Polybutylene Water Services
Holland Board of Public Works maintains the portion of each individual water service from the public main (typically in the street) to the curb valve. The curb valve is the valve that is usually buried in the front yard between the sidewalk and the curb and is used to isolate the water service from the home. This allows our crews to turn off a customer's service when requested for seasonal disconnect.
It is the customer's responsibility to maintain this valve to the home.
What is Polybutylene Pipe?
It is a plastic pipe that is gray or blue in color, and can be identified by the PB2110 stamp. This material has shown a pattern of early failure and although it is approved for use by the Michigan Plumbing Code, Holland BPW does not recommend this material for use in chlorinated public water distribution systems or in private water services. Holland BPW attempts to remove this pipe from its portion of the system to replace it with copper lines whenever possible.
What if I Have Polybutylene Pipes?
-
We recommend you hire a qualified, licensed plumber to replace the water service.
-
You must contact Holland BPW to have the water service shut off to enable the replacement.
-
It is illegal for anyone other than HBPW to operate the curb valve.
-
If the water service between the public main and curb valve is not copper, and you chose to replace your water service between the curb valve and home, Holland BPW will replace this at no additional cost.
-
Be sure to schedule this work with the water/wastewater services group at least one week prior to the scheduled replacement.
Call 616.355.1564 or email us at waterengineer@hollandbpw.com with questions or concerns.