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Public Affairs Committee International Affairs Committee tf. f~. (A/e-CcJu__ J. F. Welch, Director, Public Affairs Magazine Article - Civic Public Works Magazine June 29, 1981 Enclosed is a copy of an article mentioned by Bert Cook (Atlas-Turner, Inc.) at the Public Affairs Committee meeting in Palm Springs. The article alleges that A/C pipe has "essentially died" as far as the municipal piping business is concerned in Canada. Certain-teed Corporation has sent a letter to Johns-Manville Canada expressing its displeasure with the opinions articulated by the author. Moreover, Atlas-Turner, Inc. also intends to rebutt the article and will forward a copy of its response to Committee members. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call. JFW/ajb cc: A. Kahn, Esq. N. Rahn, Esq. N. Battle copies to: Public Affairs Committee International Affairs Committee H. Olson I. Adams B. Cook W. Perrell J. Woods J. Baker T. Dougherty D. Stinson W. McCallie R. Dorner E. Van Der Rest B. Giboin R. Hobbs C. Walters A. Saoulis R. Jalan V. Pattabhi II. Hudson C. Barton S. Al-Tarkait E. Costa HEGA/2-3 Chrono CAPCO JEN 0023332 4 >;. ; i ! f! 1 'I \C rt 4t ' a I ." 1 1; P I fr l! a: ? vi . by Tony Wc-all, Merchandising Manager--Pipe, Johns-MantiHe Canada Inc. Technological changes in the piping of water and waste water have taken -place at a very slow pace when com pared to changes in other disciplines such as industry and military. There arc many influences that de termine this situation. A large por tion of the users of municipal pipes arc not equipped to handle the re search that would allow innovative decisions; they tend to rely upon na tional standards such as ULC, CSA, AWU'A and ASTM. These stan dards arc generated by highly techni cal people but the groups lend to be large and changes coinc only after prolonged deliberation. In addition to this conservative in fluence is the relatively high cost of failure in terms of collars and danger to public health and the fact that in at least half the work done in the sub division. the specifier is in no way responsible for the purchase of the piping product, but only the mainte nance. All of those factors tend to make the atmosphere for changes in the municipal piping of water and waste water quite conservative. The technology of using pipes goes back over two thousand years and the slow late of change in technology can be illustrated by the fact that systems very similar to the oldest known sys tems arc still in operation today in North America. Bored out wooden poles have been operating well into the 'GOs and no doubt there arc still / many in operation in remote areas. Certainly, wood stave pipes are quite common and even econcmica! for new.systems under ideal condi tions. Lead pipes have fallen from popu larity as pressure pipe due to possible contamination or water, but it is cer tain that lead pressure pipes and drain systems arc still in operation in North America, although neither of these products is made today. Clay pipe is, of course, still actively made and used across North Ameri ca. Wood, lead and clay pipes are the oldest pipes known to man. While they all have suffered severe setbacks in popularity, they arc still in use and in the case of clay, still being manu factured. Only in the municipal piping field could produc^jhat were first avail- w cr g: y<pi . S'ra hrTi be lex try nc nc ba ca th: fro 19 w;: pe. W. da ler CAPCO JEN 0023333 able 400 years ago be called modern. Copper and iron pipes possibly even predate this but they arc still actively used. Indeed, it is only within the past fifty years that there have been viable alternatives to these products. The modern day products of ex truded copper and ductile or modular iron pipes.arc still prominent in the .marketplace in North America and are still available in Europe. When comparing the modern materials to the older material, it is the similari ties that are more notable than the an AWWA standard would not come 'quality standards introduced in the until 1975 for PVC and has not yet early to mid '70s and excellent per appeared for P.E. Generally, there formance. was an upgrading of the performance The final proof of the acceptance requirements of sewer pipe in terms of PVC pipe in Canada was the clos of infiltration/cxfiltration. This in ing of the Johns-Manvillc Asbestos creased the demand for Asbestos Ce Cement pipe plant and the closing of ment pipes and prepared the market- the last eastern Canadian Clay pipe. place for PVC pipe which would not plant in 1980. be really active until the mid '70s. >i Asbestos Cement dominated water Since thestartof the'70s, thestory pipe sajes in western Canada and in the municipal pipe field has been sanitary sewer pipe sales in eastern PVC pipe and that is the story of the Canada.wcrc.dominatcd_by.Clay. and present and the story of the future. Asbestos Cement. There is only one. differences. One product has been totally eclipsed by time. Masonry sewage and drainage pipes have been totally replaced by concrete and steel pipes but even here some of our older cities are still living with these anachron isms. 'Although the very oldest types of pipes are still in use, there has been Fig. I Water Pipe Size 6 8 .12 Weight Comparisons of PVC Pipes Pre 1970 Post 1975 CSA C137.3 SDR 26 ` 3.41 Ib./ft. 5.78 ib./ft 12.61 Ib./ft. AWWA C900 DR18CIOD 5.24 Ib./ft. 9.03 5b. /ft. 19.19 Ib./ft. . * considerable development in modern Sewer Pipe time, if we consider modern times to CSA B137.3 SDR 41 ASTM D3034 DR 35 be the past fifty years. Products such as steel pipe, first riveted and later welded, added a new dimension to large diameter pressure pipe. Size 4. 8 12 . 1.01 lb./ft. 3.71 Ib./ft. 8.12 Ib./ft. 1.03 Ib./ft. 4.1 x ib./ft. 9.10 Ib./ft. Asbestos Cement pipe for both pressure and sewer freed the designer The acceptance of the use of PVC from the corrosion problem, forced pipe for water and sewer applications the introduction cf the gasketed joint can be attributed to two factors: and for the first time, provided a first, PVC had been performing viable alternative to iron pipe. well for a number of years in many Other developments in this period ' isolated areas and the performance were reinforced concrete pipe, con would force more use; crete pressure pipe, the change from and, second, an upgrading of the AC pipe plant in Quebec that nro- duccs~considerably less than the JM pla.nL. ......... Clay and AC_havc_dcmonst rated thaC.ljieyTTiavc almost completed their life cycle as demand for both in Canada looks , very., bleak indeed. These arc two products, which have grey to ductile iron and in the last ten materia! standards would greatly in essentially "died". There is no doubt, years, the introduction of plastic crease acceptance. .that we will sec more products exper pipes. The pipes produced to the new ience a similar fate in'the 1980s. Changes in the last fifty years have standards were considerably heavier "Certainly the "present" for the generally been more evolutionary and costlier than the old products municipal piping business is repre rather than revolutionary but there' (see Fig. 1), however, the designs sented by PVC pipe. It is the domi have been some significant changes. were now visibly more conservative nant force in the waste water systems The changes in the last ten years have and they met a more generally ac and is very important and growing in been more radical and these will be ceptable standard authority. These potable water systems. The future for looked at in more detail in order to two products gained rapid accep PVC and other plastics looks very try to predict what will happen in the tance through the '70s. promising indeed. Evolutionary next ten years. . Although the sewer pipe was intro changes will be an increasing of the Several shifts in the acceptance of duced later, its acceptance was some pipe size range and pressure range. new and dilferent pipes can be traced what more rapid, largely due to the There arc, no doubt, revolutionary back to the late 1960s. While dates perception that the risk and conse changes around the corner that will cannot be assigned to each event and quences of a failure arc less severe in have significant effects over the next the rate of changes has been dilferent a gravity sewer pipe than they arc in 5 to 10 years. from one product to another, 1965 to pressure water pipe. In pressure pipe the emphasis will 1970 seems to mark a type of Another reason for rapid accep be on increasing the size range and watershed. tance of PVC sewer pipe is the increasing the pressure rating while Ductile Iron was introduced in this marked superiority in terms of instal conserving weight. Fiberglass com period and an American Water lation and leakage testing when com posite pipes arc already available, Works Association (AWWA) stan pared to the former high quality while these arc expensive now, they dard was developed by 1965. Polyvi sewer pipe--Asbestos Cement; certainly display excellent nyl Chloride (PVC) and Polyethy The acceptance of PVC was inevi weight/strength characteristics. lene (I'.Ii.) were introduced although table but it was accelerated by higher An AWWA standard lias been an- CAPCO JEN 0023334 . nounccd for this type of pipe so that Foamed thermoplastic pipes arc still acceptance can be expected to in very much in the experimental stage.' GRCDA directorscrease. PVC still has much potential Jn_Dcccmbcr ofj 9S0, the first trial,, for pressure pipe. One British company has an nounced a "prc-strcsscd pipe in which molecules arc aligned to get favourable physical characteristics. It. is claimed that wall thickness re ductions of up to 50% are possible installation of 250.feci of a non uni form pipe wall was installed in Mis: sissauga, Ontario. The pipe was fab-., ricatcd from a continuous strip of. PVC with a ribbed cross section. This was, factory spirally, wound and. welded into a 24 inch internal diame At the third Annual Business Meet/ing of the Ontario Chapter of the Governmental Refuse Collection and Disposal Association, the following were elected to the 1981 Board of Directors:-- with no loss in long term strength. There appears to be little potential ter" tube. T.hejpints_were post formed bell and spigot. The effect of ribbing, President: is to provide a pipe with a stiffness, Frank Condlln, P.Eng., for other plastic material as PVC has equal to the DR 35 pipe, that has Director, Waste Management, the lowest cost relative to strength of recently become popular, with a. Regional Municipality of Peel. all the thermoplastics. It would ap pear that modified PVC or a thermo setting composite material would be the product of the future in pressure systems. weight saving of about 40%. Jhis Vice-President: promises, to extend the competitive Ray Funncll, P.Eng., sjzc range of P.VC pipe to at least.24.. City Engineer, . Inch diameter. City of Guelph. The sewer pipe market seems to . The options for sewer pipe are con hold potential for more innovative Secretary-Treasurer siderably more varied and in many ideas than the pressure pipe market. Peter Wong, P.Eng., ways more interesting. Strength is This is due to a perception of lower City Engineer, not as important a consideration but risk and consequence of failure and City of Sudbury. material stiffness is. The options ap different physical requirements of pear to be, a normal PVC. a thermo pipe. Past-President: setting or thermoplastic sandwich- There have been relatively few Alfred Gretzingcr, P.Eng., type of construction, a foamed changes in piping of water and waste Town Engineer, 1- thermoplastic, a stiff thermoplastic water in the past two thousand years. Town of Stoney Creek. i such as a filled and/or reinforced polyethylene or polypropylene, or a non uniform cross section, or a com bination of these. Several manufacturers have devel oped thermosetting plastic/fiberglass composite pipes with a sandwich con struction in Europe and the U.S.A. A Most of these changes have occurred in the past fifty years. Recently there has been activity and these changes may well be the precursor cf more The changes that can be expected in pressure are more plastics and new plastics. The changes that can bc.cx- Corporate Directors: Doug Bell, Vice-President & General Manager,' Provincial Sanitation Services Ltd. Ron Brodie, General Manager, S.M.l. Ontario. few thousand feet have been installed pccted in non pressure pipes arc also Directors: in Canada, although none in the last more plastics, new plastics and new Dave Curry, P.Eng., five years. innovative cross sections. Director of Operations, The use of polyethylene and poly These new sections will increase City of Ottawa. propylene has been limited to corru the pipe stiffness with minimum in Doug Day, gated drainage pipe in the small di crease in weight. The reduction of Deputy Commissioner or Works, - ameters. There have, of course, been weight is, of course, the ultimate goal Borough of Etobicoke. some larger pipes made in uniform that wili provide high quality pipe at Neil Fox, C.E.T., wall polyethylene used in sewers. a competitive cost, h Superintendent of Works, City of Barrie. Shafik Thomas, Mirabel land to be released Director of Engineering &. Planning, Town of Wallaccburg. P*u1 Cosgrove, Minister of Public disposal program. Works. announced a new policy that Total federal property at Mirabel Workshop would see the releasing from federal is 38,850 ha (96,000 ac) of which Saskatchewan hosts its first Cana ownership of some of the federally- 7,285 ha (18,000 ac) is the airport dian Prairie Chapter GRCDA work controlled land surrounding Mirabel facility, and the remaining 31,565 ha shop from April 22-24 and it will be airport. Such disposal of the so-called (78,000 ac) makes up the peripheral held at the Regina Inn. Topics will Mirabel Peripheral Lands would be lands. When the property was first include collection trends; lire recy on the understanding that the Fed acquired in 1969, it was felt that fed cling; safety and training; shred eral Government continue to provide eral ownership would provide the best ding/sanitary landfill; provincial dis adequate protection for Mirabel air guarantee of airport protection. posal regulations; labor relations, port. Since then however, a number of de vehicles and equipment; and haz velopments, such as the zoning of the ardous waste. Over the next few months, Public land for agriculture and the develop Enquiries from: A1 Robbins, City Works Canada, in consultation with ment of quieter aircraft, have led to a -of Regina, Box 1790, Regina, Sas other federal departments, will be de reassessment of the necessity for con katchewan S4P 3C8. veloping a detailed management and tinued full federal control. 1 app met pou Ant any rigl req sen tha maMe An. elir gea xve; ma per the CAPCO JEN 0023335