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Innovative Rehabilitation Technology Demonstration and Evaluation Program
Citation:
Matthews, J., A. Selvakumar, R. Sterling, AND W. Condit. Innovative Rehabilitation Technology Demonstration and Evaluation Program. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. Elsevier BV, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 39:73-81, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
In the U.S., there are approximately 16,000 wastewater systems incorporating approximately 740,000 miles (1,190,660 km) of public sewers plus 500,000 miles (804,500 km) of private lateral sewers. Some components of the U.S. wastewater infrastructure are well over 100 years old. The combination of age, neglect, and mishaps give rise to approximately 50,000 sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) per year, along with the resulting illnesses and environmental degradation and as much as 10 billion gallons of raw sewage released yearly. The latest 2013 infrastructure report card issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) provides a “D” grade for wastewater infrastructure. ASCE estimates that nearly $300 billion is needed for capital investments over the next 20 years. The drinking water infrastructure in North America is older than the wastewater infrastructure. In the U.S., there are approximately 166,000 drinking water systems, comprised of over 1 million miles (1.6 million km) of pipes. Of these systems, there are more than 50,000 community water systems serving approximately 95% of the population. An estimated 34% of the water mains are more than 25 years old, 73% are ten-inch diameter or smaller, and 90% are made of asbestos cement, cast iron, ductile iron, and PVC. ASCE gave water infrastructure a “D” grade in its 2013 report card and indicated that leaking pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water a day. AWWA estimates that nearly $1 trillion is needed for restoring and expanding the drinking water infrastructure over the next 25 years
Description:
The needs associated with the aging water infrastructure are immense and have been estimated at more than $1 trillion dollars over the next 20 years for water and wastewater utilities. To meet this growing need, utilities require the use of innovative technologies and procedures for managing their systems. To help meet their needs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated a research program to assist utilities in the renewal of water distribution and wastewater collection systems and this paper summarizes that program. The primary contributions of the program are the state-of-the-art review of current and emerging renewal technologies available for water distribution and wastewater collection systems. This paper also discusses the results of a cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) retrospective study of liners in use for more than 25 years and a field demonstration program of innovative water rehabilitation methods. In addition, a review of quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) measures for trenchless technologies and current decision-making models and methodologies available to support rehabilitation versus replacement decisions are also discussed.
