the Willamette Valley where population grew more than 50 percent in the 1950s. The Willamette River was an open sewer. The two biggest pollutants were pulp mill waste and raw municipal sewage. In 1966, former television commentator Tom McCall ran for governor promising to clean up the Willamette. McCall was as good as his word. Once elected, McCall drew up ambitious plans to install sewers and wastewater treatment in every Oregon city. New laws prohibited large subdivisions on septic tanks. With so many plans on the drawing board, Oregon was among the first states to take advantage of the 1973 Federal Clean Water Act with it matching formula of 75 federal dollars for every 25 state dollars. Not all cities had similar sewer costs. Long narrow sewage systems like Lincoln County had longer lines with fewer hookups per mile and more lift stations. Cities like Bend and Redmond are built on solid basalt. Central Oregon contractors did not dig sewer trenches with back hoes. They blew trenches with explosives. The Legislature sold state pollution control bonds and created a “hardship fund” to subsidize cities with high sewer construction costs. The bonds were paid off with income tax revenues over 30 years. By the late 1970s nearly all Oregon cities had sewage treatment facilities built to serve double the population. That is the good news. The bad news is that the population of the Willamette Valley doubled between 1970 and 2000. The population of the Willamette Valley is predicted to double again by 2030. The population of Central Oregon and the Rogue Valley is expected to grow nearly as much. The sewage treatment and water supply systems completed by the 1970s are now reaching their capacity. Drinking water is an emerging concern for some Oregon cities It’s time to do it all over again. There are no federal matching funds for this round. Oregon taxpayers have some huge bills ahead to pay for the price of growth. Hamstrung by property tax limitations, local governments do not have the flexibility to solve their own problems they had 40 years ago. The question is whether the Governor and the Legislature will provide some leadership on this issue before it becomes a full-blown crisis as it did in the 1960s after decades of neglect. Will we continue to see the spectacle of politicians prancing around bleating “No New Taxes” and shifting the burden to the next generation as they did in the 1950s, or will some lawmakers have the courage to suggest that we pay our bills as they come due? Copyright ©2005 by Russell Sadler You may enjoy visiting Portland Bridges by Andrew Hall. His work documents the value of maintaining infrastructure. Russell Sadler is a journalist and a lecturer at Southern Oregon University. You may write him c/o publisher at westbynorthwest.org. Visit Sadler's Sense column's at West By Northwest.org: Sadler's Sense: The Unlikely Poster Child for Measure 37 Sadler's Sense: Of Myths, Money and Machines, Why We Blame the Owl Sadler's Sense: Not Window Dressing Sadler's Sense: From Constantine to George, God's Will and Secular Power Sadler's Sense: Credibility or State of Our State Sadler's Sense: Look in the Mirror, Oregon Sadler's Sense: Why We Must Pay the Piper Now Sadler's Sense: A Short History of Measure 30 © Copyright 2000-2004 by West by Northwest.org |
