Voir Dan Rather Reports, Season 8 - Episode 25

(11/11/2013) We don’t tend to think of the state of bridges until one collapses. That happened most recently in Washington State this past spring, when a truck hit an overhead span. Collapses like this are unusual, but they highlight how dependent we are on a functioning infrastructure. After decades of neglect, our bridges are old and in some places, crumbling because - and you, the taxpayer, are going to pay for it. And, we bring you a report on the pollution associated with impervious surfaces – basically a fancy term for surfaces rain water can't penetrate - roads, rooftops, sidewalks, parking lots. If you add up all the impervious surfaces in the U.S. alone it would be enough to build a six-lane highway from Earth to the moon ten times over. Impervious surfaces are a big problem because when it rains instead of soaking into the ground, the water runs off - gushing into a maze of gutters, sweeping up pollutants, debris and trash that ultimately end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans.