America's water and wastewater infrastructure was built over 50 years ago, and reflects the state of the art that existed during the years following World War 2. Some of this infrastructure is more than 100 years old. Most of it will need to be replaced over the next two decades, and much is in need of immediate rehabilitation. The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage estimates that the 91,000 community and non-community water and wastewater organizations will spend more than $1.5 trillion to bring the systems up to standard over the next twenty years. The recently passed stimulus legislation provides a substantial down payment on that requirement.
Nearly all today's wastewater infrastructure is fabricated from either concrete or steel, both of which present challenges related to corrosion, deterioration and tuberculation. Recent flooding around the country has accelerated the breakdown of this infrastructure. Increasingly, advanced composites offer substantial advantages in the replacement and rehabilitation of existing wastewater infrastructure, and ECC has developed innovative new approaches to deploy composites to meet the challenge.
ECC's composite sewer lift station replacement system, for example, allows municipal wastewater agencies to realize substantial rehabilitation/replacement savings up front and enjoy virtually zero lifecycle costs. ECC's design also provides significant worker safety advantages, and the installed systems provide added protection to fragile environmental situations. ECC believes that the company will capture much more than its fair share of the nation's near and midterm wastewater projects because the company's multi-faceted value proposition:
- Installed costs that are substantially lower,
- Structure-related maintenance and other lifecycle costs that virtually disappear,
- Useful life that is dramatically longer than concrete or steel,
- Design innovations that drive better functionality and safer work environment for municipal workers, and
- Stronger structural integrity driving higher levels of environmental protection.
