13.20.060 Backflow prevention method required – Specified activities

13.20.060 Backflow prevention method required – Specified activities.

(A) When any of the following activities are conducted on premises served by the public potable water system, a potential hazard to the public potable water supply shall be presumed and a backflow prevention method, of the type specified for that activity herein, must be utilized or installed at the service connection for that premises.


Activity	Backflow Prevention Method
Aircraft and missile plant	RP
Animal clinics and animal grooming shops	RP
Any premises where a cross-connection is maintained	RP
Automotive repair with steam cleaner, acid cleaning equipment or solvent facilities	RP
Auxiliary water systems	RP
Bottling plants, beverage or chemical	RP
Breweries	RP
Multi-storied buildings	DC
Buildings with house pumps and/or potable water storage tank	DC
Buildings with landscape fountains, ponds or baptismal tanks	RP or Air Gap
Buildings with sewage ejectors	RP or Air Gap
Canneries, packing houses and reduction plants	RP
Car wash facilities	RP
Cooling towers, boilers, chillers and other heating and cooling systems utilizing potable water	RP
Chemical plants	RP
Chemically treated potable or nonpotable water systems	RP
Civil works (government owned or operated facilities not open for inspection by the Department)	RP
Commercial laundries	RP
Dairies and cold storage plants	DC
Dye works	RP
Film processing laboratories, facilities or equipment	RP
Fire systems as classified by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Manual 14:
Class 1, Class 2	DC
This requirement may be waived for fire protection systems constructed of approved potable water materials per the Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted by the City.
Class 3, all systems	DC
Classes 4, 5 and 6, all systems	RP
Fire systems – Where backflow protection is required on the industrial/domestic service connection that is located on the same premises, both service connections will have adequate backflow protection for the highest degree of hazard affecting either system.
Food processing plants	RP
High schools and colleges	RP
Holding tank disposal stations	RP
Hospitals and mortuaries (major complexes)	RP
Medical and dental buildings, sanitariums, rest and convalescent homes engaged in the diagnosis, care or treatment of human illness	DC
Irrigation systems (not to include single-family residences used solely for residential purposes unless otherwise identified as having a cross-connection or backflow problem):
Premises where nonpotable water is used for irrigation	RP
Premises using potable water with nonpotable water piping	RP
Premises having a system served by more than one service connection (looped system)	RP
Premises where chemigation is practiced	RP
Laboratories using toxic materials	RP
Manufacturing, processing and fabricating plants	RP
Mobile home parks served by master meter	DC
Motion picture studios	RP
Multiple services – interconnected	DC
Oil and gas production facilities	RP
Paper and paper production facilities	RP
Plating plants	RP
Portable insecticide and herbicide spray tanks	RP or Air Gap
Power plants	RP
Radioactive materials processing facilities	RP
Restricted, classified or other closed facilities	RP
Rubber plants	RP
Sand and gravel plants	RP
Sewage and storm drainage facilities	RP
Shopping centers served by master meters	RP
Public swimming pools with self-levelers or automatic fillers	PVB
Street sweepers, steel-wheeled rollers	RP or Air Gap
Water trucks, water tanks or hydraulic sewer cleaning equipment	RP or Air Gap
Hydrant meters connected to system to be used for irrigation or any use not included in “Water trucks, water tanks or hydraulic sewer cleaning equipment” above	RP or Air Gap
Buildings used for commercial mini-warehouses or industrial uses where one service connection supplies more than one tenant or occupant of the building	RP

(B) When two or more of the activities listed above are conducted on the same premises and served by the same service connection, the most restrictive backflow prevention method required for any of the activities conducted on the premises shall be required to be utilized or installed at the service connection. The order of most restrictive to least restrictive backflow prevention methods shall be as follows:

(1) Air gap (most restrictive);

(2) Reduced pressure principle assembly (RP);

(3) Double check valve assembly (DC); and

(4) Pressure vacuum breaker assembly (PVB) (least restrictive).

(C) If the Department determines, after inspection of the customer’s system, that a backflow prevention method less restrictive than that required in SLCC 13.20.030 will provide adequate protection of the public potable water system, the Department may, in its sole discretion, modify the requirements of this section. (Ord. 125 § 6, passed 9-11-1995. Code 2012 § 53.06.)