News & Media

Leading with Safety: Pipe Plug Safety

(Pictured left to right: David Ridge, Evan McCracken, and Travis Provencher. Not pictured, Mike Raffael and Larry Joyal.)

The civil team was re-establishing the influent flow by-pass system. During the morning check of the system, they noticed the pipe plug in the 48" sewer line had lost pressure, reducing down to 20 psi from 25. The team determined that the gauge assembly was not functioning properly and replaced the gauge prior to proceeding. They re-inflated the plug and about an hour later noticed that the plug was still losing pressure. The team took a tactical pause and made the determination that the plugs pressure regulator valve was not seating thus the plug was inoperable. The decision was made to replace the plug with the back up plug that was onsite. This step shows the team dedication to our safety culture, what was learned in our recent trainings, and shows how they function as a team and are all in the loop about what is in front of them.