Underground Construction - May 2020 - 38

NASSCO Standard Bearer: Keith Alexander
working with software vendors that would
record the inspection data, and addressing
the way manufacturing would change as a
result of this new standard.
The introduction of PACP gave NASSCO
the resources to make real change for our
industry. When I ﬁrst got involved, the
association was having signiﬁcant ﬁnancial
challenges. We were lucky to aﬀord a bucket
of popcorn for our annual meeting. Mike
Burkhard stepped in as executive director
and helped set the course to get NASSCO
on solid ﬁnancial ground.
Irv Gemora took over as executive
director shortly after that and helped take
the association to the next level through
his strong promotion and understanding
of PACP, and the quality and value it oﬀers
our industry - speciﬁcally system owners
who need to manage assets properly.

Commitment, future
While NASSCO has grown and changed
over the years, the one thing I have noticed
never wavers is the association's commit-

ment to standards, and that is why I am
proud and honored to be recognized as a
NASSCO Standard Bearer. I truly believe
that if we don't hold ourselves and our
industry to high standards, everyone -
including our communities - suﬀers.
NASSCO's recent commitment to
understand the safety of emissions from
the CIPP process is a great example.
NASSCO commissioned the Center for
Underground Infrastructure Research and
Education (CUIRE) at the University of
Texas-Arlington to do a thorough review of
all published literature regarding the safety
of CIPP emissions. The ﬁndings showed
that earlier reports were non-conclusive. As
a result, NASSCO stepped up and funded
ﬁeld studies which were conducted by the
Trenchless Technology Center (TTC) at
Louisiana Tech, in partnership with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The 18-month study tested a variety of
pipe sizes in diﬀerent geographic locations.
TTC's ﬁnal report recommended, among
other things, active air monitoring by those

entering the liner truck, as well as keeping
at 15-foot perimeter around emission
stacks (which should be six feet in height).
Visu-Sewer did not take these recommendations lightly. We follow the recommendations with precision and educate our workers every day on the importance of safety in
the ﬁeld. Most of the recommendations are
truly operational common sense. We know
what to do to keep our workers and our
communities safe, and luckily, we have the
knowledge within our industry, tools and
resources to do just that.
My hope for NASSCO's future is that we
continue to come together to set standards
for the assessment, maintenance and rehabilitation of underground infrastructure
and to assure the continued acceptance and
growth of trenchless technologies. I also
hope we never lose the personal connections and cooperation that have developed
over the years, because family is just as
important to me in my own business as
it is to the friendships I have developed
through my involvement with NASSCO. *

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Underground Construction - May 2020

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