With the southern US scrambling to manage its quickly depleting water resources, more and more emphasis is being placed on more efficient water treatment and conservation. Aging buried infrastructure, while not completely over looked, is taking a back seat to the improvements and expansions of treatment facilities. In the meantime, every day we hear news of our water distribution network suffering another failure and countless gallons of treated, potable water being lost. The reason why water main replacement is not the priority for managing the looming water crisis is that digging up these 50+ year old pipes is both disruptive and expensive.
The good news is that innovative trenchless technologies can offer huge convenience and cost benefits over replacing our buried pipes. Most trenchless solutions require a clean and prepared pipe to host one of a variety of pipe renewal or life extension methods. Unfortunately, the cleaning of these deteriorated cast and ductile iron pipes require huge amounts of water to clean and flush out debris. These wet cleaning methods are not ideal when you consider that experts are predicting the shortage of water is only going to get worse.
Of added importance, areas in drought conditions are more susceptible to fires. Older, tuberculated water mains restrict the flow of water which can make the difference between saving a structure from fire or not. The more of the distribution system that has been cleaned and rehabilitated will ensure adequate water supply to all areas where it is needed most.
For these reasons, Evanco Environmental will be offering pipe cleaning and renewal services using the Tomahawk SystemTM within the USA starting in 2015. The patented and patent-pending Tomahawk technology requires NO WATER to clean congested pipes. By using the vacuum system of a standard vac truck, Tomahawk uses dry abrasive materials to clean old pipe systems in compliance with SSPC-SP/Nace No. 3, Commercial Blast Cleaning. The level of cleaning is not offered by any other mainstream methods and helps ensure excellent bond for various pipe rehabilitation technologies. The dry process also reduces waste generation by up to 98% while reducing downtime required for dispose of waste generated during the cleaning process.