AWWA COMMENT PERIOD ON AWWA C215, Extruded Polyolefin Coatings for Steel Water Pipe

AWWA COMMENT PERIOD ON AWWA C215, Extruded Polyolefin Coatings for Steel Water Pipe
December 12, 2025

AWWA solicits public comments on all proposed new AWWA Standards, and on all proposed revisions, reaffirmations, or withdrawals of existing AWWA Standards. The referenced standards project is being considered for approval and the publication of this notice begins the 45-day public comment period for AWWA and ANSI. An electronic public review copy of the proposed standard can be obtained for review during the comment period by emailing ETS Support (ETSsupport@awwa.org). Comments must be submitted in writing to the AWWA contact listed below no later than the last day of the comment period specified herein. Such comments shall be specific to the section(s) of the standard under review and include sufficient detail, so as to enable the reader to understand the commenter’s position, concerns and suggested alternative language, if appropriate.

AWWA Comment Period closes on January 26, 2026.

Send comments to:
Liz Ralph, LRalph@awwa.org
303.347.6177 phone

The review copy will be edited for publication and may also be revised as appropriate based on any comments received during the public comment period. Therefore, this copy is not suitable for continued utilization and is intended only for comment purposes.

Final publication of the standard may take several months. When it is available, a notice will be published in the official notice section of Journal – American Water Works Association. The standard becomes an effective AWWA standard on the first day of the month following such publication in Journal – American Water Works Association.

SCOPE
This standard describes the materials, systems, and application requirements for shop-applied extruded polyolefin coatings for the exterior of steel water pipes.

MAJOR REVISIONS
The major revisions made to the standard in this edition include the following:

1. Updated Sec. 3 Definitions to remove abrasive blast cleaning and seam weld.
2. Sec 4.3.1.1 Adhesive: Updated adhesive description for Type A System to include polymeric adhesive in addition to the existing asphalt. This change better represents the adhesives commonly used in this industry.
3. Moved Sec. 4.3.1.4 Coating Thickness to Sec. 4.5.1.2 under Sec. 4.5 Coating Application.
4. Removed previous Sec. 4.3.2 Coating Material since it was redundant to the information in Sec. 4.3.1 and 4.3.1.1.
5. Added new Sec. 4.3.2 Shelf Life, Sec. 4.3.3 Qualification requirements, and Sec. 4.3.4 Coated pipe inspection tests, to be consistent with other recently updated coating and lining standards.
6. Updated the language in Sec. 4.4.5 Protection from moisture and contamination, to be consistent with other coating and lining standards.
7. In Sec. 4.5.2 Weld Seam Treatment, added language regarding treatment on weld seams higher than 3/32 in. (2.4 mm) for consistency with ANSI/AWWA C214.
8. In Sec. 4.6 Coating Fittings and Specials and Sec. 7 Coating Repair added the recently published ANSI/AWWA C232 and ANSI/AWWA C233 to the list of allowed coatings.
9. In Sec. 4.8 Field Joints – Welded and Nonwelded, added the recently published ANSI/AWWA C232 and ANSI/AWWA C233 to the list of allowed coatings.
10. In Table 1 removed the temperature from Density property because it is already defined by ASTM D71.
11. In Table 1 Properties of adhesive (Type A), revised Density to Relative density (Specific gravity) and removed the units to match ASTM D71 and revised the wording in Sec. 2.1.3 Relative density to reflect this change.
12. In Table 3 and Sec. 5.2.2.2 Environmental stress crack resistance of polyolefin resin, removed (f50) from Table 3 and reworded how the measurement is taken in Sec. 5.2.2.2 to match the language in ASTM D1693.
13. In Table 4, removed the temperature from Penetration resistance property because it is already defined by ASTM G17.
14. 5.2.3.7 Cathodic Disbondment, was revised to reflect the changes made in ASTM G8. ASTM G8 now contains more options for testing, so specific conditions were added.
15. In Sec. 5.5.4 Adhesion to steel substrate, the reference to ASTM D1000 was removed as it is not appropriate for a field test. A similar change was made in C214 during the last revision.
16. Added a new Sec. 5.5.4.3 Small pipe considerations, to allow for field adhesion testing of small diameter pipes. Similar language was added to C214 during the last revision.
17. Sec. 5.6.3 was deleted since the language was redundant with information provided in other sections, and to be consistent with other coating and lining standards.