PVC Pipe the Nationwide Solution to Failing Water Systems This Winter
Anywhere, U.S.A., Feb. 18, 2010 ‒ With prolonged cold temperatures and record snowfalls throughout the country this winter, municipalities throughout the United States are replacing faulty and aging pipes with durable PVC pipe systems.
Broken water mains and corroded pipe systems have been a widespread problem across the United States, in some cases aggravated by frigid temperatures that have lasted weeks and caused these systems to fail.
An overview of some PVC pipe projects in just the past few months:
Riverside, Pa. – A new sewer project is requiring affected residents to replace their own lines if they are not PVC pipe.
Prince Frederick, Md. – A collapsing sewer pipe is being replaced with PVC pipe.
Jefferson, Ohio – To address non-functioning septic systems and contamination of creeks and wells, a renovation project calls for 9,700 linear feet of PVC gravity pipe.
Greenville, Texas – Severe cold early in the year caused 14 main line water breaks here, which are being replaced with PVC pipe.
Laredo, Texas – A six-week water line project is replacing failing cast iron pipes with new PVC pipes.
Great Falls, Mont. – New PVC pipe replaced a collapsed sewer main that carries nearly 2 million gallons of raw sewage through the area daily.
Colorado Springs, Colo. – A water main break in a 25-foot section of iron pipe on Feb. 15 is being preplaced with PVC pipe that is more durable and flexible.
Carlsbad, N.M. – Two water lines of asbestos cement pipe are being replaced with new PVC pipe.
Hughson, Calif. – A pipeline company hired to replace a crumbling concrete sewer line first considered using cement pipe, but decided PVC pipe was needed.
Belvedere, Calif. – The water district’s 900-mile pipeline dates back to the 1890’s, and uses PVC pipe to replace pipe that corrodes or breaks.
Seaside, Calif. – Four-inch thin steel pipes installed in the 1940s and 1950s, which are prone to leaks and breaks, are being replaced with 8-inch PVC pipes.
Kailua Bay, Hawaii – When deteriorating sewer and storm-water lines risked contamination of the community’s land and water, the County of Honolulu launched a massive infrastructure project that used PVC pipe bundles of different sized pipes to adapt to the hilly terrain and a variety of hydraulic conditions.
About half of the existing pipe infrastructure in the United States is made of cast iron, installed up to 100 years ago, or ductile iron, much of it installed after World War II. In the majority of cases, these iron pipe systems have outlived their usefulness in 2010.
According to The Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association, there are 700 water main breaks a day in North America, which amounts to 250,000 breaks annually. A running tally of breaks and repair costs in Canada and the United States since 2000 can be found at www.watermainbreakclock.com.
Primarily as a result of premature pipe corrosion and breaks, an estimated 2.6 trillion gallons of water are lost in the United States each year, enough water to satisfy the drinking water needs of every man, woman and child on earth for an entire year.
According to The Vinyl Institute, PVC piping systems have been used successfully in North America since the 1950’s in both drinking water and wastewater systems. Millions of installations still in service function as well as they did the day they were installed, and have been rigorously tested by nationally recognized, independent certifiers for both reliability and safety. They are strong, provide excellent resistance to both external and internal pipe corrosion, deliver clean drinking water, offer superior flow, resist cracking even when bent or subjected to excessive loads, and have water-tight joints.
Bruce Hollands, executive director of the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association, estimates that building and replacing water and sewage lines across the United States will cost $660 billion to $1.1 trillion over the next 20 years.
Hollands wrote in the Dec. 22 Roll Call, “The President’s call for $50 billion in stimulus for the economy can be good news for a major long-term infrastructure crisis facing the nation, as long as crucial legislation is enacted to ensure that procurement rules prevent the money from leaking out of the system like water escapes our corroding pipes.”
For more information on the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association, go to: www.uni-bell.org.
The Vinyl Institute represents the leading manufacturers involved in the production of PVC/vinyl resin in the United States, and promotes the value of PVC/vinyl products to society.
For more information on The Vinyl Institute, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
571-970-3327
jpalmer@vinylinfo.org
Also go to: www.vinylindesign.com and www.vinylinfo.org.