What backflow duties does a Phoenix property owner have?

The section defines the customer's responsibility as "the customer's water system, which starts at the point of service delivery from the public potable water system and includes all water piping systems." A customer is any person with physical control, authority or responsibility for a water system that takes city water. That can be an owner, a property manager or a tenant who runs the building.

Within that responsibility the customer must:

• Get a permit from Planning and Development for any backflow prevention assembly and for any modification of a plumbing system.
• Test every assembly at least once a year, more often if the director requires it, and submit the results to the director.
• Repair or replace a defective assembly to the director's satisfaction, and do the same, with any retesting, if a defect is found between annual tests.
• Use a certified tester who follows the University of Southern California Manual of Cross-Connection Control, and a certified repairer who follows ASSE Series 5000 Standard 5130.
• File the records on forms the director approves, by the date the director sets, and keep them at least three years.
• Pay for the installation and follow the city's adopted standards.
• Report contamination: if the customer's or the public system is contaminated by a cross connection, notify the director and the Maricopa County Health Authority promptly.

For fire lines and fire sprinkler systems with assemblies, "the initial and annual test must be performed by a certified tester who is also permitted by the City Fire Marshal to test fire lines or fire sprinkler systems," and it must include a full flow test.

The 2024 plumbing code amendment says the same thing from the building side. Under IPC 312.11.2 as amended by Phoenix, listed assemblies are tested at installation, "immediately after repairs or relocation and at least annually," by a certified tester or repairer working to ASSE Series 5000 or another standard the city approves.

• Customer: whoever controls the water system, not necessarily the deed holder.
• Certified tester: an Arizona certified backflow assembly tester. A.A.C. R18-4-215 is the state rule that the city ordinance adopts.
• Point of service delivery: the customer's side of the meter, where the customer's duty begins.

Every customer on city water who has a backflow assembly, whether the city required it or the plumbing code did. Single-family homes are exempt from the city's secondary rules unless a cross connection problem is identified, but the test-and-repair duty follows any assembly that is installed.

• A restaurant's assembly fails its annual test. The customer repairs or replaces it, has it retested, and files the new passing result. Waiting risks the shutoff process on the enforcement page.
• A property manager takes over a building. The manager is now a customer with control of the water system, so the yearly test and the records are the manager's job. Ask for the past test records and check the last passing date.
• The same building has a fire line assembly. The answer flips: a plumbing tester alone cannot do that annual test. The tester must also hold City Fire Marshal permission to test fire lines and run a full flow test.
• An owner moves the assembly during a remodel. A relocation is a modification that needs a permit and a retest afterward.

1. 1List every backflow assembly on the property and find its last passing test date.
2. 2Hire a certified tester and have any overdue assemblies tested now.
3. 3If one fails, have a certified repairer fix it, get it retested and file the passing result.
4. 4File the results on the city form by the director's date.
5. 5Keep the records for three years and store them where the next manager will find them.

• "The city owns the assembly." The customer owns it, tests it and pays for repairs.
• "The tester files everything." The code puts the filing duty on the customer, even if the tester submits on the customer's behalf.
• "Testing is the whole job." A failed test starts a repair and retest duty, and so does a defect found between annual tests.
• "Fire line assemblies are tested like the rest." They need a tester with Fire Marshal permission and a full flow test.