When Water Infrastructure Is Dependable, It’s Invisible
The mark of an effective water treatment system is usually that it’s unremarkable. It operates reliably as intended and steadily fulfills the demands and production outputs the communities around it depend on.
However, the moment a system failure prevents someone from turning on the faucet and accessing clean water, this invisible infrastructure suddenly becomes a top priority. The reality is that a system can appear to be operating normally while still requiring significant improvements. These needs are easy to overlook until they become “mission-critical.”
In 2025, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its latest rendition of America’s Infrastructure Report Card.
America’s overall infrastructure grade: C
In the Wastewater category: D+
And in the Drinking Water category: C-
The U.S. has a serious—but underrecognized—infrastructure problem. Water infrastructure, both within the drinking water and wastewater categories, is not exempt from this issue. America still has a long way to go to close the projected $3.7 trillion infrastructure funding gap estimated by the ASCE.
Water infrastructure needs substantial investments both to meet rising demand and cope with accelerating degradation experienced by aging systems. But just as importantly, it also needs smart solutions that help utilities get more out of the infrastructure they already have in place.
How Invisibility Leads to Underinvestment
The temptation to stick to the status quo is difficult for budget-conscious utilities to resist when they are searching for ways to increase productivity while coping with tightening capital. “Good enough” can become a substitute for continuous improvement. As long as operations remain stable, there is little public pressure for improvements and even less urgency to invest in transformative developments.
Water treatment, electrical distribution, and SCADA systems share this challenge. However, even stable operations can breed problems that gradually develop into extensive and expensive issues.
Wastewater infrastructure provides a clear example of how reliability can erode when reinvestment falls behind. Across the country, nearly 17,500 wastewater treatment plants operate every day to protect public health. Together, those assets represent more than $1 trillion in infrastructure value. Even so, the sector's renewal and replacement rate for major projects fell from 3% to 2% during the past decade. At the same time, collection system failures increased from 2.0 to 3.3 failures per 100 miles of pipe.
Drinking water systems face similar pressures. EPA estimates the nation will need $625 billion in drinking water infrastructure investment over the next 20 years. That figure exceeds the agency's previous assessment by more than $150 billion. More than 9 million lead service lines remain in service nationwide, while utilities continue responding to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) regulations and preparing facilities for more severe weather conditions.
To create awareness and momentum for systemic improvements, more often than not, something needs to break. For example, an aging PLC may generate nuisance alarms for months before it fails. A surge protection device may stop providing meaningful protection long before anyone notices a problem. The early signs stay hidden inside the facility. But the inevitable outage that follows receives the lion’s share of attention.
Waiting until critical improvements are needed often means that repairs or replacements are substantially more expensive and disruptive for facility operators than if they had proactively implemented high-impact, systemic improvements along the way.
What It Takes to Keep the Tap Running: The City Of Burton Project
The City of Burton Water Plant demonstrates what a thoughtful enhancement strategy looks like behind the scenes. The facility depended on a single groundwater well to meet community demand, with no redundancies in place. The arrangement worked reasonably well if no unforeseen disruptions occurred, but it left the city vulnerable. If the well required maintenance or experienced an operational problem, the community's water supply could be affected.
This is not uncommon. Many utilities continue operating aging infrastructure while trying to balance reliability goals against limited budgets. According to the ASCE’s 2025 Report, only about 30% of drinking water utilities have fully implemented asset management plans.
To improve reliability, the City of Burton partnered with Guzman Engineering to add a second 40-horsepower groundwater well to reduce dependence on a single source and create meaningful redundancy within the system. Guzman provided the electrical engineering design required to integrate the new well into the existing facility. Most importantly, the upgrade was completed while the plant remained fully operational.
The project included modifications to the plant's power system so it could support the additional motor load. Design efforts also addressed grounding upgrades, code compliance requirements, and motor starter coordination. Rather than replacing all infrastructure outright, the work focused on integrating new equipment into the systems already serving the facility.
The project also required updates to controls and SCADA. It included replacement of aging GST probes and integration of the new equipment into the plant's monitoring environment, giving operators greater visibility into system performance.
After project completion, the facility was able to successfully alternate between the original well and the new groundwater source, allowing operators to maintain service if either well became unavailable. As a result, the plant doubled its available water resources and gained valuable redundancy against equipment failures and disruptions affecting a single water source.
Throughout the project, most residents likely never devoted much thought to it. And this is how it should be. The improvements ensured the community could continue living as normally, largely unaware of the systemic changes occurring, but with more supply protections in place for its daily needs.
Why This Work Deserves Investment
When critical upgrades are postponed for too long, utilities often face significant consequences. The status quo works—until it doesn’t. Fittingly, the nature of these risks often means that they remain hidden until they become operationally and financially hazardous. Ultimately, expensive interventions to remedy service interruptions and perform emergency repairs can far exceed the initial investment that would have been required had the issue been addressed proactively.
That reality is reflected in the findings of the 2025 ASCE Infrastructure Report Card. The report estimates that drinking water infrastructure alone will require $625 billion in investment over the next 20 years, while wastewater and stormwater systems face annual capital needs of approximately $99 billion. Today, only about 30% of those wastewater and stormwater infrastructure needs are being met.
While new system implementations are inevitable, closing those gaps also requires intentional stewardship and modernization of the systems already in service. Utilities need partners who can strengthen reliability while keeping facilities operational. They also need advisors who recognize the operational risks hidden within seemingly routine upgrades. Most importantly, facilities must understand that these projects carry substantial human implications for the communities that depend on them to facilitate the everyday activities that are essential for their lives.
At Guzman Engineering, every project is approached with that responsibility in mind. If you're evaluating the condition of your facility's electrical systems, controls infrastructure, or SCADA environment, now is the time to identify opportunities for improvement. Contact Guzman Engineering to schedule a proactive system evaluation and develop a strategy that strengthens long-term reliability before seemingly small issues become disruptions that communities can no longer ignore.