
America’s Farmers, Reeling from Floods, Face a New Problem: No Water - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/us/nebraska-wyoming-farmers-water.html
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jdkee
American infrastructure has been given a D+ by the American Society of Civil
Engineers.

[https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/](https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/)

We have been under-funding maintenance for decades and problems, such as this
example, will be on the rise given the additional stressors due to climate
change.

It is a problem of political will. To quote Vonnegut, "Another flaw in the
human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do
maintenance."

~~~
trothamel
Isn't there a bit of a conflict of interest here, insofar as the members of
the ASCE would be the ones to benefit from increased infrastructure spending?

Note that the article says "The tunnels and canals, though old, were
maintained regularly".

~~~
StudentStuff
Hundred year old infrastructure is not the most sturdy, obviously this
structure was past the end of its design life (leading to its failure).

Maintaining a structure doesn't prevent the concrete from spalling (as the
chemical bonds that bind the concrete age and degrade), nor does it
necessarily pick up on failing earthen tunnels in hard to inspect areas.

Many bridges across the country are going on 100 years old, and have a ~50
year design life. Structurally they are deficient, often undersized for the
modes of traffic using them, and structural failure (which is very possible)
would likely kill people. US infrastructure needs heavy investment, rather
than the neglect it has seen for decades.

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SilasX
>“It’s just been event after event after event,” said Dave Kaufman, who
canceled the purchase of a new Ford F-150 truck to save money after much of
his farmland outside Gering, Neb., went dry. “And you would think that the
last shoe had dropped, but it hasn’t.”

That ... seems like a mild consequence, all things considered.

~~~
squish78
If you depend on a reliable work truck for your livelihood, it's not mild.

It's like saying "I guess my 2008 laptop will have to keep working for a few
more years, there is no budget in the foreseeable future to upgrade"

~~~
SilasX
I doubt this upgrade is as urgent as a laptop though; trucks last longer and
don’t have to deal with ever hungrier software.

~~~
squish78
"trucks last longer" is an arbitrary measurement to this scenario. If it's
broken down and you don't have the means to replace it or buy a new one, you
can't operate your business

~~~
SilasX
Yes, but that’s a separate question from how often you really need to buy an
entirely new one, which is usually a very optional expense. Repairing will
generally be much cheaper.

~~~
mitchty
> Yes, but that’s a separate question from how often you really need to buy an
> entirely new one, which is usually a very optional expense. Repairing will
> generally be much cheaper.

I grew up on a farm, you're presuming a lot. Guess what goes into a new heavy
duty pickup truck purchase?

Well lets look at the new fuel efficiency, project out 10+ years to figure out
how much fuel that will save, figure out how much gas will cost in the next 10
years (fudge it mostly).

And the work that these things do tends to be hard on everything. There is a
need for new pickup trucks, and its not because you want it, its because it
will save money. Repairing' isn't cheaper when you have heavy use.

Our trucks lasted maybe 200 000 miles of wear and tear. At the end, they were
getting to pretty expensive options, like replace the engine entirely or
rebuild, both about the same cost. Oh and the frame was starting to rust, or
crack etc...

Your day to day car usage in the city does not give you much insight into how
heavy duty pickup trucks get used on farms and ranches.

This is pretty close to the poor problem of having to buy $20 dollar boots
every year because you can't affort a $100 dollar pair that will last 10
years. If you get behind on replacing things, you end up paying more.

~~~
squish78
Thank you for explaining it better than I could

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Animats
The Goshen Irrigation District of Wyoming (17 employees listed) had a water
tunnel collapse and expects to be down for three weeks. This isn't a
nationwide event.

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xrd
This article seems hyperbolic. I'm not sure how a bill of $18M translates into
a monstrous tax bill. It's been a tough year for farmers but I'm not sure if
this is any more than just a small blip in the reality for farmers.

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aszantu
Meanwhile the republic of kongo plants 350m trees xD

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patientplatypus
Hmmm....outline.com doesn't work, nor does reading in private mode on fire
fox. I'm almost more interested in how to read the article than what the
article has to say.

Googleing the headline works! Here is a short url: shorturl.at/CLOQW, or you
can google it if you don't trust me :P.

Thanks!

~~~
693471
[https://archive.fo/bB9N9](https://archive.fo/bB9N9)

