The fragility of aging water infrastructure is evident in many communities. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ U.S. Infrastructure Report Card in 2021 estimated that a water main breaks every two minutes somewhere in the U.S., losing 6 billion gallons of treated water a day. The engineers gave U.S. municipal water systems overall a grade of C-minus.

Flood protection infrastructure earned even lower grades: U.S. levees and dams both received D grades, along with a warning that expanding development means more people and property are downstream and relying on levees and dams to function.

Today’s infrastructure ranges from brick and mortar facilities to electronic networks – each with varying needs, goals, responsibilities and vulnerabilities to climate change.

Moreover, infrastructure often functions interdependently. If one asset fails, such as a pipeline or the computer system that controls a water treatment plant, the damage can cascade to other systems. For example, untreated wastewater discharged into a stream because of a system failure can affect drinking water supplies for communities downstream.

Water issues cut across different levels of government, laws and regulations, and technical and academic expertise, requiring partnerships that can be difficult to govern. That can put different government agencies into conflict as disputes develop over regulatory control and responsibility, particularly between federal, state and local governments.

In many areas, water infrastructure built over the centuries has shaped subsequent development decisions, available resources and land use patterns, including the location of new homes, transportation facilities and businesses.

Today, that infrastructure may also be threatened by climate change in ways its developers never imagined.

More intense rainfall events have made long-standing flood maps obsolete in some areas, and areas never considered at risk of flooding before are now flooding regularly. This is especially true in coastal areas where storms may be coupled with abnormally high tides, sea level rise and subsidence.

Questions about who pays for infrastructure improvements, or who decides project priorities, can also generate conflict.

Infrastructure is expensive. A single project, such as replacing water pipes or a treatment facility, will involve significant design and construction costs, as well as maintenance and repairs that many poorer communities struggle to afford.

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