The plague of asbestos-caused lung disease, cancer and death haunting the town of Ragland is not the only legacy the former Cement Asbestos Products Company plant left in Alabama.Today, hundreds of miles of asbestos cement pipe lay beneath Alabama’s red clay. The pipes the Environmental Protection Agency tried to ban in 1989 still carry drinking water to homes and schools in 85 systems throughout the state.
The Anniston Star surveyed 30 of those systems, which account for nearly 200 miles of asbestos pipe.
Though system managers doubt their pipes ever have leached asbestos fibers into the drinking water, they can’t prove it.
The EPA set a drinking water standard for asbestos in 1991, but the majority of systems with asbestos cement pipe in Alabama never have had to test for asbestos in their water.
The few that have tested for asbestos haven’t done so in more than 10 years.
Time tells the story
It’s easy to guess if a town’s water runs through a length of asbestos cement pipe. All you have to know is when the pipe was laid. Anniston — the soil pipe capital of the world — was founded in the late 1800s and used the metal pipe that fueled its growth.
Nowadays, the pipe of choice is PVC, or polyvinyl chloride pipe, or ductile iron.
But towns that grew or saw much development in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s would have relied on the strongest, most durable pipe on the market — asbestos cement, records show. Asbestos is a mineral form of impure magnesium silicate that occurs naturally. Its strength made it a popular building material and pipe ingredient before its health hazards were widely known.
strength made it a popular building material and pipe ingredient before its health hazards were widely known.
Folks in Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, Randolph, Shelby, St. Clair and dozens of other counties across the state still drink, bathe and wash their clothes in water that whips through a canal of cement made strong by the addition of asbestos fibers.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that the health effects of asbestos exposure became widely known and asbestos cement pipe began to fade out of style.
While the EPA considered banning the manufacture, sale and import of asbestos and all asbestos products, including asbestos cement pipe, it also proposed regulating asbestos that enters drinking water via asbestos cement pipe.
The asbestos ban was finalized in 1989, but reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1991.
No danger in tests
The drinking water regulations became effective in 1992 and required that systems analyze water samples before 1995. If any were above the maximum level, the systems were required to continue to test once every three months.
If not, they had to test once every nine years.
Interviews with environmental officials, civic officials and water systems operators — along with studies of Alabama Department of Environmental Management documents — revealed that the majority of Alabama’s systems with asbestos cement pipe haven’t tested for asbestos and don’t plan on testing, at least not until they’re told to do so.
ADEM in 1995 issued a statewide waiver for source water asbestos testing and individual waivers to all distribution systems with asbestos cement pipe.
Ed Hughes, chief of ADEM’s drinking water branch, said the waivers were based on two studies. In 1995, the Geological Survey of Alabama conducted a study for ADEM looking for asbestos in the water-supply wells of rock formations with the potential to bear asbestos.
The Alabama Piedmont, which includes Cleburne, Clay, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers and Randolph counties and portions of Chilton, Elmore, Talladega and Lee counties, contains five major rock types that can potentially contribute asbestos minerals to ground water. Samples were collected from 30 wells in such rock formations, and results found no detectable asbestos.
The other study, around the same time, looked at asbestos cement pipe. Hughes said it was not a formal report, and he doesn’t have a copy of it. He said water samples were taken from seven systems with asbestos cement pipe and the greatest likelihood to have asbestos problems based on the corrosiveness of the water. He doesn’t recall if there were any detectable levels of asbestos, but said none of the results came close to the EPA’s maximum level.
"It was low enough that the guy that ran the shop at that time thought it was OK to give a waiver to the state because there was just nothing there," he said.
Hughes said his opinion is that a waiver should not be allowed for the current nine-year cycle.
"Who knows what shape the pipes may be in?" he said.
Hughes doesn’t predict a problem, but said he doesn’t think requiring a test every nine years is a tremendous burden, even if it is a $500 test.
"I would sleep better," he said.
State’s testing limited
In Alabama, the managers of water systems containing asbestos cement pipe were almost unanimous on one question. They say they do the testing the state requires — no more and no less. Most were unsure whether that testing had ever included asbestos.
"We test for everything as far as I know, but as far as an asbestos test, I don’t remember ever seeing a sample for that," said Roy Hamilton, superintendent of the City of Opp Utilities Board.
Some said the only danger would be if people working on the pipe were not properly protected or if there were any degradation in the pipe quality.
Danny Pelham, general manager of the Clio Water Works in Barbour County, said he’s not sure how much asbestos pipe is in his system, maybe a mile, maybe half a mile. His estimate is based on what he’s found when there’s been a break or a new tap has been added.
"That’s about the only way we really know, is from working on it," he said.
While a few called the pipe brittle and prone to breaks, most systems described the pipe as strong and reliable.
"It’s some of the best pipe we’ve got," said David Campbell of the Arab Water Works in Marshall County. "If you keep your water balanced, it’s an excellent pipe."
Campbell said his department had a chance to inspect the inside of the pipe when working on a broken line and there weren’t any signs of degradation.
"It looks like the day we put it in," he said.
Campbell explained that, like a lot of the drinking water in Alabama, his is not corrosive or acidic. The pH level of Campbell’s water is so high, it forms a film inside the pipe that acts as a protective layer.
Other operators concur with the assessment that high pH levels — more-alkaline water — creates a buffer in the pipes. Jimmy Bailey, general manager of the Odenville Utilities Board in St. Clair County, said all its water is groundwater from limestone with calcium carbonate dissolved in it. That calcium carbonate tends to form a barrier, like a scale, inside the pipe.
The EPA suggests calcium carbonate saturation, by adding lime, as a corrosion control method to prevent asbestos cement pipe from breaking down. The agency also advises that inhibitors, such as zinc salts, can be used to form a protective film between the water and the pipe surface.
In addition to corrosive water, the EPA has cited tappings, or new connections into the pipe network, as a way for asbestos fibers to leach into the water.
Most of the systems seeking funds to replace the pipe want to do so simply because it’s time to upgrade to newer or bigger pipe. Others say they want to replace it before they’re ordered to do so.
"If we could get a grant, it would be nice to have it replaced," said Roger McDonald, Lineville Water and Sewer operator. "Over the years, we’ve had no problems with it."
The Madison County Water Department inherited 50 miles of asbestos cement pipe in the Maysville area. Tyler Denton, the department’s assistant director, said he’s not concerned about asbestos getting into the water. Still, they’re starting to replace it gradually before an order comes down from ADEM or the EPA to take it all out.
"Hopefully when it gets to that point we’ll have it pinpointed," he said. "I guess it will one day."
When that time comes, Denton said he hopes there’s a funding program to help the systems.
Replacing pipe can cost anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.
William Snyder, general manager of the Monroeville Water Works in Monroe County, bought the ailing Peterman Water and Fire Pro Authority in 2001.
The purchase added about 10 miles of asbestos cement pipe to his system.
"It is very brittle," he said. "It is a hazard to my people when we have to make repairs on it."
Snyder said he’s been trying for three years to get a grant to take the pipe out. Replacing the line would cost $1 million, a cost burden too great for the line’s 225 customers to bear, he said.
His employees wear special protective suits and respirators when they go in to repair a break.
In those situations, Snyder said he also has concerns about asbestos getting into the water supply.
But, like most systems, Snyder said he doesn’t test for asbestos.
Asked why, he paused to think.
"I don’t really know … I hate to say it like that.
"We had to test for asbestos several years ago, and everything was fine then."
