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| October Issue Post Date 10/14/05 | www.mcelroy.com | |
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Note From The Editor We in the industry all know that water is the hot topic of the next 25 years. But the American public doesn’t know about it yet mainly because they spend less money for it than any other industrialized nation and for the most part, have good water service. “Our water service hardly ever gets shut off,” interrupts my neighbor while I am giving a speech from my front yard about Tulsa ’s dilapidated leaky water distribution system. I have a captive audience of three, (one of them is my wife), and another is the 11 year old kid that lives next door who tends to enjoy conversation with grownups more than with other kids in the neighborhood. The two later mentioned audience members are both bobbing their heads up and down in agreement with my neighbor and all of them are giving me the eye like I am the negative sort who doesn’t appreciate much. I shift gears and start spouting facts about leak rates for the city and then release a torrent of EPA statistics including flow data of well known rivers like the Rio Grand that hasn’t reached the ocean in the last two years. “When old man winter does his job and causes the pipes to leak, the city is out in a flash, sometimes working all through the night to get the water turned back on before you have to get up and go to work,” spouts my neighbor, shifting his eyes back and forth between my wife and the kid for approval while taking his ball cap off and putting it back on to punctuate the point. “Yeah that’s true,” my wife says. Then the kid jumps in on the conversation and tells me “You should get a sprinkler system so your lawn doesn’t look so bad.” I remind him that he still owes me for my window he broke out when he was eight and that its time for him to run along. When prices for water clime higher than a cat’s back because the country’s thirst is growing in every sector while increased pollution and drought are reducing water sources; then perhaps the population will know how large water has become. They’ll hear politicians preach loud and clear from atop the giant water platform about the water conundrum and how they have been fighting for water since the beginning. Nevertheless, the public will finally understand that we have a problem but what will be done about the problem is a whole new story. Of course I think we should fuse up some HDPE to replace the country’s dilapidated water infrastructure and hold on to the 20 or 30 percent of water that is wasted through leaks. Then we won’t have to worry about that portion of the problem for the next 100 or so years. But I can tell my neighbor is not ready to hear my solution. Instead I do the neighborly thing and change the subject before he tells the other neighbors about my “bad” attitude and that I probably eat granola all day and hug trees. It is time however that we all become ambassadors for the water industry. It is our duty to take action and communicate to the public the role that polyethylene can play in conserving our most important natural resource. I’ll try to get better at it on my street in Tulsa .
Drew L. Wilson; Editor McElroy In The News “The HDPE pipe market in Kazakhstan is growing dramatically due to the increased use of the pipe during the last few years,” said Anatoly Kim of Maran Engineering based in Almaty , Kazakhstan . Maran Engineering supplies McElroy fusion equipment to Kazakhstan , Russia , Ukraine , and other countries in NIS and Eastern Europe . “We are excited about the immense opportunity for fusion equipment in the region,” said Kim who says PE piping has found acceptance in applications in various industries such as gas, water, mining and other piping industries in the broad area. To deal with these issues, McElroy subsidized and organized the training center to provide local PE pipe market with world class specialists. The training center will be located in Almaty , Kazakhstan with the name McElroy-KazGASA Training Center (MKTC). McElroy has provided several fusion machines for MKTC along with a new DataLogger which is used to record the time, temperature and fusion pressure of each fusion joint made with a McElroy fusion machine. The device insures that the fusion operator follows proper procedure when making a fusion joint. Grand opening for MKTC will be held November 3, 2005 at the new facility. Infrastructure Case Study Links North American Society for Trenchless Technology American Water Works Association American Society of Civil Engineers Foundation Newsletter Links Water World - Receive news from WaterWorld, Industrial Waterworld and Water & Wastewater International. Water Tech Online North American Society of Trenchless Technology Insider and Pipeline Newsletter 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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