Corrosion Symposium

Presented By AMPP (formerly NACE) Portland Section

in Collaboration with PNWS-AWWA Engineering Committee

August 11, 2022

Feeling a little rusty on your corrosion knowledge? Please join us for a one-day corrosion symposium discussing corrosion and its impacts on municipal infrastructure. People who might be interested in attending are owners, operators, and builders of municipal water and wastewater infrastructure, but the topics discussed are applicable to a wide range of professions.

• Beverages, snacks, and lunch will be provided
• Cost is $130 
• PDH/CEUs provided - See below for status

We are pleased to announce the following speakers:

• Stu Greenberger and Alex Fussell, RH2 Engineering, Inc.
• Roy Rogers, Cathodic Protection Engineering, Inc.
• Stephen Ngai, Portland Water Bureau
• Bernard S. Covio, Jr., NACE/AMPP Fellow
• Ron Watts, Certified Coating Consultants

CEUs

0.5 for Water and Wastewater in Oregon and Washington   - Pending

Agenda

8:00     Sign-in, Coffee, and Announcements

8:15     Bonus Presentation (PRS corrosion monitoring system available for viewing right in the TVWD building*)

8:30 - 3:15 Presentations, lunch, and more presentations

3:15-3:30 Sign out for CEUs

*PRS stations are monitoring systems installed as part of TVWD and the Willamette Water Supply System’s (WWSS) Water Supply Integration project. They are designed to support regulatory compliance and provide investigative data for evaluating water chemistry impacts to plumbing materials under current source water conditions and future source water changes. The monitoring effort will continue through 2026, when the new WWSS Water Treatment Plant comes online. 

Presentation Abstracts

Fundamentals of Cathodic Protection

Presented by: Stu Greenberger, PE, and Alex Fussell, PE (RH2 Engineering, Inc.)

Fundamentals of cathodic protection are within your reach in this crash course. The presentation will address foundational concepts including the mining and refining of metals, the galvanic series, and the electrochemistry of the corrosion cell. Then we will address corrosive conditions; corrosion of materials; and galvanic and impressed current cathodic protection for waterworks pipes, structures, and facilities.

Direct Buried Infrastructure Reliability – Corrosion Control Case Studies

Presented by: Roy Rogers, PE  (Cathodic Protection Engineering, Inc.)

Municipal, utility, and industrial pipeline operators, now more than ever, expect long-term pipeline reliability and life expectancy. During this presentation we will examine several case studies where corrosion control best practices were used, how they were applied, and what they ultimately look like in the field. Following the presentation, we will allow time for an extended question and answer session with Roy and other symposium speakers.

Corrosion Control Strategies at the Portland Water Bureau

Presented by: Stephen Ngai, PE (Portland Water Bureau)

The Portland Water Bureau operates one of the largest cathodic protection systems in the State of Oregon with over 100 active impressed current facilities.  The Bureau has kept pace with corrosion technologies, beginning in the 1970s with the retrofit of large diameter pipelines with impressed current cathodic protection, developing a suite of techniques to accommodate urban light rail in the 1980s, the adoption of computer-controlled rectifiers for tanks in the 1990s, utilizing remote GPS synchronization in the 2010s, and now pursuing remote monitoring and operation with integration into SCADA, GIS, and SQL databases.

The presentation will be a guided tour of the corrosion control mitigations used at the Bureau for pipes, tanks, services, and other assets. We will explore detail drawings, specifications, and materials used. Extra time for audience questions and follow-up discussion will be provided.

Corrosion Protection of Oregon’s Historic Coastal Bridges

Presented by: Bernard S Covino, Jr., NACE/AMPP Fellow

Approximately 11 steel-reinforced concrete bridges were built along the Oregon Coast by Oregon State Highway Commission Bridge Engineer Conde B. McCullough from 1919 to 1936. This talk will explore these historic bridges, their corrosion issues, and possible corrosion mitigation strategies.

Steel embedded in concrete exists in a very stable passive environment if destabilizers such as carbon dioxide and salt are excluded. Of interest will be the effect of destabilizers on corrosion, corrosion initiation times, and the consequences of the failure to mitigate.

Several corrosion mitigation strategies, some of which are still being used in Oregon, will be discussed. While several strategies, including bridge replacement, were considered, what was adopted was thermal-sprayed zinc anode as a cathodic protection system. We will explore how this mitigation system is installed, how it works, and how and when it eventually fails. The final part of this talk will be a brief look at the use of stainless-steel rebar in reinforced concrete bridge construction.

Protective Coatings Update: Third Party Inspection

Presented by: Ron Watts, MCI #0041 (Certified Coating Consultants Inc.)

In protecting our nation’s infrastructure, protective coatings are currently the most widely used method of corrosion control.  Products and systems are designed for protecting our most complex (and costly) structures and projects (e.g., bridges, pipelines, dams, water/wastewater systems, etc.). When designed, specified, and manufactured correctly, coatings can protect against corrosion, enhance appearance and performance, and significantly extend asset life for a relatively low cost.

Unfortunately, coating systems can be complicated, and a myriad of factors involved during the installation process (from surface preparation to final cure) can pose challenges during a coating project. Economic pressures (low bid syndrome) and time constraints add another layer. Mistakes can happen: critical specification details may be misinterpreted or missed, hurried work can lead to poor quality or non-conformance, unsuitable ambient conditions may affect cure. With the potential of catastrophic failures, structural collapses, danger to health and human life, and significant economic consequences from excessive down time or repair, the quality assurance (QA) provided by a qualified third-party inspector can be vital to a successful coatings project and subsequent long-term asset service life.

This presentation will dive into the role of the third-party inspector, the inspection process, and key quality checkpoints of a project. We will also look at some common coating failures and failure mechanisms that may have been averted by having this important QA role in place.

 

 

 

Registration is Open and Space is Limited!

If you are going to be joining us at our event, please register now with the link to the upper left. Registration will close in late July. Costs include lunch and light snacks. Coffee, tea and water will be provided throughout the day. A gluten free lunch option will be available.

COVID-19 Notice - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PNWS-AWWA is committed to doing what it can to provide a safe and healthy environment for all meeting participants, staff, and guests. We will be following Washington County Department of Health guidelines for public events as of August 11, 2022. Should the County prohibit in-person events of this nature, a link will be provided to registrants for a virtual event.

Visitors to the TVWD office should be advised not to come to the office if they have been exposed or have symptoms associated with COVID-19. A link for virtual attendance will NOT be provided in the case of individual cancelations due to COVID-19 issues.

 For registration questions, please contact Taylor Stockton (tstockton@rh2.com).