Post by Rippling Nature

𝐀 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐢𝐞𝐠𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 in January 2024 to a storm channel the city never cleaned once in the 30 years she lived behind it. 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑡𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟. But a drone flight the day after showed the real culprit: the channel built to carry water away from her neighborhood was choked with trees, trash, and mud. The channel meant to drain the neighborhood was what flooded it. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮.  This wasn't a freak event or a maintenance oversight. It's the predictable output of how we fund stormwater in this country. 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 1 𝑖𝑛 5 permitted stormwater systems in the U.S. has a dedicated funding source. The rest compete for budget against parks, roads, and fire stations every year, and they usually lose. So channels go uncleaned for decades, and cities pay for it later in emergency repairs, insurance claims, and destroyed homes. 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲. It just moves the cost from a planned line item to an unplanned disaster. San Diego now needs $1.6 billion over five years just to catch up. 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚'𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐃 on the 2025 ASCE report card, unchanged since it was first graded in 2021. The maintenance-money problem here rhymes with something I found in the Texas water investigation: the state passed its largest water bill in history and still covered about a tenth of the real need, with the money that competes for attention losing out to the money that gets earmarked. 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒, 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡. I wrote about how we got here, and what one city (Norfolk) is doing differently. Link in comments. 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛: 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑟? #WaterInfrastructure #ClimateResilience #Stormwater #UrbanPlanning

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