Water supply construction fell 5% in 2014, and FMI expects it to grow just 1% — to $13.0 billion — in 2015. The good news for sewage and waste disposal construction is that modest growth of 3% to 4% is expected for the same forecast period. This is an improvement over the last few leaner years, and growth may be aided in some industrial areas with a growing manufacturing sector. As in other areas of public infrastructure, the need for improvements in water supply is great, but the investment is lean.
“In today’s market, there is arguably no sector facing a more critical shortfall between demand and investment than the U.S. water market,” says Gregg Powell, vice president of FMI.
Government spending has been limited. Federal assistance for the safe drinking water State Revolving Fund (SRF) in the 11-year period between 1997 and 2008 totaled $9.5 billion, just slightly more than the investment gap for each of those years. In recent years, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) programs have provided more than $5 billion annually to fund water-quality protection projects. The drought crisis in California will be instructive for the rest of the nation, as the state will have to increase spending on water resources.
“The country’s water and wastewater infrastructure suffers from subpar conditions throughout the supply chain, encompassing water intake, diversion, transportation, storage, treatment, and delivery,” notes Powell.
Nonetheless, these key sectors will continue to compete with other infrastructure sectors for public funds.
