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| September Issue Post Date 9/27/04 | www.mcelroy.com | |
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Note From The Editor I joined the small gathering of kids and parents who were munching ice cream and gawking at the monster backhoe digging up the yard of our neighbor. They were trying to figure out if the city had repaired the same water line, in the same place, in August or September of last year. Apparently the Band-Aid had fallen off. After the ice cream truck pulled away, the homeowner said, "It was late September. I remember because the new grass didn't have time to take root and my front yard was a mud hole all winter." He said he was going to complain to the city. He would tell them that if this were going to be an annual affair, he would like them to do it every spring, instead of in the fall, so that his grass would have a chance to grow. By the time I finished talking with him about maintenance free HDPE, he was crunching the last bit of his double dipper cone and ready to raise hell with the city. But in the end, he wiped at the chocolate stain on his shirt and decided he was just going to force the city to repair his yard with "some a that high-dollar fescue sod. That stuff grows like crazy in the fall," he said. This made me realize that my long held thought of bringing HDPE to my city through a grass roots campaign would fail miserably. On the other hand, it did give me an idea of how I could finally get a great looking lawn. From my neighborhood throughout the rest of the world, water distribution is in horrible shape. Last weekend I sat in the McElroy international distributor meeting and listened to the challenges facing our distributors around the globe. China , Japan , Russia , the UK , Middle East and South America were represented. Their challenges are quite different from what we face in the U.S. because in most of those areas, HDPE is already the preferred material. They are more concerned with creative problem solving and engineering to use HDPE in new and resourceful ways. In other words, their dilemma is not in convincing decision makers to try HDPE, but in how to take full advantage of its benefits and how to best install it for specific projects. Mike Stratton of Wolseley Group in the UK said something that made me wonder if it is the primary problem holding HDPE back in the States. He said, "On very rare circumstances in the UK , whole life efficiency is not the primary concern. In these instances, HDPE occasionally looses the bid to other materials." Whole life efficiency must become a primary concern in the U.S. before HDPE makes a big impact. Any suggestions sent to me on how to make this happen will be greatly appreciated. With your blessing, I would love to pass these ideas on to the readers of McElroy Connections. For now, I'll just have to watch for a leak in my front yard and wait for the inevitable. I'm already imagining my kids running barefoot through the plush, thick, high-dollar fescue. P.S. The October issue of Underground Construction will be loaded with HDPE information, case studies and reports. This will be an excellent issue for your company to purchase advertising and show your support. Call them today to secure your space. Productivity Tip For those who wish to use a more exact force, instead of visual appearance, when fusing pipe in the 2LC or 14 PitBull, there is an adapter available to use with the 14 PitBull. The part number is (410802). This will allow the use of a torque wrench to provide a more definite force applied when fusing pipe. A chart is available on page 3-6 in the machine manual that shows the force applied in relationship to the torque wrench reading. To determine the amount of force required you can figure this by using the formula supplied on page 38-20 of the current McElroy catalog. (OD-t) x t x 3.1416 x recommended force per sq. in.= force. This value is then read on the chart in the machine manual to determine how much torque is needed to apply the force. State Of The Infrastructure McElroy In The News Case Studies 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. http://www.omeda.com/cgi-win/wwr.cgi?NEWSLETTER 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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Congress is poised to slash federal clean water spending by more than one-third, which could lead to a more dilapidated piping infrastructure, more sewer overflows, polluted water, disease outbreaks, and a loss of nearly 50,000 jobs . This warning comes in a report issued by a broad coalition of state and local governments, labor, construction, and environmental and public health groups 
As a continuum to last months "McElroy In The News," the city of Marysville Washington is spending $35 million to connect its wastewater treatment plant to the new polyethylene pipeline Everett Washington uses to send its effluent into the waters of Commencement Bay. High Country Fusion of Fairfield Idaho assisted with this project by supplying and training the operation of the McElroy No.1236 and No.1648 fusion machines. 
