Health Agency, Water Purveyor, Plumbing Official, Consumer, Certified Tester.
(A) Responsibility: Health Agency.
(1) The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (Division of Health Services) has the responsibility for promulgating and enforcing laws, rules, regulations, and policies to be followed in carrying out an effective cross-connection control program.
(2) The North Carolina Division of Health Services also has the primary responsibility of insuring that the water purveyor operates the public potable water system free of actual or potential sanitary hazards, including unprotected cross-connections. They have the further responsibility of insuring that the water purveyor provides an approved water supply at the service connection to the consumer’s water system and, further, that the purveyor requires the installation, testing, and maintenance of an approved backflow prevention assembly on the service connection as required.
(B) Responsibility: Water Purveyor.
(1) Except as otherwise provided herein, it is the city’s responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable risks to a safe water supply, beginning at the purveyor’s raw water intake and ending at the point of delivery to each consumer’s water system. In addition, the city is required to exercise reasonable vigilance to insure that the consumer has taken the proper steps to protect the public potable water system. To insure that the proper precautions are taken, the city is required to determine the degree of hazard or potential hazard to the public potable water system, to determine the degree of protection required, and to ensure proper containment protection through an on-going inspection program.
(2) When it is determined that a backflow prevention assembly is required for the protection of the public system, the city shall require the consumer, at the consumer’s expense, to install an approved backflow prevention assembly at each service connection, to test immediately upon installation, and thereafter at a frequency as determined by the city, to properly repair and maintain such assembly or assemblies and to keep adequate records of each test and subsequent maintenance and repair, including materials and/or replacement parts.
(C) Responsibility: Plumbing Inspections.
(1) By contractual arrangement between the city and the Lincoln County Department of Planning, Permitting and Development (the “Building Department”) has the responsibility to review building plans and inspect plumbing as it is installed; pursuant to this subchapter, the city delegates to the Building Department the explicit authority to prevent cross-connections from being designed and built into the plumbing system within its jurisdiction. Where the review of building plans suggests or specifies designs with the potential for cross-connections being made an integral part of the plumbing system, the plumbing inspector has the responsibility, under the North Carolina Building Code, for requiring that such cross-connections be either eliminated or provided with backflow prevention equipment approved pursuant to the Code.
(2) The plumbing inspector’s responsibility begins at the point of delivery (downstream of the first installed backflow prevention assembly) and continues throughout the entire length of the consumer’s water system. The plan inspector should inquire about the intended use of water at any point where it is suspected that a cross-connection might be made or where one is actually called for by the plans. When such actual or potential cross-connection is discovered it shall be mandatory that a suitable backflow prevention assembly, approved by the North Carolina Building Code, the Division of Environmental Quality and/or the city as applicable, be required by the plans and be properly installed.
(D) Responsibility: Consumer. The consumer has the primary responsibility of preventing pollutants and contaminants from entering the consumer’s potable water system and the public potable water system. The consumer’s responsibility starts at the point of delivery from the public potable water system and includes all components of the consumer’s water system or systems. The consumer, at the consumer’s own expense, shall install, operate, test, and maintain approved backflow prevention assemblies as directed by the city or the county’s Building Department. The consumer shall maintain accurate records of tests and repairs made to the backflow prevention assemblies and shall maintain such records for a minimum period of three years. The records shall be on forms approved by the city and shall include the list of materials or replacement parts used. Following any repair, overhaul, re-piping or relocation of an assembly, the consumer shall have it tested to ensure that it is in good operating condition and will prevent backflow. Tests, maintenance and repairs of backflow prevention assemblies shall be made by a certified backflow prevention assembly tester.
(E) Responsibility: Certified Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester. When employed by the consumer to test, repair, overhaul, or maintain backflow prevention assemblies, a backflow prevention assembly tester will have the following responsibilities:
(1) The tester will be responsible for making competent inspections and for repairing or overhauling backflow prevention assemblies and making reports of such repair to the consumer and responsible authorities on forms approved by the city. The tester shall include the list of materials or replacement parts used. The tester shall be equipped with and be competent to use all the necessary tools, gauges, manometers and other equipment necessary to properly test, repair, and maintain backflow prevention assemblies. It will be the tester’s responsibility to insure that original manufactured parts are used in the repair of or replacement of parts in a backflow prevention assembly. It will be the tester’s further responsibility not to change the design, material or operational characteristics of an assembly during repair or maintenance without prior approval of the city and the county’s Building Department. A certified tester shall perform the work and be responsible for the competency and accuracy of all tests and reports. A certified tester shall provide a copy of all test and repair reports to the consumer and to the city within ten business days of any completed test or repair work. A certified tester shall maintain such records for a minimum period of three years.
(2) All certified backflow prevention assembly testers must obtain and employ backflow prevention assembly test equipment that has been evaluated and/or approved by the city and the Building Department. All test equipment shall be registered with the city, and shall be checked for accuracy at least annually, calibrated if necessary, and certified as to such calibration, employing an accuracy/calibration method acceptable to the city.
(3) All certified backflow prevention assembly testers must be certified or recertified within the prior 24 months through an approved backflow prevention certification program before submitting an acceptable verification pursuant to this subchapter.
(Ord. passed - - ; Ord. O-10-24, passed 8-1-2024)