Denver Post: Trillion-dollar trouble (CO)

From Denver Post:

The dishwasher in Jennifer Williford's kitchen never washes a dish. She cleans them in a gray plastic tub, tossing the dishwater outside.  When her washing machine drains, the used water is piped directly outdoors, feeding the trees. She does this reluctantly. In a neighborhood with no sewers and leaking septic systems, she has been compelled to put her wastewater in a sealed tank — and pump it out at $280 per visit.  If all her family's wastewater poured into that tank, she fears they would soon lose their house. "There's no way," she said, "we could make mortgage payments and pay sewage costs if the truck came once a week."  The Willifords live in one of 66 Colorado neighborhoods and towns with wastewater system problems that the state ranks as top priorities for public health.  Most will get no relief from the infrastructure money in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the stimulus package enacted in February. The needed repairs and improvements to Colorado's wastewater infrastructure — like its roads, bridges, drinking-water systems and dams — are too broad, too costly, too long in the making.