Adapt to a Changing Climate: “Prioritize alternate ways of managing stormwater,” says editorial in Detroit Free Press after historic 24-hour rainfall

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Editorial: Re-envision infrastructure in wake of historic rainfall

“Metro Detroit’s sewers need billions in work, the ability for communities to pay for that work is limited, and thanks to climate change, it’s likely to get worse,” stated an editorial in the Detroit Free Press on August 12, 2014.

“What this should prompt is a broadscale recognition that our infrastructure needs to be re-envisioned, that we need to spend a lot more money repairing our region’s crumbling underpinnings. And that we should prioritize alternate ways of managing storm water, like green and blue infrastructure, which offer cheaper ways of managing storm water overflows.”

Impact of Funding Cutbacks

“One of the really, really big problems, in my estimation, is the state has cut back on the funding to local units of government,” said Steven Wright, a professor in University of Michigan’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “That has had a major effect on ability to invest and upgrade infrastructure systems.”

To Learn More:

To read the complete editorial in the Detroit Free Press, click on Editorial: Re-envision infrastructure in wake of historic rainfall