Dive Brief: - The National League of Cities’ 2026 Municipal Infrastructure Conditions Report, released Friday, shows “a noticeable drop” in reported water and sewer conditions compared to 2022. - A survey of public works directors and staff, city engineers and city managers from municipalities nationwide found that the officials’ ratings of their own water systems have dropped from 82% satisfactory in 2022 to 39% satisfactory in 2026, and 18% now rate their systems not satisfactory, up from none in 2022. - Aging assets, rising construction costs, capacity and fiscal constraints, increasingly complex regulatory requirements, the high cost of underground infrastructure and long timelines associated with utility upgrades are contributing to water systems’ lower ratings, according to the report. Dive Insight: Local governments fund more than 98% of all capital, operations and maintenance investments for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, according to the report. Cities manage over 50,000 community drinking water systems and more than 16,000 wastewater treatment systems nationwide. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents say water systems are a high priority, and 53% say sewer systems are a high priority. One factor in the reported drop in water and sewer conditions may be tied to the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided new funding for water infrastructure. Engineering studies and asset inventories, required to apply for the funding, heightened many cities’ awareness of water infrastructure issues that were not fully documented before, according to the report. Stricter standards around lead pipe replacement and PFAS contamination can also “make systems appear to be in a worse position relative to new benchmarks,” the report states. The report says local officials’ perceptions of their systems are also influenced by “growing environmental and operational pressures,” including extreme weather and aging underground networks. It includes a quote from Albany, New York, Water Department