Councilman says his research shows city is last among peers to allow plastic
Fillmore City council members narrowly approved allowing PVC piping to be installed in new residential, commercial and industrial projects within the city.
Council members voted last week to approve PVC’s use after a business developer pitched the notion during a previous meeting as a way to speed his multi-million-dollar commercial project along.
The city’s sewer and water system is currently made up of only ductile iron piping. But, as one city councilman found, Fillmore is the only city from Provo to St. George to not specifically allow PVC in city code.
Councilman Dennis Alldredge led the discussion. He said he reached out to municipal water managers across Utah to find out their thoughts on PVC.
“Most of them will allow either. Some of them went so far as to say they now require C900 (a type of heavy-duty chlorinated plastic piping). There is still ductile in their area, but any new construction, new piping put in is C900. The reasons given for this included availability, cost, ease of installation, ease of repair and ability to connect to older water networks. Lifespan of the product was also an advantage,” he said.
The biggest obstacle he said he learned about was the importance of bedding and soil compaction involved in laying the pipe.
“Now soils are an issue…we have the concern here about rock. I understand that and I respect that opinion that rock is an issue. I had one manager tell me, he says we have miles on top of bedrock and we’ve had no issues,” Alldredge said.
The councilman said another factor in using PVC was water pressure. He said Cedar City, by way of example, has zones where PVC is not allowed because of water pressure.
State code limits water pressure in municipal water systems to 120 psi.
Even places that are concerned over soil composition are still using PVC, Alldredge said, because it is quicker to get supplies versus the long wait for ductile piping.
“It all came down to bedding. No matter what we do, whether we allow PVC or not, bedding was the issue. Proper bedding and compaction… those are the two big determinants most of them used,” he told council members. “Nephi in fact said they just did a $17 million deal and every bit of it was PVC except for in the pump building. That was ductile still.”
Mayor Mike Holt said if council members passed the item, then the city’s contract engineers would produce a spec sheet for builders using PVC and include it in the city code.
Councilman Kyle Monroe said he’s long advocated for the city code change allowing PVC.
“I’ve been an advocate for changing this for years. It’s a great product,” he said.
Councilman Eric Jenson said he was concerned about city maintenance crews working with PVC. He asked Matt Haupt, the city’s public works director, what his thoughts were.
“I’ve worked with it 27 years almost. And it’s a great product,” Haupt said.
Haupt also agreed that when PVC goes bad “it can really go bad.”
“When it does have an issue, it’s a big issue,” he said.
Alldredge, referring to industry studies he’s read, said that when PVC was first widely introduced in the 1980s there were reports of problems.
“They had a lot of issues. But as of 2012, according to this study, PVC has the lowest overall failure rate compared to cast iron, ductile iron, concrete, steel or asbestos cement pipe,” he said.
The councilman argued that simply keeping the current city code because it’s what’s always been done is not a good enough reason.
“If we have a product that is equal to or better than, are we keeping (ductile) because we’ve always done that?” Alldredge asked rhetorically.
After a lengthy discussion, Monroe made a motion to approve the use of PVC. Alldredge seconded it. Jenson voted no, as did Councilman Mike Winget.
Councilman Curt Hare was the deciding vote.
He commented, “Technology improves. Materials improve,” before voting yes.
