January 27,201 1
Bowm
The Regional
Municipality
of Durham
RE:
POLYBUTYLENE WATER SERVICE CONNECTIONS IN THE
REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF DURHAM AND AN UPDATE ON
REMEDIATION (2011-W-51 (Our File: 015)
Clerk's Department
605 ROSSLAND RD. E.
PO BOX 623
WHITEY ON L l N 6A3
CANADA
905-668-771 1
1-800-372-1102
Fax: 905-668-9963
E-mail: clerks@durharn.ca
www.durham.ca
Pat M. Madill, A.M.C.T., CMM Ill
Regional Clerk
Please be advised the Works Committee of Regional Council considered the
above matter and at a meeting held on January 26,201 1 Council adopted
the following recommendations of the Committee:
"a)
THAT Report No. 201I-W-5 of the Commissioner of Works be
received for information; and
b)
THAT a copy of Report No. 201 1-W-5 be forwarded to the Cities of
Pickering and Oshawa, the Towns of Ajax and Whitby, and the
Municipality of Clarington."
As directed, please find enclosed a copy of Report #2011-W-5 of C. Curtis,
Commissioner of Works.
P.M. Madill. AMCT, CMM Ill
Regional clerk
Enclosure
c:
M. de Rond, Clerk, Town of Ajax
S. Kranc, Clerk, City of Oshawa
D. Shields, Clerk, City of Pickering
D. Wilcox, Clerk, Town of Whitby
C. Curtis, Commissioner of Works
@
100% Post Consumer
The Regional Municipality of Durham
To:
The Works Committee
From:
Commissioner of Works
Report:
2011-W-5
Date:
January 12,2011
SUBJECT:.
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Polybutylene Water Service Connections in the Regional Municipality of Durham and an
Update on Remediation
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT this report be received for information and fotwarded to Regional Council and a
copy of this report be sent to the Cities of Pickering and Oshawa, the Towns of Ajax and
Whitby and the Municipality of Clarington.
REPORT:
Attachment No. 1:
Polybutylene services in the City of Pickering
Attachment No. 2:
Polybutylene services in.the Town of Ajax
Attachment No. 3:
Polybutylene services in the Town of Whitby
Attachment No. 4:
Polybutylene services in the City of Oshawa
Attachment No. 5:
Polybutylene services in the Municipality of Clarington
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to respond to the following questions raised at the
Joint Committee of Finance &Administration and Works Committees on
December 15, 2010 regarding the extent of polybutylene water service
connections in the Regional Municipality of Durham (Region):
The efforts made to date to rernediate leaking services;
The unit costs involved;
The remaining streets and high priority areas;
The harmonization of service replacement with the various municipal road
reconstruction projects.
Report No.: 2011-W-5
2.
Page No.: 2
BACKGROUND
Poiybutylene is a plastic resin material that was used to manufacture small
diameter water supply piping. This type of pipe was used extensively in North
America for home plumbing and water service connections from 1978 to 1995.
The blue pipe was lower in cost, easy to install and was extensively used instead
of copper pipe by the development industry. In the Regional Municipality of
Durham (Region), it is conservatively estimated that there are as many as 25,000
polybutylene water service connections installed between 1978 and 1986. There
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total number of existing polybutylene services. The geographic extent of the
material connections is shown as the shaded area in the area municipality maps:
(Attachment Nos. 1 through 5.). Please note, in each shaded area, the total
number of polybutylene services, the number remediated and the percentage
remediated is provided in the cushion shaped text box.
There is evidence in all jurisdictions that this plastic pipe is unsuitable for the
intended use. It is deleteriously affected by oxidants in the water such as
chlorine and becomes brittle. Micro-fractures and cracks develop and leaks
begin to occur. In the Region, leakage of these plastic buried service lines
between the watermain and the curb stop (shut-off valve) was first noticed in
1997. These leaks increased exponentially from less than 50 leaks requiring
repair in 1997 to over 800 by 2007.
3.
POLYBUTYLENE REMEDIATATION STRATEGY
In 2005, the Region initiated an annual capital program under the Asset
Management portion of the budget to replace failing polybutylene services on a
prioritized, street by street basis. Completion of the initial contract in 2005 and
2006 presented a challenge to both Regional and contractor staff. Innovations
such as the use of a small camera to precisely locate the underground service
connection mainstop on the watermain have significantly improved the efficiency
of service replacement.
In 2008, because of new leaks on services previously repaired, Works
Department Maintenance Operation staff discontinued the practice of leak repair
and started to replace leaking services with copper piping wherever practical.
The Region's capital program was given a boost in 2009 with the infusion of
Federal and Provincial Infrastructure Stimulus Funding (ISF), in order to develop
a $10 million replacement program. It is projected that the ISF replacement
contracts will be fully completed including all surface restoration by mid-summer
2011.
Report No.: 2011-W-5
Page No.: 3
A total of 5,156 polybutylene services have been remediated to date. This
amount includes the ISF funded work underway and to be completed in 2011.
Table No. 1 summarizes the extent of this activity in the Region.
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CONNECTION REHABILITATION
Year
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Works
Depot
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.
2009
2010
2011
Services Replaced
Services Repaired
Total No. of Services
Remediated
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RegionContracted
= -==-=304:--.
215
480
1,434
628
ISFAnnual
Contracted
Totals
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140
140
1,852
2,067
622
622
2,614
3,722
1,434
5,156
.
The extent of this remediation effort is depicted as a solid circle or triangle on the
area municipality maps: (Attachment No. 1 through 5).
,
4.
FUTURE PROJECT PLANNING
Based on previous projects, a budget estimate for a contracted single
polybutylene service replacement, including in-house engineering and cantract
administration is $6,000. The potential estimated cost liability to the Region to
replace all of the remaining polybutylene water service connections is in the
order of $120 million.
The allocation in the Asset Management portion of the proposed 2011 Water
Supply Budget for the emergency replacement of failed polybutylene water
service connections is $1,266,000. In 2011, there is a budget allowance of
$411,000 for prioritized service replacements of approximately 68 services on a
contracted area-wide basis. Streets with a history of rapidly failing services have
been prioritized.
The critical streetslareas prioritized by failure rate (number of breaks) that should
be remediated over the next five vears are identified on the area municiwalitv
maps (Attachment Nos. 1 througt; 5) by dashed lines and square text boxe4that
contain the estimated number of services that require replacement.
The current method of polybutylene service replacement involves digging two
holes per service connection: one is located in the boulevard at the main stop
where the watermain is and the other at the shut off valve at the property line.
The new copper service is then pulled through and in most instances, the road
remains undisturbed. The amount of disruption is subject to site specific
conditions and the exact location of failures and services.
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Report No.: 2011-W-5
Page No.: 4
The final selection of actual streets for contract polybutylene service
replacements is based on site specific conditions, available funding and
coordination with the local area municipal road programs. Based on the large
number of existing polybutylene water service connections, it is not ~ossibleto
replace all the polybutylene service connections in coordination with the local
area municipal road programs due to funding requirements.
As with all other utilities within the road al1owances, there will be circumstances
may qccurand.polybu~lene
wgter services
where road reslrrfacing/rehabilitation
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CONCLUSION
Regional staff will continue to prioritize polybutylene water service connection
projects based on system requirements and coordinate projects with local area
municipal road programs.
Commissioner of Works
Recommended for presentationto Committee
G. H. Cubitt, M.S.W.,
Chief Administrative Officer
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The Regional Municipality of Durham
Works Department
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Polybutylene Services in the
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Polybutyfene Services in the
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