PVC Pipe – the Solution to Water, Energy and Carbon Waste

Over the past 10-plus years, legislators have been pushing for more energy-efficient options in infrastructure. This issue is especially pertinent right now because the 118th Congress will be passing the next “farm bill” as it is colloquially called. This bill is revisited every five years and authorizes all things related to agriculture with a spending of around half a trillion dollars.  Two issues that the 2023 bill will focus on are conservation and climate concerns, and PVC can go a long way toward helping policymakers achieve their goals of reducing carbon and water loss. We have been educating legislators about the benefits of PVC in the agriculture space and we are encouraging policymakers to recognize the opportunities in the 2023 farm bill.

The 2018 farm bill allocated 10% of its funds to improve water conservation and clean drinking water initiatives. One of the most cost-effective and productive ways to do that is to incentivize long-lasting, and non-corroding pumping systems pipe, such as PVC pipes. The amount of energy used in hydraulic pump systems goes hand in hand with the type of pipe that is being used. Over time, iron pipes corrode (as anyone who has seen pictures of a water main break can tell you) and as the inner diameter of the pipe shrinks due to corrosion, more and more energy is needed to keep the water flowing. This means municipalities must buy bigger pumps that use more energy and emit more greenhouse gas to push the water through the corroded iron piping systems. In contrast, PVC pipe keeps its smooth and consistent inner diameter for the entire 100-year-plus lifetime of the pipe. This means municipalities can “right size” their pumps with smaller and more energy-efficient pumping systems. This investment saves money, energy, and water.

According to a study done by cadeo, converting to a more energy-efficient irrigation system could:

• Eliminate 4 coal-fired power plants
• Pipe Conversion — Replacing old pipes with plastic or converting open canals to closed plastic pipes reduces water loss to seepage and evaporation and improves the efficiency of water conveyance, saving $2.8 billion in energy costs.
• Can reduce carbon emissions by 9.9 million tons

 

Agriculture consumes 37% of the nation’s surface and groundwater — 30% of which is lost due to seepage and evaporation. Open irrigation canals provide water to 43% of all agricultural land in the United States, adding up to over 228,000 miles of canal. The amount of annual water savings due to reduced seepage and evaporation by converting from open canals to plastic pipe is equivalent to 2.5X the average flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

In addition to the savings in water and energy, PVC’s role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is often overlooked. According to a study conducted by McKinsey, PVC pipes, have significantly lower total greenhouse gas emissions during production than other pipe materials. In sewer pipe applications, PVC has lower GHG emissions, approximately 45 percent lower than reinforced concrete pipes and 35 percent lower than ductile iron pipes.

While PVC will be highlighted in the farm bill, imagine all the energy, water, and money that could be saved if PVC pipes were widely implemented in our country’s other infrastructure programs, such as the EPA’s State Revolving Fund (SRF).  PVC is a sustainable and cost-effective solution for bringing our nation’s water system into the 21^st century and beyond.