Recent changes to the backflow rule in order to maintain this critical public health protection aspect of the safe drinking water regulations, while making compliance easier to achieve has led to a new and improved backflow annual report template. The new report template titled Appendix D is available now on the department’s backflow website. The Appendix D template is recommended for all public water systems, including all community and non-community systems. Some highlights of the recent improvements include:
1. Uncontrolled Cross-connection Tracking:
Water suppliers are required to track all uncontrolled cross-connections found during the calendar year. This tracking is important to ensure that all uncontrolled cross-connections are controlled within the required regulatory deadlines (120 days of discovery or an approved deadline extension). To assist with tracking this, uncontrolled cross-connections were divided into 3 sub-categories:
- Question 7.A: Uncontrolled cross-connections that WERE controlled within regulatory deadlines
- Question 7.B: Uncontrolled cross-connections that WERE NOT controlled within regulatory deadlines
- Question 7.C: Uncontrolled cross-connections that REMAIN uncontrolled and are within regulatory deadlines
- Question 7 Total: Sum of 7.A+7.B+7.C = 7 Total
For more information on uncontrolled cross-connections, see Section 4.1 of Drinking Water Policy 7.
2. Combined Compliance Ratio:
The tracking of backflow assemblies and methods have now been combined into a single Backflow Prevention Annual Compliance Ratio for easier reporting. Questions 8, 9 and 10 in the improved annual report help suppliers calculate this compliance ratio as shown in the equation below.
3. Untested Assembly Tracking:
All assemblies and methods must be tested or inspected every calendar year. If any assemblies or methods were missed one year, they need to be tracked to ensure they are prioritized the following year. If any assembly or method goes two calendar years without being tested or inspected then a violation has occurred and must be reported to the department. This replaces the old “90-day” rule as it was too challenging for suppliers to track and comply, with uncertain added health protection benefits. The new “2-year” rule gives suppliers time to get things tested and inspected. The department continues to guide systems to test/inspect annually and “catch up” with any missed tests or inspections as soon as possible in the next year.
Remember, backflow annual reports must be completed on or before May 1, 2024. Stay tuned for updated guidance related to supplier developed extensions, new templates for small systems (Appendix G & H), and the updated one-stop shop backflow guidance document coming soon. For any questions related to the backflow rule, please email the department’s backflow team at CDPHE_WQCD_FSS_Questions@state.co.us.
Thank you.
➽ Clayton Moores, P.E., Backflow Team Lead
