A three-year-old “whistle-blower” suit unsealed in a federal district court on Feb. 8 claims that a leading manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride pipe widely used for utility collection and transmission lines falsely claimed its products met the performance specifications of industry regulators. It asserts that up to 50% of the pipe produced between 1997 and late 2005 is susceptible to breakage and premature failure at pressure loads below the labeled rating.
The suit charges J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc., Livingston, N.J., now trading as JM Eagle, Los Angeles, and its parent company at the time, Formosa Plastics Corp., also of Livingston, with changing manufacturing processes and chemistry without resubmitting products for certification by organizations whose stamps it bears, including Underwriters Laboratories, the American Water Works Association, ASTM International and Factory Mutual. It claims those changes degraded the products and reduced their longitudinal tensile strength to below the rated minimum of 7,000 psi.