(A) No water service connection to any premises shall be installed or maintained by the city unless the water supply is protected as required by federal and state laws and regulations, and the city’s cross-connection control manual, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act (1996), the SC DHEC Safe Drinking Water Act, Sect. 44-55-40d, and the SC Primary Drinking Water Regulations, Sect. R.61-58.7(F). Service of water to any premises that is required to have a backflow prevention assembly shall be discontinued by the city if an approved backflow prevention assembly is not installed, tested and maintained per the cross-connection control manual, or if it is found that a backflow prevention assembly has been removed or bypassed, or if an unprotected cross-connection exists within the premises. Service will not be restored until such conditions or defects are corrected in conformance with the cross-connection control manual. This manual is written and intended to provide the day-to-day operational provisions, rules, policies, illustrations, and installation guidelines for the city’s cross-connection control program for system protection.
(B) The customer’s system will be open for inspection at all reasonable times to the city’s cross-connection compliance inspectors to determine whether cross-connections or other structural or sanitary hazards, including violations of these regulations, exist. When such a condition becomes known, the city may deny, or immediately discontinue service to the premises by providing for a physical break in the service line until the customer has corrected the deficiency in compliance with the cross-connection control manual. Should an inspection of the premise be refused, the city will install, at the customer’s expense, a reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly behind the city’s water meter. The city will bill the customer the cost of all labor and materials.
(C) When required, an approved backflow prevention assembly shall also be installed on each service line to a customer’s water system at or near the property line or immediately inside the building being served; but in all cases, before the first branch line leading off the service line.
(1) Each backflow prevention assembly required by the city must be installed in accordance with the provisions of the cross-connection control manual.
(2) Each backflow prevention assembly required by the cross-connection control manual must be functioning properly when installed. Each assembly must be tested after it is placed in service, after repairs of any type, and at least once annually, required by the cross-connection control manual. All field testing and maintenance reports for backflow prevention assemblies are entered into cross-connection control permanent database files. System protection personnel will log and date test results when they are received by the city, not when they are tested.
(D) All backflow prevention assemblies installed on a new water service in a customer’s water system must be tested within ten days as outlined in the cross-connection control manual. Failure or refusal to comply with the requirements of the cross-connection control manual may result in discontinuance of water service.
(E) If a customer does not wish for water service to be interrupted when a backflow prevention assembly is tested, repaired, or replaced, a parallel installation of an approved backflow prevention assembly may be made in accordance with the provisions of the cross-connection control manual.
(F) Each backflow prevention assembly required by the cross-connection control manual must be foundation approved and installed in a manner that would make them readily accessible for in-line testing and in-line maintenance/repair. A partial list of approved backflow prevention assemblies is listed in the cross-connection control manual and is available to the general public. The complete list of approved assemblies is available at the city.
(G) (1) When a backflow prevention assembly is required to be installed, tested or repaired in a customer’s water system, the customer will be notified of the requirement, in writing, by the city. Each notice will have the following time period associated:
(a) General notice: 30 days;
(b) Survey notice: 30 days or (as deemed necessary by the Cross-Connection Manager or his or her designee);
(c) Annual test: 30 days;
(d) Periodic test: depends on degree of hazard;
(e) Repair notice: 30 days.
(2) Notwithstanding the foregoing, the city may require the installation of the required backflow prevention assembly immediately or within a shorter time period than specified above or in the cross-connection control manual in order to protect the public water system from hazards.
(H) It is a violation of these rules for any person to submit or fail to submit any record to the city which is required by these rules and regulations or the cross-connection control manual which is false or incomplete.
(I) An approved backflow prevention assembly shall be installed on each service line as stipulated in the cross-connection control manual and/or Manual of Cross-Connection Control by USC-FCCC & HR (latest edition), and/or AWWA Manual M-14 (latest edition). Although not all commercial or industrial services are required to install, test or maintain a backflow prevention assembly, those services identified as not conforming to the latest plumbing code specifications may be required, for that reason only, to install and maintain an approved backflow prevention assembly until the provisions of the plumbing code are adhered to. In the case of premises having (1) internal cross-connection that cannot be permanently corrected and controlled, or (2) intricate plumbing and piping arrangements or where entry to all portions of the premises is not readily accessible for inspection purposes, making it impracticable or impossible to ascertain whether or not dangerous cross-connections exist, the public water system shall be protected against backflow from the premises by installing a backflow prevention assembly in the service line, appropriate to the degree of hazard behind the meter or service connection. If the containment backflow prevention assembly is not of a classification for the actual or potential degree of hazard for an internal or isolation cross-connection, the city will require an internal or isolation backflow prevention assembly meeting that actual or potential degree of hazard to be installed, tested, and maintained within the customer’s premises. Although this assembly would normally be considered an isolation/internal assembly, the city will treat this assembly as a containment assembly. This shall apply to all known or existing services as well as those services found during an internal survey inspection or other investigations by the city.
(J) The type of protective device required by division (D) above shall depend upon the actual or potential degree of hazard, not the service class or sub-class. In the case where the city determines that a customer’s water system constitutes an imminent hazard without the appropriate backflow prevention assembly, water service may be terminated immediately. The city reserves the right, to determine the actual or potential degree of hazard on all service connections.
(1) Degree of Hazard is classified as Non-Health Hazard, Health Hazard, and Lethal Hazard.
(a) Examples of Non-Health Hazards include but are not limited to the following: Heating equipment, hose bibs, trap primers, carbonated drink machines, washing equipment, shampoo basins, auto dealerships and car lots (new/used), fire protection sprinkler system without antifreeze injection or aspiration of chemicals, pressure washers without aspiration, and restaurants.
(b) Examples of Health Hazards include but are not limited to the following: Hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, petroleum processing facilities, commercial laundries/dry cleaners, plating and chemical plants, waterfront marinas, docks and docking facilities, film laboratories, car wash and reclaimed water systems, connection to or make-up feed water to agriculture-livestock, farm or barn animal watering troughs (manual or automatic), boilers, condensers, cooling towers, saltwater cooling systems, lawn sprinkler irrigation systems, and industrial fluid systems.
(c) Examples of Lethal Hazards include sewage treatment plants, sewer lift stations, radioactive material or substances, plants or facilities handling.
(d) A comprehensive list of cross-connections and degree of hazard is illustrated in Chapters (4) and (5) of AWWA Manual M-14, and Sections (5) and (7) of the USC-FCCC and HR Manual of Cross-Connection Control.
(K) Any backflow prevention assembly required herein shall be of a model and size listed in the cross-connection control manual and shall be manufactured in compliance with the standards established by the American Water Works Association entitled: “AWWA C506-84 Standards for Reduced Pressure Principle Backflow Prevention Assemblies; Double Check Valve Assemblies; and Pressure Vacuum Breakers.”
(L) The water service will not be activated until the city has been provided with information necessary to determine any actual or potential degree of hazard associated with the customer’s water system, and a determination has been made of the appropriate backflow prevention assembly which must be installed.
(M) No person may modify or permit to be modified a customer’s water system in a manner which could affect the degree of hazard of such system, until the city has been provided information necessary to determine the actual or potential degree of hazard and the appropriate backflow prevention assembly associated with the modifications. If a different backflow prevention assembly is required, it must be installed in accordance with provisions of the cross-connection control manual.
(N) A customer must immediately notify the city if the customer’s water system is contaminated or polluted or has a reason to believe that backflow has occurred from the customer’s water system to the public water distribution system.
(O) A written notice of violation will be given to any person who is found to be in violation of any provision of these rules and regulations and/or the cross-connection control manual. The notice will set forth the violation and time period to be corrected. The violation must be corrected within a reasonable time, not to exceed 30 days from receipt of the notice. If the city determines that the violation is occurring on a customer’s water system and has created or contributed to a system hazard, the customer will be required to correct the violation immediately. Water service will be discontinued if the customer, after notification by the city, fails in a timely manner to correct a violation.
(P) An administrative appeal may be requested whenever a violation or dispute of any of the requirements of these rules and regulations and/or the cross-connection control manual is determined, whether during construction or at the plan review stage, and the person wishes to appeal the decision of the city staff. The first level of appeal will be made to the Cross-Connection Control Hearing Committee. All appeals must be in writing and will be heard within seven days of receipt of the appeal by the city. The Hearing Committee shall consist of the City Council, City Administrator and the Cross-Connection Manager. Additional specialists or technical persons may be added for a particular appeal, at the discretion of the Director of Public Works. Those customers who do not accept the decision of the Hearing Committee may appeal the Committee’s decision to the City Council.
(Q) All presently installed backflow prevention assemblies which do not meet the requirements of this section, but were approved or accepted at the time of installation, and which have been properly tested and maintained, shall be grandfathered and accepted per these rules and regulations and/or the cross- connection control manual so long as the city is assured that they will adequately protect the water distribution system. Whenever an existing assembly malfunctions, or fails to pass the prescribed annual, periodic, or random test, and that assembly is replaced, it must be replaced in a manner consistent with the cross-connection control manual and the most current version of the approved plumbing codes. Whenever the existing assembly is moved from the present location or requires more than minimum maintenance, or when the city finds that the assembly for whatever reason no longer ensures adequate protection for the actual or potential degree of hazard present, the unit shall be replaced by a backflow prevention assembly meeting the requirements of the cross-connection control manual and/or these rules and regulations.
(R) In order to be on the city’s list of certified backflow prevention assembly testers, the individual tester must have successfully completed the tester certification requirements administered by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and meet the requirements of the cross-connection control manual. We shall have the absolute right to remove any certified tester found falsifying records, making unauthorized repairs to a back, flow prevention assembly, failing to demonstrate proper test procedures, or demonstrating a lack of knowledge and/or professionalism in testing, repairing, installing, and maintaining backflow prevention assemblies within the city’s distributionsystem. Any certified tester habitually failing to comply with the city’s cross-connection control manual will also be removed from the list of certified testers. The SC DHEC Cross-Connection Control Program Manager will also be notified, in writing, of any tester the city removes from this list.
(Ord. 18-03, passed 8-26-03)