FEATURE | STANDARDS THE PERILS OF MISREADING AND MISUSING STANDARDS BY JAMES CARELESS, SPECIAL TO ONTARIO PIPELINE T he water industry relies on standards to do their jobs. By employing standards that outline the appropriate usage of particular materials, components, and procedures - especially minimum standards - water system engineers and managers attempt to maximize the longevity of their water infrastructure while minimizing costs due to unexpected failures and regular maintenance. Unfortunately, standards are often used without a full evaluation or consideration of what they really require. For such standards to provide desired results, engineers and managers must read them closely to understand why and how the related products can deliver the expected performance. Having fully understood the intentions and limitations of each applicable standard, owners and designers must then take steps to design appropriate specifications based upon these standards and actively ensure they are followed and enforced. These same engineers and managers also need to know the unique characteristics of their service areas in fine detail to assess whether the O N T A R I O P I P E L I N E | FALL 2018 | 15