A. Required: No water service connected to any premises shall be installed or maintained by the city unless the water supply is protected as required by state law and regulation and this chapter. Service of water to any premises may be discontinued by the city if a backflow prevention device required by this chapter is not installed, tested and maintained, or it is found that a backflow prevention device has been removed, bypassed, or if an unprotected cross connection exists on the premises. Water service shall not be restored until such conditions are corrected.
B. Circumstances Requiring Installation: Backflow prevention devices shall be installed under circumstances including, but not limited to, the following:
1. Premises having an auxiliary water supply;
2. Premises having cross connections that are not correctable or intricate plumbing arrangements which make it impractical to ascertain whether or not cross connections exist;
3. Premises where entry is restricted so that inspections for cross connections cannot be made with sufficient frequency or at sufficiently short notice to assure that cross connections do not exist;
4. Premises having a history of cross connections being established or reestablished;
5. Premises on which any substance is handled under pressure so as to permit entry into the public water supply, or where a cross connection could reasonably be expected to occur. This shall include the handling of process waters and cooling waters;
6. Premises where materials of a toxic or hazardous nature are handled in such a way that if back siphonage should occur, a serious health hazard might result;
7. The following types of facilities will fall into one of the above categories where a backflow prevention device is required to protect the public water supply. A backflow prevention device shall be installed at these facilities unless the city determines that no hazard exists:
a. Agricultural, chemical, storage, formulation and distribution facilities;
b. Animal game farm or zoo;
c. Hospitals, mortuaries, clinics;
d. Laboratories;
e. Metal plating industries;
f. Piers and docks;
g. Sewage treatment plants;
h. Food or beverage processing plants;
i. Chemical plants using a water process;
j. Petroleum processing or storage plants;
k. Radioactive material processing plants or nuclear reactors;
l. Tank trucks;
m. Fill stations;
n. Car washes;
o. Wild or exotic animal facility or habitat in which wild animals are located which are not naturally occurring in the state or are normally found in the wild;
p. Others specified by the city.
C. Types Of Devices: The type of protective device required shall depend on the degree of hazard which exists:
1. Health Or System Hazard: An air gap separation or a reduced pressure principle backflow prevention device shall be installed where the public water supply may be contaminated with sewage, industrial waste of a toxic nature, or other contaminant which could cause a health or system hazard.
2. Objectionable But Not Hazardous: In the case of a substance which may be objectionable but not hazardous to health, a double check valve assembly, air gap separation, or a reduced pressure principle backflow prevention device shall be installed.
D. Cost: The customer shall bear all expense in furnishing and installing the backflow prevention device.
E. Approval Of Device: Any backflow prevention device required by this chapter shall be approved by the city superintendent prior to installation.
F. Location: Where required, an approved backflow prevention device shall 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.
G. Supervision Of Installation: Backflow prevention devices required by this chapter shall be installed under the supervision of the city.
H. Annual Inspection: It shall be the duty of the customer at any premises where backflow prevention devices are installed to have certified inspections and operational tests made annually. Tests shall be at the expense of the customer and shall be performed by a state certified tester. These devices shall be repaired, overhauled or replaced at the expense of the customer whenever said devices are found to be defective. Records of such tests, repairs and overhauls shall be kept and copies sent to the city. (Ord. 1996-2, 3-14-1996)