A Cub Scout camp located in the heart of one of Oklahoma’s largest ranches is expanding its facilities and recently installed a new polyethylene (PE) sewer line.
The camp is called Cub World and has become a big part of
the 32,000-acre Zink Ranch located about 15 minutes from the city of Tulsa. The
ranch is a non-profit organization and about 100,000 Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts
and Cub Scouts visit the ranch each year. The sewer line under construction is
for a restroom facility that will service a new theme park for Cub World.
A fishing pond has been drained and a stationary ship is
under construction that will sit in the middle of the pond and serve as a
fishing platform after the pond is refilled and stocked with bluegill. The
sewer line will run from a new restroom at the fishing pond to an existing
lagoon 3,500 ft. away, that serves several other restrooms.
“The system we are putting in is going to last a long
time for generations of scouts to use,” said Terry Silkey, training and
development manager for McElroy Manufacturing, Inc. “We are installing
4-in. PE to transport the wastewater to the lagoon because it doesn’t
leak.”
With heat-fused
joints, the piping system becomes a leak-free monolithic structure and there is
no chance for seepage or ex-filtration into the surrounding soil. A no-leak
system is crucial because the ranch has 40 miles of shoreline on two major
lakes in the area.
The 4-in. HDPE, SDR 11 is delivered in 600-ft. rolls
weighing 1,200 pounds and is pulled through a machine called a LineTamer to
remove the coil set from the long length of pipe. The LineTamer is estimated to
significantly cut installation time when compared to using 40-ft. sections of
pipe.
A hydraulic lifting arm on the trailer of the LineTamer is
used to lift the massive roll of pipe into a containment cage. The pipe has to
be enclosed because it contains stored energy that could be dangerous if not
handled properly. A pulling strap is connected to the end of the pipe and is
pulled through the LineTamer with a tractor. A series of three rollers bends
the pipe slightly beyond a straight line — much the same way one would
bend a piece of curved wire beyond a straight line to make it straight.
The second series of rollers re-rounds the pipe. After the
600-ft. length of pipe has been pulled through the LineTamer, it is dragged
back through the woods toward the lagoon. Five sections of pipe are
straightened by the LineTamer and positioned end-to-end along side the open
trench until enough pipe is laid out to reach the lagoon.
The sections are joined together with a McElroy No.14
PitBull fusion machine. The PitBull fuses 1-in. IPS through 4-in. DIPS pipe and
creates joints strong as the pipe itself. The fusion process takes only about
15 minutes at each of the five joints, and the new fusion operator trainee
needs guidance only on the first joint to perform the rest. After placing the
pipeline into the ditch, it is tied to the lavatory and tapped in to the main
line that enters the lagoon — completing the job.
“We have helped the Boy Scouts of America install
polyethylene pipe for water lines or sewer lines at three different locations
in the state,” said Silkey. “They’re using PE because of its
low maintenance. PE doesn’t develop leaks at the joints that have to be
repaired like other piping materials. The only time it leaks is when someone
digs into it and cuts it.” Many of the scout camps are not used
year-round so they are affected more by the environmental affects of winter.
There is no concern about winterizing the camp lines because PE will not freeze
and break, and it is easy to put back into service each year.
