President Obama revealed details of his far-reaching stimulus package in Washington today, including a proposal to invest billions in modernizing the nation’s water supply system. To wit:
The plan calls for several major infrastructure investments, including enhancing security of 90 major ports and modernizing the nation’s water system by launching 1,300 wastewater projects, 380 drinking water projects and 1,000 rural and sewer system projects.
That’s good for Louisville, which is under a consent decree from EPA that requires the Metropolitan Sewer District to replace old, dated sewers that allow for pollution during certain rain events. That project will cost around $800 million. If we got every bit of the $600 million Mayor Abramson is asking from Obama’s plan, according to what he told me in an interview a few weeks ago, we’d cover something like one-fourth of the total consent decree cost. It’s probably more likely we’ll get half what we’re asking for, or maybe less, but hey — whatever gets us closer to keeping sewage overflow outta here is good, right?
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Hooray sewage overflow! How exactly does this stimulate our economy again?
I believe the basic idea from the Obama administration is that a huge public infrastructure rebuilding effort would create a bunch of temporary jobs, and thus provide a quick boost for cities like Louisville — where city government relies heavily on occupational tax and is hurting badly because of a 7-point-something percent unemployment rate — that would last 3-5 years or so. It’d be a mix of government workers and private-sector contractors hired — at least in Louisville, according to what Abramson has told me.
The upside of this plan is, of course, that our country’s basic infrastructure doesn’t collapse from a lack of basic maintenance/care.