The last few months, I’ve started to really notice how shit the quality of most buildings and infrastructure is in the US. I know a lot of people in the construction industry and grew up in it, and it’s really just amazing how everything is built to maximize short term appearance and minimize cost. EVERYTHING, even ostensibly “luxury” housing, is built this way. I used to live an apartment building that was only a few years old but when you looked at the details you could already see the thing was falling apart. I’ve seen roads get resurfaced only to see a bunch of cracks and pot holes show up the next winter.
So as America enters terminal decline, I fully expect the buildings and infrastructure around us is just gonna fall apart and look hideous. Especially the suburbs. I feel like most suburbs are held together with paper mache and veneer. And of course Americans will deny it’s happening and pretend it’s totally fine.
I love the ASCE infrastructure report card. I think reading about in high school is part of what started me on my interest in “big government” socialism.
Hazardous Waste: D+
Progress toward mitigating legacy sites where hazardous waste was produced and improperly disposed of has stalled. Meanwhile, resilience is a growing concern at many hazardous waste sites. Around 60% of all nonfederal Superfund sites are located in areas that may be impacted by flooding, storm surge, wildfires, or sea level rise related to climate change effects.
And people here still think our nation should pivot to nuclear for our energy needs, with no consideration for how we currently handle the waste we’ve created.
Can confirm. Work for one of the largest HazMat/Enviromental remediation companies in the US. A lot of our bigger sites are dormant because it’s not profitable to proceed with remediation if the at-fault party contests.
Also- most insurance companies have creative clauses in their policies that make it impossible for spills/contaminated areas to be 100% covered. As a consequence, the state has the obligation to mitigate but corners are cut everywhere because Environmental Services are usually some of the least funded departments in state budgets. Cleanup Funds are also finite and once the fiscal year’s coffers run dry, some projects are either completely abandoned or postponed until the fund is refilled.
And people here still think our nation should pivot to nuclear for our energy needs
I mean, we should, but we also need to do it properly. Like all things. There’s no point in doing it if we do it wrong.
Yeah it’s a bit more complicated than “do it or don’t do it” akin to UBI: Yang needs to walk off, but I could get onboard if Bernie (or better) were to do it.
And any cursory look at our history of “we need to do it properly” should show that practically, we won’t.
Even if we do the massive PR push to make nuclear something people actually want and aren’t terrified of, that continued pressure to maintain safe nuclear waste facilities for decades won’t happen.
Superfund being another program that’s funding has stagnated too.
Between the Berkeley Pit and the Hanford site , I’d sure hate to be reliant on the Columbia River for drinking water in the coming decades.
ASCE
Please keep in mind the ASCE is a special-interest group representing folks who directly benefit from infrastructure spending.
