Airway Heights, Vera Water employees are some of the best there are in this competition
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
They strive for the pinpoint accuracy of a late-inning relief pitcher.
Their team is a throwback of sorts to the days of old time sports where colorful nicknames were commonplace.
And they are among the leaders in their league and competing for both national and international acclaim.
No, Under Pressure is not a baseball, softball or soccer team but rather a highly skilled group of craftsmen who want to be the best at bringing water to your home or business. And they're trying to accomplish that right now back in Chicago.
Bryan St. Clair, currently the water superintendent for Vera Water and Power in the Spokane Valley, formerly worked with the city of Airway Heights in their Water Department, and it was there where the Under Pressure pipe tapping team was formed, got darn good – second best in the state of Washington in fact – and are now trying to out tap nearly 40 other teams from across the country.
St. Clair's crew was awake and at work early recently – hard at it by 6 a.m. on their own time – showing up at the shop in the Spokane Valley to have one more practice session tapping a fully charged water main with a service line to a home.
It's the same job they do on a daily basis for their respective water companies, only they take more time when connecting your home or business to water in the street.
“It's not as common in Eastern Washington so the crew had to learn from the ground up how to direct tap a piece of pipe,” St. Clair said “Over here we use a lot of PVC,” he said, not the copper that is the focus of this competition.
As they prepare for their practice session, all the parts are carefully laid out on the floor.
The work Under Pressure does in a matter of seconds has the look and feel of a NASCAR pit stop. Speed, precision and teamwork are just as crucial to installing a leak-free pipe as keeping a driver amongst the race leaders following a round of tires and a splash of gas.
The tapping process involves drilling a hole in the steel water main pipe. A device called a “corporation stop” is installed into the main. From there the copper pipe ends are flared and another valve, the inline curb stop, is installed midway through the line. Finally comes a device to turn off the flow, the property stop at the home or business.
“They have to run that whole service as fast as they can,” St. Clair said. “And have no leaks,” he added. In this case that's all done in slightly over 1-minute with 1-minute, 6-seconds being the best time for the team so far.
Not bad progress from the 2:40 they started with a little over a year ago, and better than the 1:13 that Tacoma used last year to win the national championships. Under Pressure was formed last year and has been in five competitions so far, placing first in two and second in the rest.
As for the nicknames, “We just started doing it, Gale Helt said. “They just started calling me Old Yeller,” he said, saying that moniker came because he yells a lot. “And I do it good,” he added. Helt is there to guide and coach he said.
Lance “Red” Peterson runs the copper and cuts the flairs. Brady Stewart is called “the Cranker.” He helps drill and tap the main and then gets the pipe hooked. Bob “The Ghost” Cunningham is called the “Star Man,” and taps the main.
Peterson and Cunningham are with the Airway Heights water department while Helt and Stewart are with Vera. The two utilities decided to work together because they will be facing off against huge operations like those from Seattle and Tacoma.
Should Under Pressure emerge as champs out of Chicago, next up would be a trip to go against international competition in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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