Crumbling infrastructure or fountain of youth?

So why is water bubbling up from the ground in Wawarsing, NY [AP photo Slideshow]? Area residents, living 2 hours from NYC, think that it is a leak in the New York City water supply tunnels. You probably remember seeing the new tunnels under construction in Die Hard III. The AP is reporting that the deeply buried tunnel might be leaking as much as 36 million gallons a day.

Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation's water systems, especially in older cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels were built in the 1800s and are now nearing the end of their life expectancies.

It is hard to know how symbolic this could be, but the incredibly rapid growth of the US over the last century and a similarly rapid development of infrastructure has resulted in a potential crisis for everything from water supply to power to bridges to sewers. I had thought that the Minneapolis bridge collapse was going to spark a more serious conversation about infrastructure, but I overestimated the speed at we deal with issues. I am now predicting that the 2010s will be the Decade of Infrastructure and am hoping we can avoid have to expand further to the Infrastructure Generation.