With continuously increasing energy costs, pump manufacturers must provide energy efficient solutions for fluid transfer. Besides hydraulically optimizing current technology, manufacturers are launching a number of new, highly efficient electrical drives and powerful control systems.

Corrosive, aggressive soil had eaten through a 35 year old ductile iron pipeline in the Port of Tampa area, causing a multitude of leaks that could not be repaired. Replacing the rotten pipe with more iron would have been costly and shortsighted. The radical environment required polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping.

Materials expand when heated and contract when cooled. Pipes are not immune to these laws of nature, so they will also expand and contract with varying temperature.

Two decades ago, EST Associates, Inc. started operations in Needham, Mass., to provide the New England area with environmental sampling and related monitoring services.

Driven by the demands of a growing customer base including engineering and consulting firms, remediation contractors, local municipalities and wide ranging industries, EST has expanded its capabilities to a new selection of O&M services, site remediation and pipeline inspection programs. John Carlin, president and owner, credits the company's 20 percent growth in profitability during the past few years to EST's ability to capitalize on the area's growing needs.

Massive amounts of energy are used to transfer oil and refined products over long distances. In the United States, several long distance pipelines move gasoline from the refineries in the Southwest to the coastal areas in the Northeast. Pipelines are an efficient, quick, reliable and economic method compared to trucking or boats.