George Bunce, with Heitkamp Inc., unhooks a squeegee device on Thursday morning along Diller Road in Hanover. The device is pulled through water pipes to
George Bunce, with Heitkamp Inc., unhooks a squeegee device on Thursday morning along Diller Road in Hanover. The device is pulled through water pipes to clean out debris. The Borough of Hanover is hiring the contractors to clean out water pipes for residents of Conewago Township.


A Hanover Borough water-system renovation that began in 1989 continues each summer underneath our feet.

Crews remained hard at work last week, clearing rock-hard tuberculation - formations of rust - out of the water mainlines running underneath Lincoln Drive and segments of Diller Road. This week they resumed their work, coating the inside of pipes with cement to prevent rust from formulating again in the future.

When the process is completed by the end of August, 77 residents will have cleaner tap water.

Since 1989, crews have worked to rid main water lines of tuberculation inside the cast-iron water pipes running beneath the streets of Hanover. Gordon Shue, the superintendent of the water department, has coordinated the process.

In his office sits a piece of pipe from 1888 that nearly rusted shut.

"The tuberculation forms between the water and the iron surface," he said, pointing to a pipe a little wider than his fist. "If it keeps building up there, it could end up rusting it shut to the point where you end up with a pencil hole through it."

Complaints of discoloration or a metallic taste from water customers are the first indicators of mainline rust residue, Shue said. The borough keeps track of the number of complaints and plans its next step accordingly.

Shue said the water is healthy to drink, though it may have a slightly higher iron percentage - more than anything, it looks unappealing.

"It's not harmful to anyone," Shue said. "Water that looks more like iced tea, you don't really want to drink."

Besides the look and taste, water with high amounts of iron can tint laundry red or yellow.

"Most people try to use bleach, but bleach brings out the color even more on the iron end," he said.

A chemical called Red-B-Gone will neutralize the rustic color, Shue said, and it is available at the Hanover borough office on Frederick Street.

While dirty-looking water is an annoyance to customers, clearing the mainline is most important because it maximizes water pressure for fire hydrants.

This year's rehab contract went to Heitkamp Inc., a pipeline and sewer rehabilitation company that outbid six other competitors at $82,274 for the job. The 4,230 feet of mainline cleaning set for this summer also includes sections of Sycamore Lane, Juniper Lane, Madison Street and Filbert Street.

Before entering the mainline, Heitkamp workers installed a temporary bypass for residents and replacement fire hydrants. The temporary pipes are disinfected by the borough before use.

"You're not going to get quite the same pressure that you'd get out of the street pipe, but it's something," he said.

In a method similar to flossing, a metal-pronged scraper is dragged back and forth through the pipe using a mechanized pulley system to break up tuberculation. Once the larger debris is cleared, a squeegee is dragged through to clean the pipe's slimy internal walls.

The grayish slop sliding out of the pipe during the process feels like mud, but stains clothing.

"What came out of the pipeline here is what has been broken loose," Shue said. "It's hard as a rock in there. What goes into the houses is the water that flows through that. It may be discolored at times, but it's not heavy material like we're bringing out of the hole."

After the pipe dries, a cement slinger coats its insides. A cone-shaped trough follows behind, spreading cement evenly, a quarter-inch thick. Finally, workers use reverse water pressure to shoot a small stream of water from each house back into the mainline to ensure that the house line isn't sealed off.

"There should be no problem with it going a hundred years like that without any problem," Shue said of the cemented pipe.

Shue said that, before Heitkamp workers begin their process, borough workers do the preparation of digging openings in the street and cutting the exposed pipe. Once the contracted crew is done, Shue said his employees are in charge of reassembly, replacing the cut pipe with ductal iron and backfilling the holes. Before the mainline is back in service, the pipe is disinfected with chlorine and tested for bacteria at Laboratory, Analytical and Biological Services, an independent laboratory in East Berlin.

At $19.45 per foot, Shue said the cost of cleaning and cementing the cast-iron pipes was far less expensive than replacing the pipe with ductal iron, which costs a little more than $100 per foot.

The only disadvantage is that even cement-coated cast iron is more likely to break than ductal iron, Shue said. He explained that most breaks occur through the diameter of the pipe, and can be fixed relatively easily with a clamp.

Hanover Borough Manager Barb Krebs said water rates will increase in the future, but not until August of 2014 based on an agreement that began in January.

"The rates go up, but we've been maintaining infrastructure improvements and still only charge one-third of the cost of York Water for service," she said.

A press release explaining York Water Co.'s recently proposed rate increase stated that residential customers using an average of 4,872 gallons per month would pay $39.46 or $46.91 in that time period, depending on where they live.

The municipal water system in the Hanover borough charges quarterly, but divided out, the cost totals $19.74 per month. Slightly higher rates for residents outside the borough average out to $21.91 per month.

Hanover currently provides water to Hanover and McSherrystown boroughs as well as Penn and Conewago townships.

Shue said mainline improvements are one of the first items cut in a tight budget year. If the numbers play out, John Street, Bair Avenue, Fair Avenue and Charles Street will see repairs next year. Shue said half the borough has received improvements.

"We hoped to be done in 20 years," he said. "We just ran short on money."; 717-637-3736, ext. 123; Twitter: @GoodOleTwoNames