Backflow prevention devices prevent contaminated water or chemicals from flowing back into the public drinking water supply system. Certain types of businesses are legally mandated to install and operate approved backflow preventers.
Unless they receive a specific exemption, the following types of businesses are typically required to use backflow preventers and have them tested on an annual basis:
- Metal plating, cleaning, processing or fabricating facilities
- Photo-processing facilities
- Laundries and dry cleaners
- Commercial car washes
- Greenhouses
- Hospitals, Clinics and Laboratories (including veterinary hospitals)
- Medical and Dental Offices
- Funeral Parlors
- Food processing plants and meat / fish packers
- Dye Plants
- Paper processors
- Auto Repair Shops
- Breweries
- Tanneries
- Exterminators
- Large residential dwellings with water boilers that use rust-inhibitors or other water treatment chemicals, (“treated water boilers”)
- Sewage treatment plants or handling facilities
- Premises with multiple water service lines;
- Premises with roof tanks and elevated storage lines
- Canneries
- Slaughterhouse / Live Poultry Processing Facilities
- Ice Manufacturing Facilities
- Printing Facilities
- Supermarkets
- Premises with large boilers or chemically treated boilers
- Warehouses (with toxic chemical storage)
- Premises with Commercial or Public Kitchens
- Premises with water cooled equipment or chillers
- Premises with Groundwater Wells
- Premises that Reuse or Recycle Water
- Shipyards and Marinas
- Schools and Colleges
- Food Preparation Facilities
- Nursing Homes
- Barber Shops & Beauty Salons
- Properties with in-ground irrigation sprinklers
