Water Meters

Millions of dollars are spent every year to protect Eagle River Water & Sanitation District’s drinking water sources, water delivery systems, and treatment facilities because good, clean water is important to everyone. However, even with the best infrastructure, the quality of our water can be compromised by a single cross-connection. A cross-connection occurs where the treated and protected potable water meets with the outside environment. Any bathtub, sink, clothes/dish washer, or toilet is a potential cross-connection.

There are two types of cross-connections: low hazard and high hazard. Low hazard is any form of contamination that degrades the quality of water but has no health risks. A low hazard contamination may change the color, taste, and/or smell of our water, but will not pose any harm to a person’s health. When a contaminant poses the ability to harm health it is then considered a high hazard. High hazards may range from minor irritations to the extreme situation of hospitalization or even death.

Most of the district’s system has pressures well above 100 PSI. High pressure is our first and best defense against contaminants entering our clean drinking water. However, even in the best system there are situations where high pressure can drop quickly to dangerous levels. When the public water system’s pressure does get low, it is then possible for a customer’s system to have greater pressure than the public water supply. In other words, there are situations where water can flow from the consumer (possibly unsafe) to the public water system – these are circumstances where backflow can occur.

Backflow can occur in two ways. The most common way is referred to as “back siphonage”. Back siphonage is where the pressure in the potable water system drops below zero and begins to pull on the customer’s personal water system. Main line breaks for fire suppression demands may cause such a pressure drop.

The other situation where backflow can occur is referred to as “back pressure”. Back pressure is where the the customer’s system has greater pressure than the public water system. Though uncommon, this is one of the most dangerous forms of backflow because of its high correlation with industrial equipment and the potential presence of dangerous contaminants such as glycol solvents. Plumbing codes and inspections are intended to prevent back pressure, however, if a customer changes the configuration after the inspection, a dangerous backflow configuration may go undetected. Plumbing systems should never have configurations where backpressure can occur.

Due to increased awareness, many strides have been made to protect our water from the risk of backflow and cross-connections. One such stride is the development of backflow programs by local water purveyors. Universally, there are two basic steps to a successful backflow program. The first step is having a backflow device installed at the connection from the public water system to the consumer. A proper containment backflow device has two or more valves designed to prevent the reverse direction of the water, preventing backflow. Most of the valves are simple in design, opening when the flow of water is from public water system to the consumer. If the flow is reversed, the valve shuts, preventing backflow. Having two or more valves ensures the safety of our public drinking water. To be safe, each device should be carefully selected for its intended purpose and tested periodically.

The second step in a successful backflow program is having devices routinely tested to ensure proper working order. All backflow devices are mechanical and will eventually fail. Testing is crucial to ensure the safety of our public water. In order to repair before a failure occurs, the state of Colorado insists on an annual testing of all devices that are protecting a known risk. It is the water purveyor’s job to assess which connections are at risk and to enforce devices being tested annually.

Please contact us with any questions.