"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday 10 February 2013

Everybody's Dong It.....Doing it .....doing it.

I referred to the "regional mind set " once. The Mayor asked me to explain . I did. It's a level of government  that has no direct contact with the electorate.

Councillor John Taylor told once how regional staff bend over backwards to accommodate the politicians.

We've seen an example in Aurora.

But here's a project, besides the acoustic fencing, that  typifies it.

Every year since I've been back on Council, we have spent between $650,000 and a million dollars on this work. 

We excavate and  cut open sewer pipes and insert  a fibre glass liner through x numbers of lineal feet of pipe. 

Someone I know watched them do it once. The pipe, being down as far as it is,.was shiny like new. The lettering was as fresh as the day it was laid.

A "How it's made"  T.V. show featured sewer pipe a couple of months ago. It's constructed  to last two hundred years. We cut   it to insert  the fibreglass liner.
I had asked the purpose before. It was to stop ground water from leaking into the pipe and decrease volume going  in to the  Big Pipe  and being treated at Duffins Creek. 

I'm a bit slow on the uptake, it took me another year to ask how they measure  ground water being kept out of the sewer pipe. That was last year. 

We were told the Region  is prepared to spend "milliions" to discover a way of measuring the amount of ground water being prevented from entering the sewer pipe because we are inserting a fibre glass liner at a cost of between $650,000. and a million dollars a year.

Once I asked when the task would be completed. The answer was "never." When it's finished. we start again. 

This year another $700,000 is in the budget to continue the work..
I asked again if there was any progress in  developing  a method of measuring  ground water  being kept out of the sewer pipe because of the fibre glass liner.

The answer was a cheerful no

Wouldn't you think the sensible thing would be to stop doing something when the ballyhoo has been discovered. 

You know, probably every municipality in the Region is doing this. 

Because, of course, every  municipality in the Region is doing it.  
 


This year, there's  $700,000  in the budget. 

That's more than two points in the tax rate      

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

here are the facts, right from Canada Pipe web site , looks like your right again according to the manufacturer , the only thing that can improve the life span of the pipe is an external treatment of polyethylene, not internal , is this what you mean by Region Mentality at its finest

IRON PIPE - THE HISTORY AND THE FACTS

In 1664, King Louis X1V of France commissioned the construction of a cast iron watermain, which lasted more that 342 years in service.
Cast iron watermain pipe was first used in North America, circa 1800, in the Philadelphia water systems.
There are currently over 23 cities in North America with cast iron pipe still in service after 150 years (before the invention of electricity and the automobile).
There are over 622 towns/cities in North America with cast iron watermain in service after 100 years.
Nine or more reasons for watermain failure are related to strength. Ductile Iron Pipe is the strongest watermain pipe available, by a very large margin.
Ductile iron is machined for engine parts such as crankshafts and connecting rods, plus various brake and steering components, due to its strength and reliability.
Ductile Iron Pipe has the largest available inside diameters vs. all other watermain pipe products currently available, and therefore has the greatest hydraulic capabilities in the industry.
In 1922, cement mortar lining of cast iron watermain was first used to protect the interior wall of the pipe and improve water quality.
Cast or Ductile iron Pipe corrodes only as a function of its underground environment, hence the extremely long life in so many installations.
Soil evaluation technology today can determine whether or not ductile iron pipe requires special corrosion protection.
Since 1958, polyethylene encasement has been used successfully to prevent the corrosion of iron watermains in some of the most corrosive locations in North America.
The success of polyethylene encasement has created the adoption of standards by ANSI, AWWA & ASTM (U.S.), plus ISO 8180 (International) and individual standards for Great Britain, Japan, Germany and Australia

Anonymous said...

Councillor Gaertner is always talking about how Aurora should be leading. Wouldn't it be refreshing if the Town could stop following the Region like some inbred poodle and actually stop taking their orders ? It always costs money with nothing to show for it.

Anonymous said...

Our main pipe is leaking at Tyler and Temperence isnt it?

Anonymous said...

9:48 AM
No one knows because the soft-ware set-up that was to report on any and all construction work doesn't work. So a councillor cannot simply ask the question and get an answer the way they were supposed to be able to do. Even the top staff do not have instant access to crews' reports. That soft-ware was a Region deal too.