Thursday, February 28, 2013

Water for Life — From The Little Book of Waterstop


Life as we know it is unsustainable without water. Water is so essential for life that civilizations have risen and collapsed, due to their capacity, or lack thereof, to harvest a continual supply of water.

Without question, water along with oxygen is our most precious resource, and great care must be taken to protect it. Governments around the world have recognized this fact and have crafted byzantine codifications mandating protection protocols, treatment programs, and storage and distribution regulatory requirements.

The most predominant problems facing the world in regards to water are:

  1.  Quantity — Only 2.5% of the earth’s water is freshwater, and much of it is inaccessible as it is frozen in icecaps or glaciers, or in the ground.
  2.  Quality — According to the United Nations, by the year 2025, 50% of the world’s population will be facing a daily struggle to find enough water to meet their basic needs.

While quantity effects many nations, quality is primarily a problem of the developing world. Modern water treatment systems throughout the developed world have eradicated most deadly pathogens, and thankfully your nightly news is not filled with stories of outbreaks of cholera or typhoid.

Because water is such a finite resource, and so basic to our survival, we must take every possible precaution in safeguarding it throughout its entire lifecycle: extraction, treatment, storage, distribution, and process.



Concrete is the preferred building material used in regards to water structures. Whether it’s a megalithic concrete dam, holding back tens of millions of gallons of water, or pretreatment and treatment units at your municipal water treatment plant, you will see that it’s made of concrete. Concrete is a great building material for water structures, as it is can be made fluid-proof and strong; has a very long lifecycle; and is relatively easy to manufacture and install almost anywhere in the world. On the downside, concrete can not be truly functional without the addition of joints, and joints will leak unless adequate provisions are made to fluid-proof them. This is the primary function of waterstop: to prevent the passage of fluids through concrete joints.

From "The Little Book of Waterstop" by David Poole

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Design and Detailing Help


We can help you design and detail fluid-tight concrete joints with waterstop.  When you specify Earth Shield® Waterstop a world of free services await.  Contact David Poole or Tom Nelson to learn how JPS can improve your project's water and chemical tightness today.



Monday, April 30, 2012

Chemical Resistant Waterstop for Environmental Engineered Concrete Structures — Waterstops for Chemical, Industrial, & Environmental Applications

Waterstop plays a critical role in the integrity of concrete structures. It provides a fluid-tight diaphragm when embedded in, and running through concrete joints. Earth Shield Thermoplastic Vulcanizate Waterstop (TPE / TPER / TPV), by JP Specialties greatly expands the scope of conventional waterstop by offering unmatched chemical resistance to a broad spectrum of aggressive chemicals, solvents, and hot petroleum oils. Manufactured NSF CertifiedEPA-compliant (RCRA, CFR 265.193, CFR 112) waterstop profiles are available for new construction and retrofit, as well as the necessary tools and accessories for proper installation.

JP Specialties, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of chemical resistant waterstop and related concrete accessories. Our NSF 61 certified Earth Shield® line of chemical resistant waterstop is used throughout the world by major engineering firms and project owners for primary and secondary containment applications, as well as industrial wastewater treatment and ozone contactor structures. We invented and hold the patent on the technology used to mechanically weld thermoplastic waterstops. Services offered include free blueprint take-off and shop drawings, on-site welding certification, and individual corrosion resistance certification for the project owner.

  • We assist the Design Engineer and Project Owner with individual project and waterstop product certification
  • Full takeoff service including shop drawings at no cost to customer
  • Waterstop Shop Drawings including 2-D CAD details and 3-D isometric

Thursday, February 09, 2012

When you really need the best, contact "The Waterstop Experts" at JP Specialties, Inc. We can answer your questions and ship even the largest jobs quickly. Free blueprint take-offs and shop drawings are available.

Friday, December 16, 2011

JP Specialties Donates to Dream Makers

Every year, JP Specialties, Inc (Earth Shield® Waterstop) donates a significant amount of money to a charity around holiday time. The past several years we supported a national cause (Shriner's Hospital for Children). This year, we decided to do something much closer to home and support one of the local charter schools: Temecula Preparatory School. (TPS website at http://www.temeculaprep.com/ ) Charter schools receive far less funding than standard public schools and are badly in need of help from corporate partners and concerned parents. The school's PTA (PTA website at http://www.tpspats.com/ ) created the Dream Maker program for corporate partners to help make teacher's and student's dreams come true. JP Specialties, Inc. (http://www.jpspecialties.com/) is proud to be the inaugural corporate partner and today, Friday, Dec. 16th the winning "dreams" will be announced at the school's "Winter Wonderland" festivities. More details on "Dream Makers" can be found here http://idisk.me.com/david_r_p/Public/DreamMaker.pdf and JP Specialties, Inc. encourages other local businesses to support this outstanding asset to our community. ---More info from David Poole 951-334-3440

Friday, September 23, 2011

TPE and TPV... My Definition


TPEs and TPVs are such niche items that I seriously doubt that you'll ever find them listed in a printed dictionary or encyclopedia. Therefore, I decided to put my definiton on the Web for all to use as needed. 

1)       TPE and TPV defined:
a)         Thermoplastic Elastomeric Rubber (TPE [sometimes referred to as TPER]) — An alloy of rubber and plastic usually that bridges the price/performance gap of the two parent materials. TPEs have many of the physical properties and characteristics of rubber, but process like plastics.
b)        Thermoplastic Vulcanizate Rubber (TPV) — Same as a TPE, but the rubber phase of the product is vulcanized (or cross-linked), which provides the finished elastomer with higher chemical resistance and substantially better mechanical properties.
c)         (From Handbook of Thermoplastic Elastomers by Benjamin M. Walker and Dr. Charles P. Rader.)  TPEs first appeared as commercial entities during the late 1950s, with the introduction of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers by both B. F. Goodrich and Mobay Chemical. This was followed by the production of styrene butadiene and styrene isoprene block copolymers by the Shell Chemical Company during the middle and late 1960s. a significant innovation in the TPE field was the commercial introduction of copolyester block copolymers by the Du Pont Company during the 1970s, which was followed by the introduction of a group of rubber-plastic blends — primarily polypropylene and EPDM rubber — by the Uniroyal Chemical Company. The 1980s saw  introduction of elastomeric alloy thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs), by the Monsanto Chemical Company in 1981, and elastomeric alloy melt processible rubbers (MPRs), by the Du Pont Company in 1985. The Monsanto TPV (now Santoprene by ExxonMobil), based upon a unique process of dynamic vulcanization, consists of a two-phase system — a finely divided dispersion of a highly vulcanized rubber phase in a continuous phase of polyolefin.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

RCRA and SPCC Fines for Roanoke, VA Company


ROANOKE, VA -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that a chemical distributor in Roanoke, Va. has agreed to pay a $43,967 penalty and complete more than $200,000 in safety improvements to settle alleged violations of federal environmental laws designed to protect and inform the public about hazardous chemicals.


The company, Chemicals and Solvents, Inc. (doing business as Chemsolv, Inc.) is located at 1111 Industry Ave., S.E., Roanoke.  The settlement applies to Chemsolv and Austin Holdings-VA, LLC, owner of two of three properties that make up the facility.


According to an EPA complaint, the alleged violations include the facility’s lack of fire protection, inadequate secondary containment, and improper storage of incompatible chemicals.  Other violations concern the company’s failure to fully implement its risk management program that is designed to help prevent chemical releases, and the company’s failure to submit required documentation to state, county and local officials for the facility’s numerous hazardous chemicals. States and communities can use this information to improve chemical safety and to protect public health and the environment in the event of a release.


The settlement announced today follows up on an EPA order in June 2008 for Chemsolv to take extensive measures to ensure that its storage facilities complied with industry standards and risk management program regulations.  To comply with the order, Chemsolv rebuilt two large warehouses at the facility.  


In the settlement, Chemsolv has agreed to pay a cash penalty of $43,967, and to implement two additional safety upgrades that exceed regulatory requirements: (1) installation of a nitrogen blanketing system on 20 storage tanks containing flammable materials at a cost of $153,000, and (2) installation of a dry disconnect system on hoses at the facility, which will eliminate drips and accidental spills during loading and unloading of chemicals, at a cost of $63,000.  In the settlement documents, the company neither admitted nor denied liability for the alleged violations.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

RCRA and Clean Water Act Violations Force DOW Settlement

Click this link for the full storyThe most serious RCRA violations resulted from cracks and pits in secondary containment structures for several tanks and pieces of equipment at the Midland facility.  Secondary containment structures are ditches, walls, and other types of structures intended to hold in accidental spills and releases of hazardous waste from tanks and equipment.  Cracks and pits in secondary containment structures threaten the integrity of the structure, which can result in a release of hazardous waste into the surrounding environment.


JP Specialties, Inc. / Earth Shield® is the leading manufacturer of chemical resistant waterstop solutions and has recently begun supplying DOW projects throughout Michigan with chemical resistant waterstop to avoid future RCRA and Clean Water Act violations.