Trending
A Pittston-based firm this week pitched the Altoona Water Authority on administering a program to help bring water customers into compliance with laws requiring backflow prevention valves and annual testing.
Backflow prevention valves keep potentially contaminated water in private lines from flowing backward into public systems, when there is a pressure reversal or siphoning from events like water main breaks.
Most commercial and institutional customers have such valves already but usually aren't getting the required annual tests, while most residential customers don't have the valves, according to Brian Preski, president of the National Water Specialties Co., who delivered Thursday's presentation.
If the authority signs a contract with NAWSC, the company would set up a customer database, focusing at least at first on commercial and institutional customers, then send out a series of compliance letters to inform the customers of the need for the valves and for testing, according to Preski.
The company would register the results in the database, informing the authority on the customers who refuse to come into compliance -- although enforcement with potential shutoffs would be up to the authority's discretion, Preski said.
The authority would pay nothing for the service, because the company earns its revenue by charging certified testers $17, when the testers register their results in the database, according to Preski.
The company recommends that the authority get its "commercial house in order" before considering residential customer compliance, Preski said after the meeting.
The company initiated contact with the authority, whose staff invited the firm to make a presentation to the board, said Mike Bianconi, director of authority water operations.
At some point, staff is likely to recommend that the board approve a contract with the firm, Bianconi said.
Backflow prevention is most critical for commercial customers with significant potential for line contamination, Preski said.
Those include funeral homes, which use formaldehyde; or golf courses that use ground level sprinkler heads, which can be subject to inflow of herbicides and fertilizers, according to Preski.
By contrast, a pizza shop presents a low level of risk.
Residential customers with inground pools that have automatic refillers to counter evaporation can sometimes send high levels of chlorine into public lines, if not equipped with backflow prevention devices, Preski said.
The cost of installing a backflow prevention valve for a low-risk customer like a pizza shop might be about $170, according to Preski.
The cost could be more for a high-risk customer, because a more sophisticated valve would be needed.
Plumbers can install backflow prevention valves, he said.
Testing might cost about $150 early in a program, although as such a program matures and more testers are certified, the price can go down, Preski said.
Not all plumbers are certified testers, but test certification doesn't require plumbing expertise, according to Bianconi.
The company can help educate the authority's customers on the need for installation of backflow prevention valves and for regular testing, and it can also help with development of local ordinances to support enforcement, according to an executive summary from the company.
If it signs a contract with a water system, the company helps conduct a survey to "determine where real or potential hazardous cross-connections exist," works with system personnel on the text of compliance letters and ensures that tester certifications are "current and valid," according to the summary.
The company's tracking program helps client authorities identify which customers have backflow protection when water main breaks occur, according to the summary.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act, along with regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, plus the Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Act, require backflow protection, according to a NAWSC circular and an online source.
Since 1995, Pennsylvania law has called for operators of public water systems to terminate customers who don't install backflow prevention devices, according to Preski.
"You are the cops," he said.
Does that make the authority liable if there's a problematic incident, asked board member Barb Kooman.
"Ask your solicitor," Preski said.
"I would say 'no,'" said authority solicitor Dave Consiglio.
"The law says the customer is responsible," Preski said.
That's why he believes the authority wouldn't be liable, Consiglio replied.
NAWSC has contracts with 60 public water systems that serve 700 municipalities in 30 Pennsylvania counties -- as well as with systems in other states, Preski said.
Two systems with which the company has contracts are in Centre County, he said.
The company targeted the AWA in Blair as a big system whose example smaller systems tend to follow, Preski said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.