TPi May/July 2020

Business & market news

New EPA rule points to more lead water pipeline replacement work in future

like to help and provide the resources they need to evaluate the HDPE pipe alternative. HDPE is lead-free, meets or exceeds environmental and health effects standards, and contains no additives that can be transferred to the water to affect taste or odour.” HDPE pipe has heat-fused joints and service saddles, tees and other connections and is also corrosion resistant, does not promote tuberculation, and can be installed using cut-and-cover and trenchless methods. The pipe has high flexibility, a tight bending radius, high impact resistance, high ductility, long fatigue life, self- restrained joints that do not require thrust blocks. According to PPI, this makes HDPE the preferred material for the major trenchless installation methods such as slip lining, horizontal directional drilling (HDD), Swagelining ™ and pipe bursting. The PPI Municipal & Industrial Division has a webpage devoted to lead challenges and solutions: https:// plasticpipe.org/municipal_pipe/mid-

“The impact of this change to a 10 parts-per-billion (ppb) trigger level would increase and accelerate the number of water supply lines that need to be replaced,” said Camille George Rubeiz, PE, F ASCE, senior director of engineering of PPI’s Municipal and Industrial Division. “According to the EPA, water systems above 15ppb would be required to annually replace a minimum of three percent of the number of known or potential lead service lines in the inventory when the level is detected.

As a result of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing a new proposal that would change how communities test for lead in drinking water, the Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc (PPI) has issued an overview for dealing with deteriorating pipes. As the proposed EPA update would lower the permissible lead limit and require utilities to map all service lines containing lead, the PPI document has been published to help enable communities to implement a program to eliminate the problem.

The EPA established the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) to protect public health and reduce exposure to lead and copper in drinking water. “Cost and time are certainly paramount in any community’s plan. Both can be addressed with the use of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe per AWWA C901 and the PPI document – Polyethylene Piping Systems Field Manual for Municipal Water. Unfortunately, certain utilities have outdated information and incorrectly select traditional materials that created this problem. We’d

lead-pipe-solutions.html. Plastics Pipe Institute www.plasticpipe.org

Raccortubi Norsk appoints new managing director

operations,” said Mr Luca Pentericci, president of Raccortubi Group. The internal reorganisation comes after a steady growth of the branch since its acquisition in 2015. Peter Ray will remain on the board of directors and will be actively focused in the commercial relationship with key customers, frame agreements and complete projects handling. “We wish to thank both Peter and Andy for their commitment and for the new

Raccortubi Norsk, the UK branch of Raccortubi Group based in Aberdeen, has announced that it has appointed Andy Troup as managing director. Mr Troup has been working for the company for more than two years as business development manager. “We are always fine-tuning our internal resources to support our continuous growth, aiming at providing the best service to our clients by guaranteeing continuity to Raccortubi Norsk’s

enthusiastic challenges ahead. Please join us in congratulating Andy Troup as he takes on these new responsibilities,” Mr Pentericci added. Raccortubi Norsk www.raccortubi.com

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TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL May/July 2020

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