Monday-Friday 8:00am – 12:00pm / 1:00pm – 4:30pm
What Are Cross-Connections and What’s Being Done?
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Sardis-Lone Elm Water Supply Corporation, along with every other public water supply, is responsible for supplying safe potable drinking water to its customers. From production, treatment, and distribution, we work hard to ensure that the drinking water is safe at all times. Normal direction of the water flow is from “our system to your home”. Certain hydraulic conditions can exist which would allow for the undesirable reversal of this flow. These conditions can be created by a severe event such as a main break or fire fighting activities or it can caused by normal maintenance activities such as flushing or testing fire hydrants.
State and federal regulations require all public water supplies to implement a cross-connection and backflow prevention program to help ensure the public safety. These programs are not new but they do evolve over time to accommodate new regulations and to address issues that have been experienced by the thousands of water systems across the country.
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Sardis-Lone Elm Water Supply Corporation, along with every other public water supply, is responsible for supplying safe potable drinking water to its customers. From production, treatment, and distribution, we work hard to ensure that the drinking water is safe at all times. Normal direction of the water flow is from “our system to your home”. Certain hydraulic conditions can exist which would allow for the undesirable reversal of this flow. These conditions can be created by a severe event such as a main break or fire fighting activities or it can caused by normal maintenance activities such as flushing or testing fire hydrants.
State and federal regulations require all public water supplies to implement a cross-connection and backflow prevention program to help ensure the public safety. These programs are not new but they do evolve over time to accommodate new regulations and to address issues that have been experienced by the thousands of water systems across the country.
BACKFLOW PREVENTION DEVICE TESTING
There are two basics forms of backflow that can occur in any water system. The first is back-siphonage. This can happen when the distribution system pressure drops allowing water to be siphoned from a customer’s residence back into the water main. A submerged outlet on the customer’s side of the meter can then introduce contaminants into the customer’s plumbing or even into the water supplier’s mains.
Examples of a submerged outlet are as follows:
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Water hose laid inside a swimming pool used to fill
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Water hose filling a cattle/horse trough
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Unapproved toilet fill assembly
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Sprinkler system head installed below grade where water is ponding
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Hose end fertilizer/chemical sprayer
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The other form of backflow is caused by backpressure. This occurs when a customer has a device that creates additional pressure on their side of the meter that can be greater than the water supplier’s system pressure. Examples of backpressure include the following:
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Sprinkler system pump
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Private wells
HOSE INSIDE SWIMMING POOL
What is being done to prevent backflow in Sardis Lone Elm’s water system? First, we require a Customer Service Inspection be performed on all new service locations prior to providing permanent service and on all existing locations when a cross connection is suspected. Some of the items that are inspected for are as follows:
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Hose bib vacuum breakers on all outside faucets (in-expensive devices that prevent back-siphonage from submerged outlets)
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Properly installed dishwasher drain lines (a loop is required on the drain line in between the dishwasher and the sewer line…usually underneath the kitchen sink)
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Properly installed and tested backflow preventer on the sprinkler system
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Approved anti-siphon toilet valves inside the toilet tank
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Lead free solder used on plumbing connections
Preventing the undesirable reversal of flow and cross-connections is a simple process that can be achieved with minimal effort when the customer and the utility work together. Sardis has trained staff that focuses on these issues daily and WE ARE HERE TO HELP. Please call our office at 972-775-8566if you have any questions or need help protecting this community’s water supply.
Click here to see the Testing Requirement Notice that we have mailed to all of our customers.
HOSE BIB BREAKER
