To protect ourselves from inadvertently contaminating our safe drinking water?

Maybe to protect us from other water users that may accidently do the same thing?

The easy answer is to simply protect the health and safety of ALL municipal water consumers.

In these times of “need it now” and instant gratification every one of us is looking for the quick fix; the fastest solution to any given problem. If a private business hires a plumber to hook up safe municipal drinking water to a new piece of industrial equipment many times that business is looking for a quick fix. They tell their plumber, “I need some cold water hooked up to this new chiller tank asap!”. The plumber, wanting to make his customer happy, provides a fair quote for the required work but the customer asks, “What’s this note about installing a backflow preventer? Why do I need that?”. The plumber tries to explain the need for proper drinking water protection only to be told, “You’re too expensive! I never needed a backflow preventer before. I don’t need one now! Install the new waterline without it or I’ll call someone who will!”

It’s situations like the one above that got Ontario and its drinking water into the state it’s currently in. Provisions for backflow prevention have been in our plumbing codes for well over 20 years. Sadly, that only accounts for new and renovation jobs that are undertaken with a plumbing permit in place. There’s much that’s happened to private water systems in buildings over the decades. Some legal. Many, not so much.

You can blame it on human nature. You can blame it on irresponsible plumbers. You can even blame it on private home owners that want to hook up their garden hose to a chemical broadcast sprayer to kill weeds.

At the end of the day, backflow and cross connection bylaws save lives. What’s important now is making sure that you have a well-respected, licensed, and municipally registered backflow prevention specialist ready to assist you through all of the red tape that these bylaws create. The government letters. The survey reports. The backflow installation drawings and permit applications. The plumbing inspection permit sign-offs. The annual backflow preventer test and report. All of it.

That’s why you CONTACT US at ProActive.

To review the active backflow bylaws in Ontario CLICK HERE