Category: water

Your Plumbing System – Post Covid 19

After attending my fifth online conference/meeting/webinar the other day, the last one I logged on to was a Webinar provided by #IAPMO dealing with what effect would the workplace shutdowns have on vacant or close to vacant facilities. I think that this is very timely with everyone hoping that we can get back to work in near future.

I am sure that you can go to the IAPMO website to watch this informative webinar again. Representing Plumbers and Pipefitters throughout New England these workers and their contractors are aware of the dangers that lurk in stagnant water systems. Boston is a hotspot and almost most of the commercial operations have been empty for what may be now just around six weeks.image

Stagnant water systems may promote the growth of Legionella in systems that sit. Water temperatures in systems have risen due to just the ambient temperature of the building. These temperatures may now be approaching the danger zone for the growth of theses  dangerous organisms.

One of the presenters Dr. Janet Stout, an infectious disease specialist dealing with legionella, provides a very user friendly understanding of the way it grows and the potential for it in the building plumbing system. I think you are starting to get the understanding that wholesale flushing of the systems may be in order to safely reopen a building.

Tom Bigley, Director of the World Plumbing Council as well as the Director of Plumbing for the United Association, provides a really good roadmap for what really people should be thinking about in respect to this. A great point Tom made was that the general public needs to understand that Plumbing and Mechanical systems are designed for flow and use, not sitting Therefore the systems need to be moving.

Throughout New England the more densely populated areas have seen the most cases but much of the area has been part of a stay at home policy. So all property owners need to do an assessment of their plumbing and mechanical systems going forward. Larger properties may in fact have a water management plan, smaller places may not but commonsense should rule the day. IAPMO has a great tip sheet on their website that can show the way to address the concerns of reopening a system.

Across New England United Association members and their contractors are ready to assist property owners as they begin to navigate the new normal that is living with COVID-19. If you need a contractor to assist you, please visit http://nepipetrades.org/index.aspx.

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Plumbers Local 12 Recognizes National Apprenticeship Week

This week, November 14th through 20th 2016 is National Apprenticeship Week. At Plumbers Local 12 in Boston every week is apprenticeship week. There is no better trained plumbers in eastern Massachusetts than the ones at Local 12.

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Layout class led by Instructor Darren MacDonald

Just this week in our day school program we have first year, second year, and third year apprentices doing everything from academic classes to shop classes. Classes from Use and Care of tools, Plumbing Code as well training in the latest layout and co ordination technologies have been going on every day.

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Local 12 Instructor Gregg Peterson, teaching Use and Care of Tools

Plumbers Local 12 has almost 200 apprentices in our apprenticeship program working in shops that range in size from 2 employees to some that have in excess of 300 plumbers and apprentices. It is imperative that we supply the most highly skilled and well rounded mechanics in the industry to support our contractors.

Apprenticeship is a proven method of skills training that goes back hundreds of years. The plumbing trade is no different. Our apprentices do 1200 hours of training in our program almost double what the Massachusetts laws require for training. “All of this training pays off for us because when an apprentice does an apprenticeship here they are embarking on a journey that will require them to be the best” says Rick Carter Local 12 Training Director.

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First year apprentices brazing in the shop, led by Instructor Joe Kyne

“Plumbing is a career” says Harry Brett, Business Manager of the Boston Plumbers Union, “we do not provide jobs we provide careers and a rock solid foundation is the success to that career”. So as the nation recognizes Apprenticeship Week we at Local 12 live it every week and are committed to continue the fine tradition of Apprenticeship.

 

 

 

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Out With The Old

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On May 13th Plumbers Local 12 in Boston graduated their first apprentice class in two years. These new journeyman plumbers have raised the bar for what an apprentice class should be.

After five years of attending a program that started out at night and finished as a day program they sang the praises of their training. They also represented the changes that Local 12 has been championing. There were commercial, residential, and service apprentices graduating together.

Also in this class were three apprentices that competed in national apprentice competitions. One in Connecticut, one in Ann Arbor, Michigan,and one in Hollywood, Florida. These apprentices were so inclined to participate because of their confidence in the training they received at Local 12s training facility by our instructors.

One of the most important jobs that the plumbers union has is to provide the best trained apprentices and plumbers the industry has to offer. There is nothing else like this in regard to training in Massachusetts. Now with a special attention to all wood frame construction with 12R we are training to all aspects of the residential industry. Not that we weren’t before before but we are in it to win it.

We also have our focus on service as well. All apprentices take part in service training but the ones actually doing it train with the journeyman as well. That along with quarterly in service training with the vendors of the industry puts us head and shoulders above everyone else.

The day school also brought some unsolicited comments from the class. Class President Danny Palimeri spoke about how their personal relationships changed after they went to day school. “When we started at night we were acquaintances but once we started day school we all became very close.” For me that compliment was confirmation that day school is the way to go. “We were supportive of each other to make sure that everyone was getting whatever the teachers threw at us” said Danny.

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Class President Danny Palimeri addresses over 200 people that attended the graduation at Venezia Restaurant in Dorchester, MA. 

Some that read this may not appreciate that trade training is that important, but when you put in five years and over eleven hundred hours of training this group of new journeymen will forever consider themselves Local 12 Class of 2016! Congratulations!

 

 

 

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Water, what if there was none

Water, as a plumber it comes as no surprise that I think about it quite a bit. As a matter of fact I have been thinking about it a lot lately. The lack of it in certain parts of the country have me really concerned. Turning on my faucet and not having anything come out is almost inconceivable.

That seems to be the case in California these days and why the news does not pay more attention or devote more time to this is beyond me. A few years back there was another troubling drought situation in Georgia which seems to have corrected itself, thankfully. Recently the PIVOT Network just had a lot of programming around World Water Day.

Here in the greater Boston area there seems to be ample supply of water. Seven feet of snow and a very slow melt hopefully will replenish the reservoirs and aquifers for the upcoming summer. But looking at it from a plumbers point of view it is a commodity that is taken for granted.

When looking at California I become concerned that over the next fifty years this may happen here but more importantly it is an issue that will pit people against other people. Water wars seem like something out of the old west but if some have it and some do not, then watch out. We need to, at a time when we can, try to come up with ways to save water.

Plumbers Local 12 is a leader in water reuse technology. Our plumbers and apprentices receive hands on training in water re-use technology in our state of the art training facility. The Greater Boston area has numerous locations where plumbers have installed these water saving technologies. We have buildings that recover rainwater and reuse it for the flushing of toilets and irrigation. we also have full sewage treatment systems that employ grey water for some of the same purposes. At Gillette Stadium and Mall one such systems exits. as a mater of fact i have always suspected that this system would be used also as a source of water to help economic development near the stadium.

As we see the installation of these system increase one has to wonder when these types of reuse systems will be used in single family homes. it is my understanding that in places like Australia, where drought has been an issue, that many individual homes have at minimum a rainwater collection system. Did anyone know that for every inch of rain that falls on a one thousand sq. ft. roof, six hundred gallons of water can be collected. Over the course of a season that can add up to a lot of water. I think it would make a lot of sense to start to encourage this. This along with many other breakthroughs in technology will provide more work in the Green Economy.

Thinking of six hundred gallons, a visual could be having almost eleven fifty-five gallon drums. To someone in California today that most likely looks like liquid gold and it should as water means life. For something as important as water the technology has been slow to come. ROI on solar thermal has lagged behind compared to the PV panels and desalinization is tremendously costly and uses much energy. As a matter of fact some plants have been built and been taken off-line as water supplies returned to certain areas. Hopefully the new one in San Diego will provide product as well as complement their existing systems when adequate supplies return.

Soon the Environmental League of Massachusetts will have something on the Boston Globe editorial page that speaks to jobs in the Green Economy. Massachusetts being somewhat of a progressive state should embrace these technologies and support solid legislation that addresses water conservation through smart energy policy.

The Plumbers Union is ready to work!

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