While members of the Copper Development Association helped Flint, Mich., obtain enough copper pipe to replace service lines in about 5,000 homes at a discount price, city officials are still considering using plastic pipe, according to a report by Plastics News.

JM Eagle, a plastic piper producer based in Los Angeles, has offered to provide free polyethylene pipe to replace lead service lines to all homes and businesses.

JM Eagle’s offer prompted Flint to conduct a secondary-research pipe study that resulted in copper being selected as the replacement material for the service lines.

Local contractors would be trained, possibly with federal funds, to install the lines using a trenchless method.

“With the pipe bursting technology, we can be in and out of there in two weeks,” said Peter Dyke, executive director of the Alliance for PE Pipe, which promotes its members’ products as the “responsible infrastructure” choice and says they are leak-free, corrosion resistant, and durable and flexible enough to withstand earthquakes.

Dyke told Plastics News that state officials have directed him to talk to Michael McDaniel, a retired National Guard brigadier general put in charge of the Fast Start program, about a pilot area.

More details here.

Source: Plastics News