BACKFLOW PREVENTION& CROSS-CONNECTION CONTROL RULES & REGULATIONS Index a.
To protect the public potable water supply of Community Water Company of Green Valley from the
possibility of contamination or pollution by preventing the backflow of
contaminants and pollutants into the public potable water supply
system. b.
To promote the elimination or control of existing cross
connection, actual or potential, with a customer's internal potable water system,
plumbing fixtures and industrial piping systems. c. To provide for a continuing program of cross-connection control which will prevent the contamination or pollution of the public potable water supply system.
a. An approved backflow prevention method shall be utilized or installed
at every service connection to a customer's water system when Community Water
Company determines the potable water supplied by the public potable water
system may be subject to contamination, pollution or other deterioration in
sanitary quality of conditions with the customer's water system. b. The backflow prevention method to be utilized or installed shall be determined by Community Water Company. The method required by Community Water Company shall be sufficient to protect against the potential degree of hazard, as determined by Community Water Company, to the public potable water supply from the customer's water system. The degree of hazard potential to the public potable water supply and
system from a customer's water supply system shall be determined using the
following hazard factors: a. Health: Any condition, device or practice which, in the judgment of Community Water Company, may create a danger to the health and well-being of the potable water customers. b. Plumbing: A plumbing type cross-connection that is not properly protected by an approved backflow prevention method. c. Pollution: An actual or potential threat to the physical facilities of the public potable water supply system or to the public potable water supply which, although not dangerous to health, would constitute a nuisance or be aesthetically objectionable, or could cause damage to the system or its appurtenances. d. System: An actual or potential threat which may cause severe damage to the physical facilities of the public potable water supply system or which may have a protracted effect on the quality of the potable water in the system.
a. A backflow prevention method shall be any assembly or other means
designed to prevent backflow. The following are the recognized backflow
prevention methods which Community Water Company may require under Section 2
or Section 5. I. Air Gap: The unobstructed vertical
distance through the free atmosphere between the opening of the pipe or
faucet supplying potable water to a tank, plumbing fixture or other device.
An approved air gap shall be at least double the diameter of the supply pipe
or faucet and in no case less than one (1) inch. II. Reduced Pressure Principle Assembly
(Hereinafter "RPA"): An assembly containing two
independently acting approved check valves together with a hydraulically
operating, mechanically independent pressure differential relief valve
located between the check valves, and at the same time below the first check
valve. The assembly shall include properly located test cocks and tightly
closing shut-off valves located at each end of the assembly and fitted with
properly located test cocks. III. Double Check Valve Assembly (Hereinafter
"DCVA"): An assembly composed of two independently acting,
approved check valves, including tightly closing shut-off valves located at
each end of the assembly and fitted with properly located test cocks. IV. Pressure Vacuum Breaker Assembly (Hereinafter "PVB"): An assembly containing an independently operating, loaded check valve and an independently operating, loaded air inlet valve located on the discharge side of the check valve. The assembly shall be equipped with properly located test cocks and tightly closing shut-off valves located at each end of the assembly. b. A backflow prevention method may be approved by Community Water Company
if it has received the approval of the Foundation for Cross-Connection
Control and Hydraulic Research for the University of Southern California and,
for assemblies, has a local manufacturer's parts and service center. c. Community Water Company shall maintain a list of approved backflow prevention assemblies, by type and manufacturer. The list is available to any customer required to install a backflow prevention assembly.
a. When any of the following activities are conducted on premises served
by the public potable water system, a potential hazard to the public potable
water supply shall be presumed and a backflow prevention method, of the type
specified for that activity herein, must be utilized or installed at the service
connection for that premise. I. Aircraft and missile plants: RPA II. All buildings with centralized heating and air conditioning plants utilizing water for their operation: RPA III. Animal clinics and animal grooming shops: RPA IV. Any premises where a cross-connection is maintained or where internal backflow protection has been required: RPA V. Automotive repair with steam cleaner, acid cleaning equipment, or solvent facilities: RPA VI. Auxiliary water systems: RPA VII. Bottling plants, beverage or chemical: RPA VIII. Breweries: RPA IX. Buildings three (3) stories or greater than twenty seven (27) feet in height from service level: DCV X. Buildings with house pumps and/or potable water storage tank: DCVA XI. Buildings with landscape fountains, ponds, or baptismal tanks: RPA or Air Gap XII. Buildings with sewage ejectors: RPA XIII. Canneries, packing houses, and reduction plants: RPA XIV. Car wash facilities: RPA XV. Chemical plants: RPA XVI. Chemically treated potable or non-potable water systems: RPA XVII. Civil works (government owned or operated facilities not open for inspection by the Department): RPA XIX. Dairies and cold storage plants: RPA XX. Dye works: RPA XXI. Film processing laboratories: RPA XXII. Food processing plants: RPA XXIII. High schools and colleges: RPA XXIV. Holding tank disposal stations: RPA XXV. Hospitals and mortuaries: RPA XXVI. Irrigation systems (not to include single family detached residences): A. Premises having separate system used in elevated areas or with drip irrigation: RPA B. Premises having non-potable water piping (lawn sprinklers) two (2) inches and smaller: PVB. All reclaimed water users. RPA on all Potable Water Services. XXVII. Laboratories using toxic materials: RPA XXVIII. Manufacturing, processing, and fabricating plants using toxic or non-toxic materials: RPA XXIX. Medical and dental buildings, sanitariums, rest and convalescent homes engaged in the diagnosis, care and treatment of human illness: RPA XXX. Mobile home parks: RPA XXXI. Motion picture studios: RPA XXXII. Multiple services-interconnected: DCVA XXXIII. Oil and gas production facilities: RPA XXXIV. Paper and paper production plants: RPA XXXV. Plating plants: RPA XXXVI. Portable insecticide and herbicide spray tanks: RPA or Air Gap XXXVII. Power plants: RPA XXXVIII. Radioactive materials processing facilities: RPA XXXIX. Restricted, classified, or other closed facilities: RPA XL. Rubber plants: RPA XLI. Sand and gravel plants: RPA XLII. Sewage and storm drainage facilities: RPA XLIII. Shopping center: RPA XLIV. Street sweepers, steel wheeled rollers: RPA or Air Gap XLV. All water using mobile units, including but not limited to, water
trucks, water tanks, pest control trucks, or hydraulic sewer cleaning
equipment: RPA or Air Gap (some emergency vehicles may be exempted) b. When two or more of the activities listed above are conducted on the
same premises and served by the same service connection, the most restrictive
backflow prevention method required for any of the activities conducted on
the premises shall be required to be utilized or installed at the service
connection. The order of most restrictive to least restrictive backflow
prevention methods shall be as follows: I. Air Gap (most restrictive) II. Reduced Pressure Principle Assembly (RPA) III. Double Check Valve Assembly (DCVA) IV. Pressure Vacuum Breaker Assembly (PVB) (least restrictive)
a. Backflow prevention assemblies shall be installed by the customer, at
the customer's expense and in compliance with the standards and specification
adopted by the Community Water Company, at the service connection. The
assembly shall have a diameter at least equal to the diameter of the service
connection. b. The assembly shall be in an accessible location approved by Community
Water Company. The reduced pressure principle assembly and pressure vacuum
breaker assembly shall be installed above ground. The double check valve
assembly may be installed below ground but is not recommended. c. When a customer desires a continuous water supply, two backflow
prevention assemblies shall be installed parallel to one another at the
service connection to allow a continuous water supply during testing of the
backflow prevention assemblies. When backflow prevention assemblies are
installed parallel to one another, the sum of the cross sectional areas of
the assemblies shall be at least equal to the cross sectional area of the
service connection. d. It shall be prohibited, and be a civil infraction for any person to bypass or remove a backflow prevention method without the approval of Community Water Company. A customer's water system shall be open at all times during business operations on the premises for inspection by Community Water Company. The inspection shall be conducted to determine whether any cross connection or other hazard potentials exist and to determine compliance with this article.
a. The customer shall test and service backflow
prevention assemblies at least once a year. If the testing reveals the
assembly to be defective or in unsatisfactory operating condition, the customer shall perform any necessary repairs,
including replacement or overhaul of the assembly, if necessary, which will
return the assembly to satisfactory operating condition. b. If Community Water Company or customer learns or discovers, during the
interim period between tests, that an assembly is defective or in
unsatisfactory operating condition, the customer shall perform any necessary
repairs, including replacement or overhaul of the assembly, if necessary,
which will return the assembly to satisfactory operating condition. c. The annual testing shall be performed by an
individual certified and approved to conduct such testing by the
Foundation For Cross-Connection Control and Hydraulic Research at the University
of Southern California, or AWWA. A list of certified, approved and recognized
individuals will be maintained by Community Water Company and will be
available upon request to all persons required to install or maintain a
backflow prevention assembly. d. The customer shall maintain records, on forms approved by Community
Water Company of the results of all tests and all servicing, repairs,
overhauls or replacements of the backflow prevention assembly. A copy of the
records shall be promptly submitted to Community Water Company after
completion of the activity for which the record is made. e. Fire systems shall not be out of service for more than eight (8) consecutive hours due to testing, maintenance, or repairs. The Rural Metro Fire Department shall be notified immediately of any changes in fire service status.
If Community Water Company determines, after inspection of the customer's system, that a backflow prevention method less restrictive than that required in Section 5 will provide adequate protection of the public potable water supply from the degree of hazard potential by the customer's water system, Community Water Company may, at its sole discretion, modify the requirements of Section 5 accordingly.
a. If Community Water Company discovers that a customer has not installed
a required backflow prevention method or that a backflow prevention method
has been improperly tested or maintained, bypassed or removed, or that an
unprotected cross-connection exists in the customer's water system, the water
service to that service connection shall be
disconnected if the situation is not remedied within the time
specified in the notice sent to the customer as required by this section. The
service shall not be restored until the condition is remedied. b. Prior to disconnecting any water service because a condition set forth
in Subsection (A) above exists, Community Water Company shall send a notice
to the customer describing the condition and notifying the customer the
condition must be remedied within forty-five (45) day period, after mailing
of the notice by Community Water Company. If such condition is not remedied within said forty-five (45) day period,
Community Water Company shall send a second notice, by certified mail, to the
customer notifying the customer that water service will be disconnected in
fifteen (15) days if the condition is not remedied within such time
period. c. Community Water Company may disconnect, without notice, water service to any customer when Community Water Company discovers that the customer's water system is contaminating the public potable water supply. All other information not contained herein (Standard Details and etc.) will be a matter of public record and will be listed in the following document: USC Manual of Cross-Connection Control-most recent edition. a. Installation permits for the installation of all backflow prevention
assemblies required by Community Water Company shall be obtained from
Community Water Company prior to installation. A separate permit shall be
obtained for each required backflow prevention assembly to be installed,
including replacement. b. Notification - It shall be the duty of the person doing the work authorized by the permit to notify Community Water Company, orally or in writing, that said work is for inspection. Such notification shall be given not less than twenty-four (24) hours before the work is to be inspected and shall be given only if there is reason to believe that the work done will meet UPC and current USC standards, as are referenced in this backflow prevention manual. a. It shall be reason for Community Water Company to refuse or discontinue
service to a customer who is required by this policy to install a backflow
prevention method to fail to do so, and shall also apply where a customer's
backflow prevention method has been improperly tested or maintained, bypassed
or removed, or where an unprotected cross-connection exists in the customer's
water system. For additional information please read our article on Backflow Information, visit our office or call customer service at (520) 625-8409. |
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