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| November Issue Post Date 11/15/06 | www.mcelroy.com | |
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Note From The Editor I have yet to meet a person involved with an HDPE job that doesn’t make a statement similar to this. A Water house manager in Colorado said, “Polyethylene is what is going to happen to the water works business.” A water manager in Florida said, “The tool that will play the most significant role in protecting every drop of water, is High Density Polyethylene.” A drilling contractor in Colorado said, “I’ve pulled in every kind of pipe there is, but HDPE is tougher than a $2.00 steak and by far the best material for directional drilling.” A contractor in Oklahoma said, “Once you get tired of fixing leaks and switch to HDPE, you wonder why anybody uses any other kind of pipe.” It is obvious to the people working with HDPE that it truly is the pipe of the future. The precursor to the statement is usually just one HDPE job because after getting to work with it; it is all they want to use. The looming water crisis at hand looks to be the catalyst that will bring HDPE to the forefront of America’s water infrastructure woes. The old attitude that water is plentiful and cheap has finally received the much needed attitude adjustment following a nationwide drought along with leaks and pipeline failures that have cost pipeline owners billions. Who will pay the enormous price tag placed on repairing our infrastructure is still the largest concern however; help may be on the way. Increased federal funding may be on the horizon and a conference sponsored by the EPA titled “Paying for Sustainable Water Infrastructure: Innovations for the 21st Century” – will bring together stakeholders from all levels of government and the private sector to explore creative methods to pay for sustainable water infrastructure. This conference, scheduled for March 21-23, 2007 in Atlanta, GA, will be the first national conference to address the challenge of integrating the diverse tools and strategies to pay for sustainable water infrastructure. Our industry needs to be there. Polyethylene’s long, life-cycle benefit is perhaps its biggest advantage along with the leak-free quality, but life-cycle savings have been the hardest to make relevant in the sales process. Fiscal year budgets, price per linear foot and the comfort of working with a familiar material often take the front seat in the choosing of piping material. It might as well be an add-on benefit thrown in at the end because the over one hundred year life expectancy of the material (which is understood by the industry) has not been scientifically proven and life cycle cost estimates are many times not even considered during the decision making process. This decision is often made without considering money saved on installation and money saved on maintenance over the life of the system. But the EPA conference has the word sustainable in its title. Perhaps they’re ready to listen. Especially if they decide to foot the bill.
Drew L. Wilson;
If you would like a link to your newsletter posted in McElroy Connections, contact Drew L. Wilson at 918-831-9286 or McElroy Connections welcomes your feedback, story ideas, tips, or anything else related to PE Pipe and Pipe fusion. Please email your comments and story ideas to: FOR NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, visit http://www.mcelroy.com/fusion/forms/newsletter.htm McElroy Connections is published by McElroy Manufacturing Inc. The information contained within each issue is meant as a service to our customers, distributors, and those involved with Polyethylene Pipe applications.
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This time I was in Nevada and a large, sun-weathered man with 30 years experience in pipeline work said, “In a few years polypipe will be the dominant pipe going in the ground all over the world.” He punctuated his statement by spitting into the ditch that seemed to have been dug for this purpose and added, “Workin with PE is so easy, it’s made me put off retirement.”