First EPD covering PVC water and wastewater piping published

The Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association (PVCPA) recently published the first North American industry-wide environmental product declaration (EPD) for water and sewer piping.

The document has been verified by NSF Sustainability, a division of global public health organization NSF International. The EPD, developed in compliance with international environmental management guidelines (ISO 14025), benchmarks the impacts of seven PVC pipe products across their life cycles.

Impacts covered include PVC pressure pipe for potable water, reclaimed water and sewer force main systems, as well as PVC non-pressure pipe for storm sewer and sanitary sewer systems.

The EPD pinpoints areas of greatest environmental impact as well as the environmental benefits of utilizing PVC piping. For example, the use phase of pressurized potable water pipe, during which pumps overcome friction to move water through pipe, was found to contribute the greatest environmental impacts throughout the product’s entire life cycle. The EPD also identified advantages in this stage such as the smooth interior surface of PVC pipe that minimizes friction and therefore energy consumption. PVC pipe is also corrosion resistant and has a proven durability in excess of 100 years, requiring less frequent replacement.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.