A Letter from Entex’s VP of Engineering, Jeff Danner:

While everyone’s focus at the moment is targeted at limiting the spread of the coronavirus to save lives and to avoid overwhelming our health care system, in the months and years to come we will need to rebuild the economy and deal with unemployment. I am an engineer not an economist, but it certainly seems like economic crises are happening more frequently and are more severe as time passes. As we start to think about how we rebuild from this, it should be instructive to consider what we did the last time.

In late 2008, the market crash and corresponding collapse of large financial and insurance companies convinced many world leaders that we were about to experience a global financial meltdown. The U.S. and many other governments took dramatic steps to provide funding for continued investment to limit the extent of the economic damage. One significant measure taken here was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or the Recovery Act for short.

The Recovery Act included approximately $545 billion dollars of spending programs and $275 billion dollars in tax cuts. With regard to the spending portion, the phrase I recall most clearly from 2009 was “shovel ready”. The idea was to select projects to build and renew critical infrastructure that could begin hiring workers and spending money on supplies and services the day they received their funding.

Due to the systems for the design, approval, and funding of municipal water and wastewater treatment projects, there are always many “shovel ready” projects ready to go. After the need is determined, technologies are evaluated, equipment is approved, and specifications are written. Then there is often a long lag time, months or even years, until funding is secured for the investment.

This dynamic was clearly recognized in 2009 when the Recovery Act allocated $8.38 billion for water and wastewater projects. It’s unclear whether a similar approach will be taken in 2020, but my guess is its fairly likely. In any case, at Entex, we’ll keep our shovels handy.

Stay safe out there.