we are going to get a new water tower and was wanting to know are our 50 year old AC water lines safe? we was aproved for a grant for a new water tower but did not get aproval for new lines is this going to cause problems?

Darren, I spoke to Wayne Nelson, the training specialist with Illinois Rural Water, and he said this type of pipe is very common in older systems in Illinois. We are assuming you are talking about the type of pipe that is lined with asbestos and portland cement. The real danger, with this type of pipe is when there is a leak or any repair or maintenance work done on it. Cutting the pipe and the dust that comes with that is full of asbestos and any time anyone is working in that environment, they need to have protective gear to prevent exposure.

This is an interesting question because the pipe predates the EPA and there are thousands of miles of this pipe in use. If anyone has any additional insight on this please comment in the forum or email me at sdwilson@illinois.edu.

I misspoke earlier, Wayne said the pipe is likely not coated with asbestos and portland cement, its entirely asbestos and portland cement. This type of pipe, AC pipe, is commonly called transite pipe and there is a ton of it out there.

Again, the real issue is to be careful when cutting it. Its best to have protective gear on and Wayne said the best way to minimize the dust when cutting it is to keep it wet, keep water on it while you cut.