problems, that comprised the focus of the committee's visit to Cincinnati.

Even before The Public Works Story began to appear, stormwater management was a public concern. Some 25 years of urban growth combined with inadequate budgets for both maintenance and new development of drainage facilities had given rise to serious flooding in several areas of Cincinnati. By the mid-1980s there were some 10,000 unresolved complaints from property owners regarding blocked, inadequate, and needed drains and sewers.

Much of the city is served by a combined system that handles stormwater runoff and sanitary and industrial wastewater. Begun in 1828 as a storm system only, the sewers were converted to serve both purposes late in the nineteenth century and expanded with that dual purpose until the early 1940s. Since then, most expansion has been undertaken with the separation of stormwater and sanitary flows. About 85 percent (in terms of miles of sewer line) is in the combined system. Hamilton County owns and the city operates this system, which passes about 25 percent of Cincinnati's annual sanitary sewage load untreated into the Ohio River in the course of some 70 storm overflow events.

Staff of Cincinnati's Department of Public Works (DPW) began in the early 1980s to conduct background studies and search for new ways to finance the stormwater management system. An early analysis was a simple mapping of the locations of citizen complaints about runoff and drainage. This map demonstrated graphically that the problems were citywide, and helped the DPW to gain the city council's understanding and support of the need to take action.

Drawing on experience from other parts of the United States, city staff proposed that a utility user service fee might be established to support stormwater system improvement. In addition, DPW staff recognized that a central point of management responsibility was needed. After more than two years of studies and pub-

Front Matter (R1-R10)

Executive Summary (1-12)

1 Introduction (13-18)

2 Thinking Broadly About Infrastructure (19-36)

3 Observing Locally (37-88)

4 Principles for Action on Infrastructure (89-102)

Appendix A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff (103-107)

Appendix B The BRB/CETS/NRC Strategic Program in Infrastructure (108-112)

Appendix C Study Participants (113-118)