The federal government spent $30 billion subsidizing suburban sewer construction.

Evidence

First, in 1965, the Department of Housing and Urban Development changed the rules governing federal aid to homebuilders in order to prevent the use of septic tanks in large subdivisions. The new rules included a significant loophole: If the extension of municipal sewers or the construction of neighborhood sewers was not economically feasible, a developer still might be permitted to use septic tanks. But the leaders of the building industry recognized that the change indicated that septic-tank subdivisions would be tougher to build. Second, the government subsidized suburban sewer construction. In the 1970s – the years of the most lavish outlays – the federal subsidy totaled $30 billion. Though a portion of that money enabled communities with sewer systems to build sewage treatment plants, a goodly share paid for replacement of septic tanks. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 425