It is common practise to use the guidance published by UKWIR, ref 10/WM/03/21 “Guidance for the selection of water supply pipes to be used in brownfield sites”. 2009-10, in assessing the potential risk to buried water pipes from soil contamination. However, it should be noted that some water companies have their own bespoke threshold concentrations, which take precedence over the UKWIR guidance. These may not be publicly available.

Therefore, to mitigate the risk of inaccurate advice being provided, any guidance on selection of water pipes should be caveated as requiring a check and confirmation by the local water company.

Jo Strange, Technical Director at CGL on behalf of the AGS Loss Prevention Working Group