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I think it'd be a shame if engineers were the ones to make the decision in this case. The decision needs to be made by people with a more serious understanding

I think it'd be a shame if engineers were the ones to make the decision in this case. The decision needs to be made by people with a more serious understanding of risk and fragility, like the military generals, and especially by the people who will bear both the upsides and downsides of the decision, a.k.a. the local community who will be consuming the water.

Loughla 2y ago
This is one of the few areas where rural living is better, in my experience. Our water, power, and Internet are all delivered by local co-ops. We actually do get a direct say in how the money is spent on our infrastructure. It's one of the reasons why I have fiber Internet whereas the closest town (managed by for profit entity) is still fighting to roll it out years after we had ours run to us. I also got reimbursed by the co-op for the water line to my house when we built the place. I also lobbied the power board to prioritize tree removal near lines for a more reliable service.
- maxerickson 2y ago
  My rural "neighbors" pay more than 2x for electricity and don't have any water/sewer service. I live in a small town in a geographically large county that only has about 35,000 residents, so there may be differing ideas of rural at play.
  - Loughla 2y ago
    We pay more, yes, but not 2x what the city people pay in the next county over. Maybe 1.2x or so. Obviously there is no sewer service, just septic tanks. That cost is minimal once they're installed. Install price was around 5k, and it costs $200 to have it pumped ever four or five years. The definition of rural to me is around 12k residents in a county that is around 1000 square miles. That's the size of where we are. The largest town is around 3k people. Two counties over is a city of about 40k. The 3k town is part of our co-op, so they have fiber. The 40k had less than 15% on fiber the last I knew, but that was two years ago. Since then they haven't run anymore lines, but have added customers on their existing lines.

Loughla 2y ago

This is one of the few areas where rural living is better, in my experience. Our water, power, and Internet are all delivered by local co-ops. We actually do get a direct say in how the money is spent on our infrastructure. It's one of the reasons why I have fiber Internet whereas the closest town (managed by for profit entity) is still fighting to roll it out years after we had ours run to us. I also got reimbursed by the co-op for the water line to my house when we built the place. I also lobbied the power board to prioritize tree removal near lines for a more reliable service.

maxerickson 2y ago
My rural "neighbors" pay more than 2x for electricity and don't have any water/sewer service. I live in a small town in a geographically large county that only has about 35,000 residents, so there may be differing ideas of rural at play.
- Loughla 2y ago
  We pay more, yes, but not 2x what the city people pay in the next county over. Maybe 1.2x or so. Obviously there is no sewer service, just septic tanks. That cost is minimal once they're installed. Install price was around 5k, and it costs $200 to have it pumped ever four or five years. The definition of rural to me is around 12k residents in a county that is around 1000 square miles. That's the size of where we are. The largest town is around 3k people. Two counties over is a city of about 40k. The 3k town is part of our co-op, so they have fiber. The 40k had less than 15% on fiber the last I knew, but that was two years ago. Since then they haven't run anymore lines, but have added customers on their existing lines.