Effective Backflow Prevention Tips

Environmental Science & Technology, 1977

It has been estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that there are between 30 000 and 40 000 municipal water supply systems in the U.S. having at least 15 service connections or regularly serving at least 25 people. In addition, there are more than 200 000 water supply systems serving non-residential locations. Many of these systems are simply not equipped to treat water from contaminated sources. Instead, they are designed primarily to disinfect relatively pure water from a carefully selected source. As the demand for water continues to rise steadily, alternate systems may be pressed into service. This situation, coupled with the increasing volume, variety, and complexity of contaminants that have been allowed to enter these drinking water sources, have posed some serious questions concerning the potability of the water. The National Community Water Supply Study of 1970 and the National Organics Reconnaissance Survey of 1975 have each focused upon the often-serious recorded instances of drinking water contamination in the U.S. During the period 1961-1973, there were more than 200 outbreaks of disease or poisoning conclusively attributed to drinking water. These outbreaks resulted in 54 537 recorded illnesses, many of which were serious; twenty-two people died as a result of these illnesses. Many water supply experts believe that perhaps ten times as many such outbreaks occur, but go unreported for a variety of reasons. Countless individual sufferers and even their doctors often fail to associate ailments with contaminated water. Furthermore, these statistics represent only the acute effects and not the hard-to-measure chronic effects that may take many years to aggregate their impact. A case in point is the chemicals identified in drinking water that are known carcinogenic or mutagenic agents. In many countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the situation is beset with even more serious problems. Water-borne diseases exact a heavy toll on their population, especially the young. Deaths in these countries from enteric diseases are often more than one hundred times greater than the statistics quoted above. A national program designed to resolve these problems was initiated with the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act on

The monograph is devoted to problems of water services economics and policy, water usage, sewerage, management, quality and pollution of waters, monitoring, measures to improve the state of water objects, quality of water, system and technology of sewage treatment.

2014

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

2016

Development threats; forest cover loss; water quality deterioration; increases in water demand Sources: Spatial data provided by Katherine Sever, Colorado State University. Program data provided by practitioners listed in Appendix B. In 2014, the Rio Grande Water Fund created a shared statement among partners to, "achieve the vision of healthy forests and watersheds that provide a reliable supply of high-quality Rio Grande water and other benefits for New Mexico…. The goal of the water fund is to protect storage, delivery and quality of Rio Grande water through landscape-scale forest restoration treatments in tributary forested watersheds, including the headwaters of the San Juan Chama Project." LESSON IN PRACTICE In Maine, the Portland Water District had no experience working directly with landowners. Local land trusts bridged this gap and effectively led outreach with forest owners. In turn, land trusts accessed new financial support for their conservation work. LESSON IN PRACTICE WRI.org 4. Cultivate champions and advocates to build support Eleven programs emphasized that during initial program development, they benefited from individuals' leadership in putting ideas into action at a watershed scale. Two types of leaders emerged: ▪ "Champions" were leaders within key decisionmaking bodies like government agencies and utilities who helped partners navigate bureaucracy and gain necessary approvals of funding allocations, bond measures, and regulatory compliance.

The distribution system is the final barrier in the multiple barrier approach for providing safe drinking water. Maintaining the integrity of the distribution system is of utmost importance in protecting public health. A cross-connection is any unprotected actual or potential connection or structural arrangement between a potable water system and any other system through which it is possible to introduce substances other than the potable water with which the system is supplied (FCCCHR, 1993). Thus, it is a basic tenet of water distribution system design and operation that cross connections and backflow present risks to public health. This paper, part of a larger study by Schneider et al. (2009) presents several different approaches to detect and monitor backflow events in distribution systems.

2011

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2010

Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2010

This contribution to the International Congress on Production of Safe Water, Izmir, Turkey, 20-24 January, 2009, relates to general aspects of a water supply undertaking rather than to particular technologies or chemistries for water treatment. The paper offers a ''creative problem solving'' approach following Fogler and LeBlanc (Strategies for creative problem solving. Prentice Hall, NJ, 1995) as a model for generating sustainable solutions when water quality and safety problems arise. Such a structured approach presents a systematic methodology that can promote communication and goal-sharing across the inter-related, but often isolated and dispersed, functions of water scientists and researchers, engineers, operations managers, government departments and communities. A problem-solving strategy, or ''heuristic'', invokes five main steps (define; generate; decide; implement; evaluate). Associated with each step are various creative and enabling techniques, many of which are quite familiar to us in one form or another, but which we can use more effectively in combination and through our increased awareness and practice. For example, taking a fresh view of a problem can be promoted by a variety of ''lateral thinking'' tools.

Journal American Water Works Association, 2014