How long do you have to install a backflow device after a Chandler notice?

Section 52-39 covers existing water connections. The Director of Public Works can deem a connection subject to backflow prevention, and then, in the words of the code, "upon written notice" the connection must "have an appropriate backflow prevention device installed and inspected within sixty (60) days of notification."

Section 52-34.2 is the other half. If the Director decides an approved device is required at a customer's service connection "for the safety of the water system," the Director or a designated agent gives written notice to install, operate, test and maintain it at each service connection. The customer "shall immediately install such approved device or devices at his/her own expense." Failure, refusal or inability to do that "shall constitute a ground for discontinuing water service" until the device is installed and tested for proper working order.

• Written notice: the trigger for both sections. No notice, no clock.
• Installed and inspected: 52-39 asks for both inside the 60 days. The code does not say who inspects a new installation.
• Immediately versus sixty days: the code does not reconcile them. A reasonable reading is that 52-39 is the working window for an existing connection and 52-34.2 is the standing duty and the ground for shutoff. That is a reading, not the code.
• At his/her own expense: the customer pays for the device, not the city.

Section 52-34.2 reaches "any customer's premises" and 52-39 reaches "all existing water connections," not only restaurants or factories. They do not cover a new building, where backflow assemblies go on the plans and are approved before the building permit under 52-36(H). Homes that use reclaimed water are also outside the notice-and-install process: 52-34.3 says the city installs the device at the homebuilder's expense when the water meter is installed, and the city tests and maintains it.

A strip-center owner gets a notice. The center has run for years on one service with no device. The notice arrives, the owner calendars 60 days from the date of notification, and has a device chosen, installed and inspected inside that window.

A tenant who assumes it is the landlord's problem. The code puts the duty on the customer of the service. Who pays between landlord and tenant is a lease question the code does not touch.

The edge case: a danger the city can see. Section 52-38 requires written notice of a violation and an opportunity to meet with city staff before discontinuance, but it adds that "discontinuance may occur immediately if there is an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare." Notice then follows as soon as practical.

The deadline passes. Under the city's published testing process, once a compliance date passes with no passing report, water is shut off the next working day for annual-test failures. That process covers annual tests, not first installations, so do not assume the same timing.

1. 1Find the date of notification on the letter and count 60 days from it.
2. 2Work out which device the hazard calls for (see our page on which backflow device Chandler requires).
3. 3Pick an approved model and have it installed. Ask the city for the approved assemblies list, which the Director's office keeps under 52-36(J).
4. 4Have it inspected and tested before the 60 days run out. Under 52-37(E), tell the Director in advance when a test will happen so the city can witness it. Questions go to Chandler Backflow Reports at 480-782-3665.
5. 5Keep the paperwork. The device then falls under the annual test rule in our Chandler annual backflow testing page.

• Myth: I have 60 days no matter what. Section 52-34.2 says "immediately" and makes failure a ground for shutoff. The 60 days in 52-39 is the safer number to work to, not a promise.
• Myth: A notice means the water is cut tomorrow. Section 52-38 requires written notice and a chance to be heard first, unless there is immediate danger.
• Myth: Installing it ends the job. The device must also be tested for proper working order, and then tested every year.
• Myth: This is only for factories. The wording is "any customer's premises" and "all existing water connections."

This page explains the code. The adopted text on Municode governs.