February 23, 2005

Part two of report on Toronto’s underground plumbing

Replacing aging watermains: Is PVC all it’s cracked up to be?

By Peggy Hill

DCN Correspondent

The City of Toronto is rehabilitating its system of 4,600 kilometres of watermain pipes through a cathodic process or with cement lining, or replacing them altogether with PVC pipes.

But is the city providing a long-term solution that can break the cycle of broken mains, or providing a Band-Aid solution that will be a bane for the next generation?

The program is “headed in the right direction. It has been woefully inadequate in the past,” says Sam Morra, executive director of the Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association (OSWCA).

“They’re looking at increasing their watermain replacement program from about 22 kilometres in 2004 to about 80 kilometres by 2009. So that’s going to represent a significant increase in the amount of work for our members and also should mean a corresponding de- crease in the number of watermain breaks they have to repair on a daily basis.”

The city has 1,200 to 1,500 watermain breaks a year. Many of the breaks are a result of problems with ductile iron pipes put in suburban areas after the Second World War. Toronto, like Edmonton and Calgary, has turned to PVC to replace smaller diameter watermains and for new projects.

“We’re being told and we expect that they’ll go 80 to 100 years,” says Mike Price, general manager of water and wastewater services for the City of Toronto.

“How does he know that?” asked Dr. Balvant Rajani, senior research officer, Buried Utilities, with the Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), a branch of the National Research Council Canada (NRC) in Ottawa.

“It’s very difficult to know. . . . To speak in terms of service life of 80 to 100 years I think is . . . a loose term to use.”

So what has the longest life? “Everybody asks this question. Especially, professional engineers ask this question.”

Rajani distinguishes between design life, which is what is intended when the pipe is designed, but before it is built, and service life, which “is how much service you can get out of it, irrespective of what the design life was.”

Rajani says pipes can be found in Boston that are 100 years old that are still in good shape, while newer ones are in very bad condition.

“Service life, to speak of in general, is a bit risky. It depends on the environment it was imbedded in. . . . You might be looking for a straight answer, but you won’t get a straight answer. Anybody who gives you a st- raight answer, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Rajani drew a parallel to humans. The average life expectancy may be close to 80 years in Canada, but he says if he asked someone what the lifespan of a specific individual will be, there is no definite answer.

“Averages are OK, but to say a pipe in downtown Toronto will last a hundred years or 10 years, I can’t tell you that. Nobody can.”

The decision for what cities can do to diminish the number of breaks and replacements, according to Rajani, is like a choice between buying a Toyota Corolla and replacing it every five years to avoid major repairs and breakdowns, or buying a Lexus and keeping it longer.

A city “can either choose to go with gold-plated pipes, but then you as the taxpayer of the city, will pay the taxes.”

Or a city can use wooden pipes and issue regular boil water warnings. “Then you will get very mad and next election you will throw them out.”

He says cities must determine what quality of life they want — measured by the number of watermain breaks and the ensuing inconvenience — and how much do they want to pay for it.

Toronto has been raising its water rates lately and plans to continue for the next few years. “By the time we’re finished, we will be looking at raising the rates by about 62 per cent,” says Price.

That might rattle homeowners, but “homeowners are minute, compared to businesses,” says Price. “Three per cent of our customers . . . contribute 63 per cent of our revenue. . . . The city plans to raise its spending on its water and sewage system from $252 million last year to about $540 million by 2008.

“As long as we can substantiate that the money is being spent on infrastructure, most of the businesses are accepting it (the rate increases),” Price says. The ones that are concerned are the ones that tend to use the water and don’t put it back down the sewers, such as breweries, soup companies, bottling companies. So they’re a little concerned that it is going to increase the cost of their product.”

While the increase as a percentage might sound high to the average homeowner, Morra of the OSWCA puts it in perspective. “I guess you have to look at the type of numbers that you’re dealing with. Sixty per cent of $300 is $180, whereas gas and hydro bills can easily be $100 a month. So it’s a lot less than other utilities and things like cable TV.”

Price says the city plans to review the rate structure this year “because at the moment the rate goes up the more you use, and then if you use way beyond that, then the rate drops back down again.”

The OSWCA has suggested Ontario come up with an average sustainable water rate. However, “I don’t know what that number will be,” Morra says.

Rajani also says cities need to determine a sustainable price, but one that’s easy to figure out — just ask consumers.

“I think everyone agrees healthy water is a necessity. There’s a price that everybody is willing to pay. It’s not difficult to determine.” Cities need to find out “what is the price that they can sell at to the consumer without the consumer being too sensitive. And then, from there work backwards and say, ‘This is how much revenue we’ve got.’ . . . Then if the consumer protests, then you say, ‘Look, we are matching what your expectations are with the resources we have.’ ”

In the meantime, Rajani sees slow sailing ahead: “Think of the distribution system, the water that comes to your house, as a big ship. But it’s a very old ship. And it’s huge. It’s the Titanic. To change its course is not an easy thing to do because it’s in a sea of mud.

“It’s not the same thing as replacing the TVs or computers every two or three years. You need to dig up the street and to reconnect it to every household. . . . It takes a lot of effort, and nobody wants to pay for it.”

‘They’re looking at increasing their watermain replacement program . . . that’s going to represent a significant increase in the amount of work for our members’

Sam Morra

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