"Richard Harrison" wrote in message
...
Jim, NN7K wrote:
"Not only that, BUT IF you use copper pipe, you may expect electrolysis,
which will actually eat the pipe, in 4 or 5 years, in soil."

I don`t have my CRC Handbook here with its metal activity series but I
was a sailor in WW-2 who replaced many zinc electrodes installed as
sacrificial anodes to protect other metals on the ship. I`ve also built
electrolytic cells which used copper and zinc as electrodes and sea
water as the electrolyte. I guarantee it is the zinc which is eaten
while the copper remains intact. Copper is poisonous to most sea
organisms and thus is not likely fouled. Don`t worry about copper it
does not waste away in the earth. I`ve worked in broadcast stations with
radials buried in the 1930`s. They are still pristine. Zinc is the metal
used to coat steel pipe when it is galvanized.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Richard, Thats not how it waste away. It is disovled from the inside by
galvanic action. If you couple copper to galvanized pipe you must use a
special coupler that electrically isolates the copper from the galvanized
pipe. This is usually a brass union with a neopreme, I think, insulator.