Winter 2007
Articles	News from the Field Emergency Leak Repair—Solved Dick Kilhart, a long-time circuit rider for MassRWA, received a call about an emergency leak this summer from Paul Cook, the administrator and water operator at Pine Valley Plantation. Pine Valley Plantation is a cooperative community of about 400 homes with its own water supplies and distribution system. It uses mostly plastic water service lines without valve control, which is common in the Northeast. Dick received the call from across the state on Thursday, and was able to get there at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning. Since it was early and they anticipated a long day, Paul suggested they stop for coffee first. Dick said he'd rather solve the problem and then get the coffee. As it turned out, it took longer for the crew to travel to the site than to fix the leak. Mark Dalve crimps the pipe with a USABlueBook crimping tool, allowing a quick, clean leak repair. When they arrived, the crew had already dug down to expose the pipe the day before. Using a USABlueBook crimping tool, they pinched the pipe. They cut the pipe on the downstream side and not a drop of water came out. The repair involved a lot of pulling and tugging, but the crimping tool held fast. They installed a new curb stop in less than 20 minutes. Instead of having to shut off all the water to 400 homes, they had to shut off the water to one home for 20 minutes. Paul Cook and the Pine Valley crew were thrilled. They said they wished they had known about this tool 10 years ago, because they have always had to shut down the whole community to fix one service. They previously used vise grips for leak repairs, which where messy to use. The next day, the Pine Valley crew put in an order for their own crimping tool to keep on hand. As Dick Kilhart says, “it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” Dick keeps his crimping tool in the back of his truck, just in case. Thanks for helping out, Dick! Copyright © 2007, USABlueBook®, All rights reserved.