http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/05/24/m1a_water_hookups_0525.html

Plumbing device may be a must for homes
By BILL DIPAOLO
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 24, 2008
What is a backflow prevention device?
If you are a homeowner in Palm Beach County and don't know, you may soon find out.
The DEP plans to hold at least one meeting open to the public in July on the proposed installation of backflow prevention devices. For information, call (850)245-8623, go online to www.dep.state.fl.us or e-mail daniel.peterson @ dep.state.fl.us
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection this fall could require almost all county homeowners to install the outdoor 18-inch-tall brass gadgets, which prevent the accidental contamination of the public drinking-water supply. The cost per homeowner would be about $500 to a private contractor whom he or she selects.
In addition, homeowners would be required to pay a licensed plumber about $60 every year to test the backflow prevention device.
If a homeowner does not have the test, water utility officials can suspend water service.
The DEP "is smoking wacky tobaccy making this requirement," said Bevin Beaudet, director of the county's water utilities department. "The backflows should have been installed when the homes were built. Making people pay for this during these tough economic times is crazy."
Increasing concerns about water safety and potential contamination, especially in more-populated South Florida, have prompted the DEP to enforce the regulations, which have been on the books for years.
Meetings are being scheduled with local and statewide utility, environmental and health representatives. The DEP, which will make the final decision, expects to announce new requirements in October, said Van Hoofnagle, administrator for the agency's drinking-water program.
"It's an expensive form of protection," Hoofnagle said. "The system we have is not good enough."
Private homes are protected by underground valves, located next to the water meters, to prevent public drinking-water contamination. The underground valves are not designed to be checked regularly, so they are not tested annually by utility officials, said Hassan Hadjimiry, director of the county water utilities department's regulatory compliance division.
The proposed aboveground backflow devices have ports that can be used to quickly check whether they are working. But the convenience of easier testing does not add enough safety to justify the cost, Hadjimiry said.
"Contractors who install the backflows and plumbers who check them will love this. The people who will suffer are the homeowners," he said.
All homes without backflow devices that use water from canals, wells or lakes for irrigation would be required to install them.
In unincorporated Palm Beach County, about 150,000 homes, or about eight of 10, lack backflow devices.
The percentage of customers with backflow devices varies with the utility. For example, of the 26,500 Jupiter Utilities customers, about 6,000 have backflow devices, said David Brown, executive director of Jupiter Utilities.
New homes are not required to have aboveground backflow devices. If the DEP enforces the regulations, the devices will be required for new and existing homes. Countywide, aboveground backflow devices are required for commercial and multifamily buildings. They are much larger than the proposed residential backflow devices.
"We're talking about retrofitting thousands of homes in Florida: from little cottages in North Florida to mansions in gated communities," Beaudet said.
The backflow device prevents mixing of drinking and treated water from flowing into the public water system by maintaining a constant higher pressure in its pipes. Such contamination required West Palm Beach water customers to boil water for 10 days in October.
Backflow devices "are another level of protection," Brown said. "Concentrated contaminants can do major damage."
The backflow devices, about the size of a suitcase, would be installed in front yards near the water meter. Many homeowners, especially in older communities, are likely to object when they find out installation means tearing up their landscaping, Hadjimiry said.
Backflow devices "are an unnecessary redundancy," said Bob Berman, a resident of Palm Beach Country Estates, a rural community west of Jupiter that's required to install the devices to get its drinking water connected to Jupiter Utilities. "I'm not convinced there is a health risk."