Our October 26, 2022 posting on the Aqua Talk blog announced our stakeholder process for proposing updates to the Backflow Prevention and Cross Connection Control Rule within Regulation 11 - section 11.39 (BPCCC rule).
From November 2022 to January 2023, stakeholders engaged with the Water Quality Control Division to develop a draft, updated BPCCC rule which will be considered by the Water Quality Control Commission in the August 2023 rulemaking hearing. A summary of the effort to date is located on our website. The division believes the proposed updates to the rule will equivalently protect public health while making the rule more implementable. The division would like to thank all the stakeholders that engaged during that process for the thoughtful feedback and helping to craft a better rule.
During the outreach, multiple comments were received both in December and January about needing to provide better clarity within the BPCCC policy (Policy 7) in order to make the proposed changes to the rule more optimal and to help water systems know how the division will interpret some of the language in the rule. The division agreed with stakeholders that Policy 7 needs to be updated concurrently with the proposed rule update as the rule and the policy work very closely together.
Save the date: April 20, 2023 at 2:00 PM.
The division intends to continue the stakeholder engagement process with an initial stakeholder meeting outlining the potential updates needed to the BPCCC Policy 7. The meeting will be held on 4/20/23. The division intends to utilize working groups in several key topic areas to assist in writing the policy updates. We would like to complete most of this work prior to the August rulemaking hearing.
The topic areas will include, but are not limited to: extension requests, expanding examples on eliminating cross connections, clarifying system surveying and rounding issues, and annual reporting templates, as well as other minor edits.
We would like feedback from the stakeholder community whether there are other areas that need to be updated within the policy and are hopeful you can participate. The division will provide a comment form on our website in mid-April for stakeholders to submit BPCCC Policy update ideas to us. Also, if you know of other professionals that can contribute to this process, please share this article and our BPCCC website with them. Sign up for stakeholder updates here to be notified of all the latest developments.
