in catch basins, storm drains, we have increased our rates to among the highest in america. p u need to keep atlanta has been implementing an asset management plan into our storm drain system, woman: the pipe bursting process is designed and for some of the city, parts of the city, but not nearly as much as if we hadn't passed that evaluates and addresses their infrastructure issues. it ends up here at smurrf. a one-cent sales tax to replace an old pipe without digging an entire trench. 350,000 gallons come here on a daily basis, dedicated to water and sewer infrastructure. hunter: it's a continuum. at one end, you have your regular maintenance the old pipe has cracks and displaced joints producing recycled water, and that can be reused hunter: that sales tax counts for about a third of the revenue that you do every day on the system, and at the other end, long-term planning and openings in it. for landscape irrigation and indoor toilet flushing. of the department right now. so that every year we're repairing, we try to stop, not only infiltration, but exfiltration, franklin: we got 75% of the voters to agree replacing the right things, the pumps can only handle so much water, and we don't have to do it all at once, which is, where sewage would actually leak out of the pipe. which is generally when it's not rain, the dry-weather runoff, to tax themselves so that their children quite frankly, what we're having to do in atlanta now. and their children's children could have clean water so if you get a storm of a decent size, the head is larger, griffin: we have thousands of assets the pumps will shut down automatically because we're investing in it now. and the water will just continue to flow out into the ocean hunter: there were no alternatives. that we have to keep track of. so it breaks away the old pipe and allows we have to always know their condition the new pipe to come in behind it. and it carries a lot of bacteria and people can get sick the infrastructure was in dire straits. and continuously plan for their refurbishment griffin: we are saving about when they're swimming in the water a lot of people didn't want to believe 67% of the cost near a flowing storm drain. it had to be done, at the right time. of actually digging old pipe up. but it had to be done. one of the things we're required to do under the consent decree everyone knows you don't go in the water clyne: it's less invasive than an open-cut process, what came out of those lawsuits for 72 hours after it rains. is inspect our system. by the upper chattahoochee river keeper we're trying to find where there's leaks. where you would open the whole trench up you just don't. were two consent decrees, and replace the pipe. it's called "trenchless" technology, so... focused on overflows. so we blow smoke into the sewer pipe. this is the dirtiest beach in southern california. the intent is, city of atlanta, man: we're locating places where water that's as good as it gets. you need to keep the flows in the pipe. from the surface to the ground doheny beach. i've surfed this twice -- i've gotten sick both times. is running into the sewer pipe and overloading the system. narrator: with the griffin: we don't have to dig up everyone's yard, hunter: we have 1,600 miles of sewer. and we refurbish that pipe at a much-reduced cost. narrator: san juan creek, a concrete flood control channel, we are evaluating every linear foot of that system. another technique,

flows directly to doheny beach. the cured-in-place lining. moriarty: the concrete you can almost think of is the pipe leaking; are you having a lot of as a big water slide for pollutants to go to sea level. it's equivalent to putting a large sock infiltration or inflow? man: if it rains thornell: every time it rains, water will come down, through the existing sewer. more than 2/10 of an inch, we form a new pipe inside the old pipe, and therefore the county puts out a health advisory go into the pipe, enter the sewer system. for all beaches in the county. it's very easy to repair this defect that totaled 75 days in 2006. we seal up all of the defects that allow rainwater to come in. and get all that water out of the system. hunter: we repair about 730 leaks a month in our system. so it's sort of a frightening thing that it's so polluted griffin: with our closed-circuit tv inspection, that every time it rains, we have to stay out of the ocean for three days. we record cracks, holes, pipes that are griffin: the improvements that we've made moriarty: to be sick after surfing isn't like, partially collapsed. will make the environment better. "oh, i have a runny nose," and tomorrow it's gone. hunter: we literally will have a digital video we had approximately 1,000 overflows occur in 1999. can be a lot of different things. of every foot of our sewer nelsen: they include gastroenteritis, that in the future, we can go back and do a comparison. which is an upset stomach, and sinus infections, today, we've reduced overflows by 45% to 50%. what's changed? is it degrading? ear infections, eye infections, and there's also what do we need to do? at what rate is this happening? virulent versions of streptococcus griffin: to really improve these systems, and it's going to continue to improve as we go forward that can actually cause severe illness and even death. with the rehabilitation program that's required under the consent decree. moriarty: our goal with surfrider foundation narrator: an important piece of the program is essentially to have the city understand that the water is, in fact, dirty, is the construction of an 8-mile-long storage tank and then work with the infrastructure and the various issues to change that. that will significantly decrease combined sewer overflows. narrator: but building more systems and more plants can't work alone as a sustainable solution. man: right now, we're at the bottom

of the rockdale construction shaft. and, as in pittsburgh, as in new york, we're 310 feet below grade, part of the answer lies in protecting the watershed. deep under atlanta in hard rock. in the downtown area of atlanta, nelsen: we need to reduce the amount of impervious the sewer system and the stormwater system surfaces in our watershed, which are surfaces are combined and there are overflows that don't let the water soak in during storm events, and so the purpose of this system and then create more pervious surface, whether it's by having driveways that allow water to soak in is to relieve that flow, take it into the tunnel, or different landscaping to try to eliminate transport it to a brand-new treatment plant, the amount of runoff that comes off our land clean up the chattahoochee river. narrator: instead of the combined sewage so that the system, even with the development it has, overflowing into the river, it will flow into this tunnel that acts as a storage tank. acts more like a natural system and filters that water. the water will then slowly empty into the new plant water quality and sewage infrastructure isn't the sexiest of political agendas, for treatment before it's released back into the river. but by raising the awareness man: the system in total is about 8 1/2 miles, about water quality issues, we can create political pressure to get our issues solved. 27 feet in diameter. most of the time it will be dry. the only time it will fill about 15 years ago, surfrider activists is when the sewer system is overwhelmed by the storm. were protesting a beach for being polluted. it is a massive project. the city council asked the police to escort them away. there was complete denial of the problem. we've worked about a million and a half man-hours.

15 years later, water quality is on the agenda hunter: it is an incredible amount of work. of every city council person in that local city, and that's completely a result of activists our capital program right now is $3.9 billion. forcing the issue, surfrider and other local groups, saying, "hey, these water quality issues are real over a period of and you need to address them." and only until the public sort of creates that will less than 10 years. franklin: so it's very expensive. will the politicians respond. the bottom line is, we, as atlantans, as georgians, narrator: while some cities deal with infrastructure issues, don't have a choice to protect the river. others have concerns about we need to leave it better than we found it, the sustainability of water supplies. and it's really been a political advantage for me, allbee: it's not just about the sustainability of the assets, not a disadvantage. people laugh about me being the sewer mayor, it's about the sustainability of our water resources. but they remember what i'm doing. parts of this country that thought of themselves griffin: we want people to understand, as water rich 20, 30 years ago, when they see one of our work crews out now are discovering that they really are not water rich, working on the mains, they have source supply issues, they have serious questions that that work is necessary in order for them to have about how they're going to accommodate good clean drinking water or to have additional growth in their communities. a good, functioning wastewater system. melosi: if we can find alternatives, franklin: you don't put a roof on the house one time. we can preserve a water supply. you don't fix the plumbing one time,

conservation of water is a way of generating more water. any more than i get my hair done one time. allbee: we think that a household can actually reduce if we don't continue to invest for the next 20 years, its water usage by about 30%. we'll find ourselves back at the same point and that's hugely important in terms of the amount that we were in the late '90s. of infrastructure that community's going to require. if we don't protect water, we will be without water. we will be without industry, narrator: las vegas is one we will be without jobs, of the fast-growing areas in the country. we will be without a healthy economy, it's a relatively new city under constant construction. and our people will be sick. so we don't really have a choice. we're going to find out why that's important. it's a question of, who's going to pay, but because it's in the arid mojave desert, how much you're going to be willing to pay the challenge of las vegas is supply. in order to ensure that your children live woman: all the growth the kind of life that we as americans have promised them. and everything that's occurred in southern nevada woman: and what we're going to do is has been with colorado river water. get a marble to travel through your pipe. without it, the west as you know it today couldn't exist. child: keep still! keep still! woman: aw, there's a clog in the drain. narrator: to sustain their growing community oh, there it is. with its limited supply, [ laughing ] las vegas learned to be extremely efficient. mulroy: this is a desert, and it has its own beauty, narrator: in the 19th century, foresighted leadership

but you have to get beyond what you're used to. and innovative engineering established drinking water, as long as people recognize wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure they're moving to the desert and give up this notion that supported the growth of the nation. that they have to bring through much of the 20th century, eastern vegetation with them we continued to invest, and make the necessary adaptations in their own life, to ensure our public health, safety, and economy. desert communities can continue to live. but now, in the 21st century, man: the biggest water user in the desert is turf. we face the need to revisit our commitment to the buried assets turf uses a lot of irrigation and uses spray irrigation, and infrastructure that for so long have provided for our way of life. so what we've done here johnson: infrastructure across this country is use artificial turf. needs to be addressed you're never going to be able to achieve and it needs to be addressed now. the look of back east or the look of, say, california, hunter: what we need is responsible stewardship. with subtropical plants, we just can't turn a blind eye and say that they're going but our landscapes are still lush to continue to work for another 50 or 100 years. and use about 30% franklin: we can't be embarrassed of what the subtropical landscape with turf would use. to tell our congresspeople that we want something different. kelly: it's going to take state officials, las vegas has adopted a drought tolerant ordinance. it's going to take federal assistance, it's going to take all of us to get this united states we're using less water today it's going to take federal back where it belongs.

we're not there yet, but we can be there. than we used five years ago, grumbles: water is america's greatest liquid asset. despite over 300,000 new residents. and citizens and governments all need to be reminded i think it's a pretty amazing example as to how a town of that from time to time. woman: what can individuals do to make a difference? can really turn on a dime if there's the political will allbee: we need to accept the responsibility that future generations and if the public gets behind it. need to be able to rely on those assets narrator: even the casinos and resorts to have the same quality of life that we have. have adapted to efficient water use. oberstar: all the water there ever was or ever will be mulroy: the las vegas strip uses only 3% is here on earth today and it's our responsibility now, of all the water that we deliver. at this time, in this generation, to protect it. and when you think about it, it's the largest economic driver in the state, that must be our legacy to the future. the largest employer, bar none. they knew they had to go the extra mile. and they've embraced conservation. and it's almost beyond belief that they're right now in the process of building another 15,000 rooms. southern nevada recycles 100% of its wastewater. so for every gallon we put back in the colorado, we can take an additional gallon out, or we send it to reuse facilities.

and we deliver it to golf courses and parks and other outside applications. man: water's about a third of our budget. that's a lot of money. the lake right over here, 24 hours ago that was in somebody's house. it's been through a treatment plant. and now it's in our lake and we're watering with it. narrator: these reuse and conservation techniques enable las vegas to exist in the desert. another important form of conservation is preventing leaks. man: every drop counts. all water systems have what they call an efficiency rating. so if you were to measure the water that goes into your system and compare it to the water that goes out, how much is unaccounted for? most states have a goal of 10%. ours is at only 5.5% right now.

and we have plans to lower that to 4%. man: we actually have our entire distribution system mapped out in a computerized or electronic format. and we can locate our pipes, we can locate our valves, we can locate water meters that are out there. we've got small units installed in the distribution system. and they actually listen for leaks. we can schedule the repair, minimize its impacts to the surrounding community, and it minimizes cost, because obviously, if you've got a leak that's been leaking for sometime, you're going to see a lot of undermining of the roadways, potential property damage. fisher: all the sensors in the field come into this location. these two operators behind me operate the entire water system, 24/7. so we can see all of our reservoirs, their elevations, whether they're going up or down,

ater we're getting from our two treatment plants. we try to move it very quickly through the system and serve it to our customers in the most economic and efficient manner. narrator: las vegas serves as an example for cities across the country, whether they have a limited supply or not. and many utilities can identify with the struggles that come with maintaining underground assets to support a growing population. one of the most common issues that municipalities share is water loss. melosi: because it's not a catastrophic issue, we don't think much about it. but there is a 10%, 20%, 30% water loss or leakage in some systems. allbee: already treated water that you've invested money in, you're losing before you actually delivered it. narrator: so many utilities are employing the business strategy of asset management. it's a paradigm shift in the approach of attaining

a sustainable water infrastructure. man: it's not construction of new pipelines. we are talking about maintaining, sustaining the infrastructure we have. you've got to know what you have, where it is, what condition it's in, and how long you can expect it to last. melosi: we have very little choice because we've invested in a system that cannot be readily changed. we don't leave a lot of flexibility to dig that all up and replace it with something else. sinha: so we have to also teach our students, the workforce, that there is a new science -- repair, renewal, and rehabilitation. that's different from building something new. you cannot fix each and every crack in the city. it's like each city, you're talking about 3,000, 5,000 miles of pipe. so you have to prioritize where they can go and fix the system. narrator: each city faces unique situations,

so they must determine the asset management approach that best addresses these challenges. inspections can be done with various technologies, often by a robot... or personally by a technician on a bicycle. sensors detect breaks, cracks, and weaknesses in the pipe. man: we have roots at this cap lateral at 79. narrator: tree roots can grow into the pipe, splitting it apart. man: more light roots at 69. narrator: sometimes they may even find fully collapsed sections. after gathering the data, utilities can assess the need for rehabilitation. sinha: you have to choose the rehabilitation technique so that the life of the pipe can be extended 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. allbee: any asset has an optimal investment strategy. if you're making investments in that asset too early, or too late,

you're wasting money. it costs about three times as much to fix a system once it's failed. so it's all about finding that right point where the dollars should flow toward that asset. narrator: but finding the funds to evaluate and rebuild these assets is an ongoing struggle. johnson: there is a gap between what's being spent by municipalities and water supply systems and what needs to be spent. and somehow that has to be made up. so there's a good bit of lobbying through congress to get funding. oberstar: we need to restore the construction grant program. we need to invest substantially more, on the federal government side, as an inducement to states and local governments to make the investments they need to make. man: but the federal role is going to continue to be diminished because of so many competing demands.

so the expectation that the federal government will step in and infuse a lot of capital into water infrastructure, i think, is doubtful. and whether they should or not, i think, will continue to be debated. narrator: where money continues to be elusive, some cities and towns are turning their assets over to private companies, hoping the private sector can find the solutions they cannot. man: in the u.s., roughly 90% of all water and wastewater systems are still publicly owned and publicly managed. the remaining 10% are managed by privately held companies. man: the private sector has learned to become very efficient, and frequently a municipality can save themselves a significant amount of money by bringing in a private company. this is not true in all cases. there are some exceptionally well-run municipalities, but they do have to deal with a city government system

that is very hard to work within. paolicelli: there's several advantages to municipalities. they don't have to make a profit, so they're generally just trying to be break-even. and because of the importance of water, a lot of communities would be reluctant to give up control, but it is being looked at, especially on some of these troubled systems. cook: much of the business is in the mid-sized to smaller communities who have even fewer resources than the large cities, less expertise. if you take options off the table, it will be, well, what we've done for the last 40 years, and right now we have some real challenges. so any good manager is going to want to have a maximum number of options. allbee: you've got to have a serious conversation with your constituency about what it costs to deliver the service that you're required to deliver and to deliver the service that they want. paolicelli: and i think, ultimately, the responsibility is going to be down to the user of this commodity.

it costs money to operate these systems. there's a need to continually invest in these systems. there's going to be new regulations. it's all going to cost money. allbee: for all practical purposes, people are going to have to pay about twice as much for these services as they currently do. because a lot of the pipe that went in, a lot of the plants that went in, went in with very sizable portions of federal grant money, mechanisms that are no longer in place. narrator: without grants, utilities often turn to the bond market to pay for large capital improvements. and although the loan is often spread of a 20- to 30-year period, user rates will increase to pay down the debt. woman: unt community accepts the willingness to pay for what they use, they won't have that money that they need to replace this failing infrastructure and improve their treatment plants so they can meet regulations and population growth. elected officials have to have enormous courage

to be able to raise rates, to go out for bond levies, to deal with a situation that most people don't even see. it flushed yesterday, it flushed 10 years ago, what's the problem? narrator: atlanta is a rapidly growing urban area. its primary source of drinking water is the chattahoochee river, which also provides water to many downstream communities. but its infrastructure is dangerously old, without outdated facilities and combined sewer overflows polluting the watershed. the city faces strict consent decrees and lawsuits, along with a severe lack of funding. man: when i started working for the city of atlanta in the late '70s, we were approaching that point in time where a lot was going to be needed, in terms of rehabilitation and upkeep. most of the very large pipes were at least 80 years old.

we had needs that were identified in the '50s and in the '60s and in the '70s that were deferred. woman: we are urging that we all try to find a way to overcome the obstacles and limitations that might exist. woman: when i was running for office, i met someone who knew mayor hartsfield, who, in the late 1960s, said, "i don't know who the next mayor will be, "but i know they'll have to fix the water and sewer infrastructure." woman: the city had chronic sewage overflows into the chattahoochee and its tributaries. fecal coliform bacteria levels were in the millions of colonies per hundred milliliter, which was a significant public health threat. and this had been occurring for decades. but neither the federal epa nor the epd back in the '90s were willing to take action under the clean water act to make the city fix its plumbing. so in 1994, we started upper chattahoochee river keeper.

we filed a clean water act lawsuit. in 1997, we won. and so for the past decade, the city has embarked on a program to clean up the river. now, with 1,800 miles of sewer system, three sewage plants and combined sewer overflows, it took a number of years to figure out what would be the solution. we are facing a crisis in infrastructure. bethea: a huge change came about when mayor shirley franklin became the mayor of atlanta. we're having to choose how to spend our money. i named myself "the sewer mayor," and i wear that title very proudly, because, without wastewater infrastructure and drinking water infrastructure, the economy will stop. we did a major outreach. we trained an outreach team, who went to every community meeting, to educate people on how bad the crisis was. not only did i tell people that we'd have to raise rates, i told them we'd have to tear up the city to repair this infrastructure. man: you can't simply say,

"i won't use any water, it's too expensive." we have about 25% of our population that's at or below the poverty line, so you have to look at rate structures that are tiered so the people can pay their bills. franklin: we would love to have something like 75% federal money. we do get some federal aid and we are thankful, but on the other hand, we're paying for this primarily with new rates.