Are you aware that local municipalities have or are in the process of establishing By-laws that require all businesses to install a backflow prevention assembly at water service entry and to have them tested and certified yearly?
Failure to comply will result in fines or disconnection! Moral Obligations
To the employees
To the public
Ensuring that their well-being is not at risk by contamination of the potable water system.
It’s the Law
Ontario Water Resources Act
authorizes the Ontario Plumbing Code and the Canadian Standards Association to govern the purity of the public water supply.
Ontario Reg. 815/84 sub.6.2.1(3) of the Plumbing Code
“No person shall interfere with
the potable water system in any
manner that will cause the
water to become non-potable.”
Canadian Standards Association, B64.10.1-07
Manual for the Selection and Installation of Backflow Prevention Devices/Manual for
the Maintenance and Field Testing of Backflow Prevention Devices requires annual testing for all backflow prevention devices.
The Public Utilities Act - Section 12
empowers a municipality to pass by-laws “in order to secure a continued and abundant supply of pure and wholesome water.”
In order to be free of liability the municipality must ensure that it carries out all the inspection required under Provincial Law to protect the municipality.
It is also the municipality’s responsibility, through its plumbing inspectors, council, or
commission, to have an organized program of checking for cross-connections and
ensuring that they are eliminated or adequately protected.
Municipality’s responsibilities and liabilities have become a priority.
Through the Ontario Backflow Prevention By-law Committee and the Ontario Backflow Prevention Association, municipalities are now drafting by-laws to address backflow prevention.
Liabilities
Law suits
Fines
Lost production.
A compromise of the potable water system can result in a complete removal from the public water distribution system by the municipality.
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