Raw Water Pipe System Cleaning

First, what is "Raw Water"?

Raw water includes rainwater, ground water, and water from lakes and rivers. This water is called "raw" as opposed to water that has been treated to become potable or water which has been used in an industrial process, such as waste water.

Factors to consider in the Cleaning Process For Raw Water

The access port into the system is usually readily established by inserting a tee or a wye fitting, preferably a tee, into the system at convenient point at the beginning or end of the length to be cleaned.

One might be surprised to learn that many raw water systems are cleaned "backward". That is, they are cleaned from the discharge point back toward the source. This often accommodates site and system conditions and helps mitigate or minimize flow disruption in connected segments.

The volume of matter, (minerals, deposits, grit, construction debris, marine growth...) can be much greater than a reasonable person would have expected. Water present during this cleaning will be subject to high turbidity and will have solids in suspension. This makes the water unsuitable for use in the normal treatment process. This is a temporary situation and can be resolved with various customized applications. A decision must be made ahead of time regarding how to contain the solids and dispose of the water impacted by the cleaning process.

My client, Professional Piping Services, Inc., provides this service. They are a Certified Underground Utility Contractor and their License Number is CU-C055717

Potable Water System Cleaning

About The Cleaning Process For Potable Water

• Circumstances can vary, but potable water system cleaning is commonly done in 8 to 10 hr increments, disinfecting the system and restoring normal potable use at each shutdown.
• The process is prepared to allow immediate service restoration should the need arise, as might be the case for fire protection.
• Planning and notification of all consumers supplied by the system with information on how to work around or otherwise cope with the situation is an important piece of the process.
• The size or sizes of the pipes to be cleaned, as well as the age of each section the the interior conditions of the pipes can greatly influence the speed of the cleaning, with reliable mapping, it is not unusual to process a mile of pipe in one session.
• When possible, the cleaning process should start at the primary source of supply so that your potable water begins flowing through freshly cleaned pipes right away.
• Present water quality standards ensure that potable water leaving the treatment facility in such a condition to allow the newly cleaned pipes to become soiled again.
• Properly treating potable water costs you and your customers or citizens a lot of money. Delivering it through dirty pipes is shameful and disgusting!

• Because the cleaning of the system generally requires identification and opening of all of it's valves, a cleaning project often yields the added benefit of new, more accurate, system maps.

This article is written with a heavy influence from Professional Piping Services, Inc. who provides pipeline pigging with poly pigs and high power water jets. Their liscense information is:

Certified Underground Utility Contractor
License Number CU-C055717

Wastewater Force Main Cleaning

When we think of "dirty" piping product, there may be nothing more dirty than wastewater, carrying fats, oils, grease, kitchen waste and, of course, the bathroom flush.

Suppose you've just brought a pristine wastewater system online. With the first flush, load of laundry, someone's dishes... debris and residue settles or adheres out of the water and onto your formerly clean pipes, beginning the process of clogging them up, reducing flow and costing you more money in power and maintenance.

If any of these conditions exist in your piping system, it may be time to have them cleaned and restored to max flow capacity:

• Wet well evacuation takes longer and longer
• Pressure increases at the discharge head
• Your pumps have to run longer
• You plan to upgrade your pumps and make other station improvements
• Costs are increasing, especially energy use.
• Circumstances of the installation did not allow a cleaning before going onilne
• The system has been use under capacity, causing it to act as long, thin, settling basin
• Flow volume at discharge point is much lower than it used to be
• Maintenance staff has grown weary of alarm lights
• Laminar flow characteristics and Hazen-Williams "C" Factors have fallen to unreadable levels
• Odor problems continue in spite of your efforts

Remember that replacing the pipe means scuttling serviceable piping whose only offence is being dirty. Save time, money and disruption by having your system cleaned using an inline Poly Pig. There's a good chance this can be done with zero downtime, or very little.

My client, Professional Piping Services is a Certified Underground Utility Contractor

with License Number CU-C055717