Escaping the heat is no longer a simple task for Minnesotans. This summer’s heat led more than a dozen Minneapolis schools to switch to remote learning because of a lack of sufficient air conditioning to keep students cool. With a persistent drought, homeowners were told to conserve water, and using their sprinklers on lawns was restricted to specific days.
This trend isn’t going away any time soon. Minnesota’s weather is becoming more extreme, pushing our infrastructure to the limit. While we experience record high temperatures and drought, we are also seeing flash floods and heavy downpours that overwhelm sewage pipelines and jeopardize public health.
Winter months are just around the corner, and the Midwest has dealt with record-breaking freezes in recent years, which will thrust a new series of complications on Minnesota’s structures. These events, paired with the costs of maintenance and improvement projects for aging transportation and water systems, can strain city budgets. Too often, underinvested communities are the ones paying the price.
According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, the U.S. experienced a record 22 separate billion-dollar climate disasters in 2020, with marginalized communities suffering the most severe consequences. A study from NYU’s Furman Center found that public, subsidized, and rent-regulated housing bore the brunt of Superstorm Sandy’s $65 billion in damage. These communities also tend to receive less assistance recovering from disasters. After Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana relied on U.S. HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program to assist homeowners. However, Black homeowners received an average of $8,000 less than white homeowners. The discrepancy was a result of basing award amounts on housing values rather than the cost of repairs.
The first step toward eliminating inequities in the face of disaster is to bring infrastructure systems up to a state of good repair with resilience as a top priority. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed in the Senate by a 69-30 vote and now awaits passage in the House, would provide $550 billion in new spending over the next five years for a variety of infrastructure systems nationwide. Critically, the act includes $55 billion that would be allocated to rebuilding the nation’s water infrastructure and $50 billion in dedicated investments to improve infrastructure resilience and safeguard critical infrastructure, including $11 billion for flood mitigation. If done with intention, investments in infrastructure can be investments in equity. Without equity, we can never be resilient .
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Those investments are critical to supporting states like Minnesota as we work to repair and rebuild our systems. Our country faces an infrastructure investment gap of $2.59 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. This gap is getting wider as maintenance is deferred, with conditions deteriorating as systems age and extreme weather becomes increasingly common.
State and local governments are doing what they can to tackle projects and raise revenue in Minnesota, but we need the federal government to become a strong partner again. According to the Value of Water Campaign, federal funding for water infrastructure has dwindled to a mere 4% of capital investment as of 2017, down from 31% in 1977.
Infrastructure investment not only protects us from climate impacts, it creates jobs and a more efficient economy. The National League of Cities’ Ready to Rebuild report identified important projects in Minnesota that are waiting for support to be completed. This includes a $165 million project in Burnsville to protect the city’s water supply from the nearby Freeway Sanitary Landfill, which contains numerous hazardous chemicals. There are countless additional projects like these waiting for funding that could make a huge difference in Minnesota communities. We could also increase the impact of these funds by creating jobs in communities that need them most.
It’s time we prepare for the future that is at our doorstep. When our systems are not prepared for increased precipitation and other severe weather threats, all Minnesotans suffer, and our economy takes a hit — especially in Black and brown communities. The House has an opportunity to pass this historic funding quickly to provide a lifeline for economic recovery and the foundation for a safer, more resilient, and equitable future. Now it’s time to get it done.
Ron Harris is the chief resilience officer for the city of Minneapolis, and Tim Lamkin of West St. Paul is the Minnesota Section president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. They wrote this exclusively for the News Tribune.
