pipes and tree roots (chestnust, hazelnut, apple)

There is a narrow field on my property in which I was planning on planting chestnut, hazelnut, and apple. I was aware of a pipe running through the field, and was planning on giving it lots of room, but I recently discovered that there is a second pipe, parallel to the first, about 25' apart. If I were to give both of these pipes as much space as I would like, most of the field would be ruled out. So now I'm trying to figure out how much space I really need to give these pipes from each of the three species I mentioned. The pipes are PVC and buried about 18" deep. They are both major arteries for the whole property, coming straight from the well, so I'd rather be safe than sorry, but I also don't want to have to leave this whole field empty. Does anyone here know enough about this to advise me on how far the from pipes I should plant to be able to sleep easy?

Thanks.

My understanding is that tree roots will not bust pipes/foundations but rather are drawn to pre-existing damage/gaps.

I would advise to give as much room as you reasonably can, if you are worried about the reach of the roots then perhaps a balanced solution would to look into dwarf varieties? The tradeoff is life expectancy of the trees but I it might be the ticket to your good nights rest.

I worked as a  drain cleaning plumbing tech so I am only familiar with sewage pipes.
We only saw the worst case scenarios, mostly old clay pipe with tarred rope at the joints, but some pvc pipe.
The pvc was alway broken right where it entered the house.
This probably had everything to do with frost heave in a zone 6b  climate, and poor installation.


All that said, pvc pipes 18" deep in a warm climate should be extremely robust and unlikely to leak.
Repairs, if needed should be pretty easy, but of course, no one wants to create problems for themselves.

I would say risk is low, but If you feel it is worth the peace of mind, you could always install a root barrier that runs to 30 in depth around the pipes in areas where the trees might encounter the pipe

determine how tall the trees will be a maturity.

This might help:

a tree’s roots will spread out as wide as the crown at maturity.

https://www.nashvilletreeconservationcorps.org/treenews/where-to-plant-a-tree-part-2-water-and-sewer-line-proximity

William Bronson wrote:All that said, pvc pipes 18" deep in a warm climate should be extremely robust and unlikely to leak.

Is Western Washington considered a "warm climate" for these purposes? Currently figuring out where I'm going to plant one dwarf and one semi-dwarf apple tree in my yard, and it's looking like I'm going to have to plant one or both relatively near some of my private-side sewer/water pipes. I don't even currently know what material they are or how deep they are or where precisely they are (currently judging based off where the city-side water folks marked) - next step will be asking the property owners if they have that info. But if PVC pipes are the norm for relatively modern sewer/water systems then that's probably what mine are.

From everything I've read, I'm not terribly worried about it, it just sounds like I want to give the tree roots minimal opportunity to get interested in my water pipes.

The original spot I was planning to put one of the trees turns out to be quite near some underground city-owned gas pipes, so I don't want to plant anywhere near that, even if my trees' roots won't be particularly interested in gas pipes, lol.

edit: realized the OP is in the same zone as me and Mr. Bronson was replying directly to him so his statement probably applies to my area as well :)