In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was created as one of the world’s largest value-based youth development organizations. The hope was to help youth discover educational activities and lifelong values that would produce generations of conscientious and responsible citizens.

Those values still remain 100 years later in what is a very special anniversary year for scouting in the United States.

McElroy decided about 12 years ago to participate in one of the main values of scouting – volunteerism. The company helped install high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe using McElroy equipment and personnel to improve Camp Tom Hale in southeastern Oklahoma. Others pitched in on the help as well, including Horizon Engineering of Tulsa, Cooper Wholesale of Pryor, H. Armstrong of Talihina and Fred Hardesty of Poteau.

New Technical Specialist John Murphy pulls a length of pipe down the racks of the PolyHorse™ and onto the incorporated rollers.

Camp Tom Hale provides a perfect backdrop for the Boy Scouts to hold summer camps each year. Scouts from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states converge on the Kiamichi Mountain camp each summer.
The camp continues to take on more and more campers each year, causing an inevitable strain on the infrastructure of the camp. As new buildings and facilities come online, more and more installations are required.

This year, McElroy partnered with Cardinal Engineering to install 2,050 feet of four-inch HDPE for a discharge line.

More and more, HDPE is becoming known as the 100-year pipe, as more and more reports indicate that the pipe material can last up to and past 100 years.

I’ve decided that the best way to tell the story of HDPE’s work at Camp Tom Hale is through one of the most iconic symbols of scouting – the merit badges that scouts earn for accomplishments.

Soil and Water Conservation

In May 1999, McElroy brought HDPE to the camp to replace an existing two-inch PVC line. The new installation consisted of three and a half miles of four- and six-inch HDPE. The PVC was strained with the continued growth of the camp. It’s easy to speculate that the PVC could easily have become compromised much like some of America’s infrastructure. HDPE’s leak-free fusion joining system and characteristics help conserve water.

Pathfinding

Terry Silkey, who has been to Camp Tom Hale almost every year since the initial HDPE installation, helped guide a 2001 job through the Kiamichi Mountains. The HDPE was able to orienteer through the winding trees and rolling hills. “It was some of the most challenging terrain I have ever had to deal with,” said Silkey. "The project was very demanding, but it went quickly because we used HDPE and coiled pipe. ”To handle the coiled pipe, Silkey used McElroy’s LineTamer™ mounted on a Sweetwater Metal trailer. Along with the LineTamer, Silkey used a TracStar® 28 fusion machine to overcome the terrain of the Ouachita National Forest. The self-propelled, all-terrain fusion machine features rubber tracks that made easy work of the rocky ground. “We had to make a fusion every 600 feet and it only took about 15 minutes,” said Silkey. “We were able to walk behind the TracStar through a narrow path and fuse the pipe wherever the section ended – that included the middle of a creek and halfway up a steep hill.”

Plumbing

The 2001 installation using the LineTamer connected a 3.6 mile pipeline to the county’s main. This helped upgrade the camp’s plumbing. “HDPE always seems to be the material of choice when there is a very tough job to do,” said Silkey. “Other pipe materials get the easy jobs that don’t put as much strain on the pipe during initial installation. Many times, special backfill is needed around joints to protect the joint. For this project, it was not necessary because the butt-fused joints associated with HDPE are as strong as the pipe itself. Some people don’t realize that over the life of a pipeline, the same kinds of tremendous forces that are applied to the pipe during the installation also occur after it is put in the ground. When the earth shifts around, collars and joints that are used in conventional piping systems leak. That doesn’t happen with HDPE.”

Citizenship in the World

The work performed at Camp Tom Hale represents how everyone in the industry can be good citizens in the world. Whether it’s encouraging better resource conservation through the use of leak-free piping systems made of HDPE or by showing others how to do work more productively and safely, we encourage you to use HDPE to become better citizens. We may not have a badge for you to earn, but it could ensure a better tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Tyler Henning

P.S. – Can you help me earn my photography and journalism badges? McElroy is always looking for fusion job sites where HDPE is being used and fused to solve an infrastructure problem. Contact Tyler Henning, public relations specialist at (918) 831-9286 or by email at thenning@mcelroy.com