State Report Recommends CPVC, Consumer Choice for Home Plumbing.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1998--California's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has proposed state approval of CPVC plumbing pipe for residential use. If the state Building Standards Commission agrees with the recommendation, Californians could, by the first of the year, have a choice between CPVC and current piping materials, most predominantly copper which is failing in thousands of homes across the state.

HCD's draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) says rampant copper corrosion is one reason building standards should immediately allow the thermoplastic CPVC for plumbing within the home. The irony is that the material is currently permitted and used for public drinking water treatment and distribution systems which bring water to the home, and it is used to plumb mobile homes, manufactured homes, RV's and commercial coaches, and federal buildings. CPVC is also used in fire sprinkler systems across the nation, including California.

Developed nearly 40 years ago, CPVC, or chlorinated polyvinyl chloride, is used for potable water supply - transporting water to the kitchen sink, shower head and everywhere else in the home - in all 49 other states and throughout the industrialized world. Currently used in millions of homes across the country, the system is approved by all major, national plumbing codes and by the National Sanitation Foundation which establishes standards for safe drinking water. Unlike copper or galvanized steel piping, CPVC does not rust, pit, scale, or corrode when subjected to aggressive water supplies.

Use of CPVC also eliminates health problems associated with copper leaching into the water supply. As identified by the Environmental Protection Agency and detailed in HCD's EIR, high concentrations of copper and lead in drinking water are a widespread problem in California. Those conditions can lead to flu-like symptoms and gastrointestinal problems, among other known health concerns which particularly affect children.

Copper plumbing corrosion and failures have been on the rise in California, but these pitted and corroded pipes typically go unnoticed until a homeowner finds a pool of water somewhere in the house. The net effect: sometimes thousands of dollars in re-piping and structural repair such as replacing wall studs and drywall, irreplaceable personal property damage and frustrated homeowners.

Making matters worse, homes in California must be re-piped with copper, which is likely to fail again.

The EIR details a 1997 report on San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties where the cost of re-piping a single-family home was $3,000 to $6,000 and $2,500 for a small condominium, with prices soaring upwards of $6,000 to $12,000 when water damage is involved. Projected life span of a copper plumbing system in those areas was one to eight years, depending on when the home was built. The EIR also reports on re-piping in the cities of Del Mar, Poway, Escondido, La Jolla, Carlsbad, and Chula Vista, where original copper pipes lasted three to five years, and repair costs ranged from $1,800 to $3,000.

"We can't continue to spend thousands of dollars every few years to replace copper pipes," said homeowners Robert and Debbie Reed, Highland, CA, who have re-piped more than once. "We're not unusual," added Mrs. Reed. "I know of several homes with four or five re-pipes."

Many homebuilders support the proposed solution, and agree with Terry Hardgrave, vice President and director of purchasing, Warmington Homes, a major developer, who said, "CPVC is the alternative" to copper water line deterioration due to Orange County's aggressive soil conditions.

CPVC has been denied to Californians because of an embroiled, 20-year lobbying effort by the pipe trades union, the copper industry and its allies in an effort to protect their turf, despite the fact that it would save homeowners money. The thermoplastic system costs less, and is more energy efficient, resistant to corrosion, easier and safer for contractors to install than copper. In other strong union locales, such as St. Louis, Indianapolis and Philadelphia, plumbers install CPVC on a daily basis.

St. Louis' unions are strong and the water there is becoming more corrosive, especially in areas served by well water. Jim Karsten, Sr., president of Karsten, Inc., a St. Louis-based plumbing contractor, said his firm plumbs some 350 to 400 new homes a year, and they recently installed CPVC in a new nursing home. In light of the corrosion issues there, he said, "I've seen that CPVC is not affected by corrosion and installs faster than copper." He adds, "CPVC has better heat retention qualities than copper," meaning it can save homeowners on energy costs and water damage due to dripping condensation.

In Jacksonville, FL, corrosion was so bad that in 1995 the city banned the use of copper for all new residential construction. James Rumph, a plumbing inspection supervisor for the city, noted that CPVC has been specified nearly 100 percent of the time since the code change.

In cities such as Orlando, FL and Baltimore, MD, copper is often affected by situations similar to those found in California communities -- aggressive water from overtaxed municipal supplies due to increased residential development, and deep well draws, respectively. Plumbers install CPVC to thwart the problem.

"By allowing the use of CPVC," says the 100-plus-page EIR, "(it) will be used in those situations where it offers environmental or economic advantages achieving the Lead Agency's basic goal: To have a residential potable water piping material available which is safe and not subject to corrosion, and to facilitate the provision of safe, affordable, decent housing for all Californians."

The EIR not only delves into consumer benefits of CPVC over copper, but it also details how both systems impact on the environment. In fact, it says, "this study shows that CPVC may be an effective and cost efficient alternative toward eliminating a known cause of adverse environmental consequences." The EIR lists the Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Los Angeles Harbor, Marina Del Rey Harbor, San Pedro Bay, and Santa Monica Bay as bodies of water where copper is a known pollutant.

The report elaborates on copper leaching into the ecology of open waters, in particular, the detection of dangerously high concentrations of copper, silver and lead in the San Francisco Bay. That condition prompted the state to cite Bay area waste treatment plants for exceeding standards and discharging copper-contaminated water into the Bay. And, government scientists providing comments during the EIR scoping meetings reported that according to the 1997 Clean Bay Plan, "the majority of copper discharged from the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP) comes from corrosion of copper pipes and equipment in homes and businesses."

Quoting an engineering study for the plant, which is operated by the City of Palo Alto for itself and other municipalities, the EIR states, "the largest single copper source, corrosion of copper drinking water piping, represents about 63 percent of the total influent copper," referring to copper leachate in the water. Phil Bobel, environmental compliance manager at the RWQCP, said, "we would like to see CPVC used wherever possible in residential new construction and re-piping, and in commercial and industrial applications where it is already permitted and in use. This would significantly reduce future copper discharge into our system and subsequently into the Bay, and help us bring the water back to cleaner conditions."

The thorough, well-detailed EIR, which is currently open for public review, identifies areas such as the San Francisco Bay, Inland Empire and Santa Clarita Valley as three main geographic concentrations of copper pipe failures. According to even the Copper Development Association's own map of California, however, the problem is prevalent throughout virtually all of the state. The EIR cites 16 counties as reported to have experienced copper pipe failures, and in a recent article, Plumbing & Mechanical, a leading national publication for plumbing contractors, identified 83 California cities known to have copper pitting problems, and there are likely to be others.

CPVC has been the subject of one of the most intense EIR reviews of a building product in history. HCD started studying the benefits and scrutinizing the comparative risks of it as an alternative to traditional metal pipe in 1981. In addition, testimony and research by health organizations, environmental groups, builders, plumbers, homeowner groups, unions, and copper manufacturers have been included as part of the exhaustive, 100-plus-page EIR. HCD had to precisely follow, as detailed by the California Environmental Quality Act of 1970 (CEQA), a specific process in its efforts to have CPVC officially accepted for the entire State of California.

To find out more about how CPVC can help improve the quality of your water supply and the environment, and how to help it become approved for use throughout California, write the Committee to Approve CPVC, 915 L Street, #C-239, Sacramento, CA 95814.