A $1.2 million project was approved Wednesday to replace a nearly mile-long stretch of waterline in North Huntingdon, including a 75-year-old section of cement pipe that is infused with asbestos.
Officials called the project a standard replacement for the existing line that runs along McKee Road, from Clay Pike to Robbins Station Road. The pipe dates to the early 1950s. Its replacement is scheduled as part of a series of system upgrades paid for with $75 million in bond funds secured this year.
The cement pipes are not a safety risk for water customers, Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County manager Michael Kukura said.
“The asbestos was fabricated in the pipe. It doesn’t touch the water or the ground and only is released when it is cut and removed,” Kukura said.
Contractors will replace about 2,000 feet of antiquated 8-inch cast iron pipe from Clay Pike to Whitmore Road as part of the first phase of the project. The second phase, from Whitmore Road to Robbins Station Road, involves just less than 2,800 feet of cement pipe in which asbestos fibers were woven, as was industry standard at the time.
According to a study from the American Water Works Association, asbestos-infused cement pipes were commonly installed in mid-1900s and still account for about 600,000 miles of service lines throughout the United States and Canada.
Authority officials said only a small percentage of the more than 2,660 miles of local water lines in use are cement. Kukura said much of the asbestos-infused cement pipe will remain in the ground, with only small sections wrapped up, removed and discarded in a special dumpster to ensure the carcinogenic substance is segregated from workers, the air and the water system.
New PVC pipe will be installed in both phases of the project, Kukura said.
For more than the past decade, the authority has been replacing older waterlines throughout the system, which serves about 123,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties.
The authority’s board allocated $2.8 million in new system upgrades involving eight projects. Those include replacement of a filter at a sewer treatment plant in Mt. Pleasant; new sewer lines in the New Stanton area treatment plant which serves customers in the Fort Allen neighborhood of Hempfield; and water tower repainting in West Leechburg.
The authority also allocated another nearly $69,000 to bolster cybersecurity for its water production control systems.