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It’s a hell of a day in Baltimore: Two major water lines break, each creating a separate logistical nightmare.

In the suburb of Halethorp, a 36-inch main broke and created a small river that has swamped the Amtrak line linking Washington and New York. Train service has been halted, and crews are working to clear debris and assess whether there’s been any structural damage to the tracks or to a railway bridge in the area. A local television station has posted some raw helicopter footage of the flooded area, and it certainly looks like tracks will need to be repaired after the water subsides.

Several areas schools have been closed and there are also reports that underground electrical lines have been washed out into the open (which doesn’t sound like any fun at all in the context of the flooding).

The other local hydrological catastrophe was a break in a 20-inch main that flooded part of Baltimore’s downtown, closing government and business offices, creating traffic jams, and causing significant street damage.

So, apart from the local news angle, what’s to be gleaned from this? The venerable city, like much of the rest of the country, has a water system that’s in miserable shape. According to the Baltimore Sun:

The Department of Public Works estimates the cost of needed work on the city’s water, sewer and storm water systems at $2.2 billion. The figure includes $1 billion that the city agreed to spend after the Environmental Protection Agency sued, alleging that the city’s 3,100 miles of sewer pipes released untreated water into the Chesapeake Bay.

The city had sought $700 million for the work in the federal stimulus package but has received only $12 million. On Wednesday, the Public Works Department will ask the Board of Estimates to increase city water bills by 9 percent, in part to pay for some of the needed pipe repairs.

When the American Society of Civil Engineers put out its report card on the nation’s infrastructure earlier this year, our drinking water systems ranked at the bottom of the scale, with a D-minus. There’s an $11 billion annual investment shortfall in water systems alone. This means that we’re not replacing aging structures–including trunk mains, which generally last in the range of several decades to a century–at the rate we should.

In practical terms, fiascos like these are what happens when a water system in D-minus condition. Today, the whole northeastern corridor is feeling the pain.

(Photo borrowed from CBS)

Tags: BREAKING