'Facts' cleared up about backflow prevention

The Columbia Falls City Council and the public learned some “facts” about backflow prevention during the council’s Jan. 21 meeting, thanks to a visit by Greg Butts, the public water supply field services supervisor at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Kalispell office.

In an effort to address some water customers’ complaints and to simplify and clarify its ordinance, the city of Columbia Falls has proposed new language to its backflow prevention regulations and held hearings on the matter for the past two council meetings.

Amidst the horror stories recounted by Butts and city manager Susan Nicosia of water quality in some neighborhoods and subdivisions being seriously contaminated by chemicals or biological waste because of malfunctioning or improperly installed backflow devices, several key “facts” were divulged:

• Public water supplies can be contaminated when a water main breaks, causing water to siphon out of a home, business or industrial site back into the public water system, carrying with it chemicals or biologically-tainted water.

• State plumbing code mandates the installation of specific backflow devices when certain types of cross connections exist at homes, businesses and industrial sites.

• A backflow prevention program, such as the one in the Columbia Falls city code, is not mandated by state law. Cities adopt them voluntarily, but once they are in city code, they have the force of law. Many cities don’t adopt them because they are difficult or expensive to enforce.

• Manufacturers of backflow prevention devices recommend they be tested annually. Butts noted that people don’t like to pay for something that doesn’t appear to accomplish anything, but there’s no way to know if a device is working unless it’s tested regularly.

• The average failure rate for backflow devices as recorded by three private testers and the city’s tester is 9.25 percent. If left untested for six years, the majority of the city’s backflow devices would be inoperable.

• Chlorination does not protect against some types of contaminants, including herbicides that could flow off a lawn into an underground sprinkler system and then into the public water system, or chemicals added to boilers used to heat homes and buildings.

• The city installs “dual” check valves in all service lines at the meter, but those are not testable, and the city doesn’t know if they’re working. A “double” check valve can be tested, but it costs more, and a testing program for the city’s 1,840-some water customers could be very expensive.

• The city’s goal of 100 percent compliance in getting every backflow prevention device tested may never be achieved. The proposed language states that it’s the owners’ responsibility to inform the city if they have a backflow prevention device, and a $100 fine has been suggested for those who don’t comply with required testing.

• The city can shut off water if it decides a cross connection situation is hazardous. That provision won’t change.

The city council continued the hearing to its February meeting.