What happens if you skip your backflow test in Phoenix?

Section 37-146 gives the Water Services director four tools:

• Civil penalty: the director "may impose a civil penalty of not more than 1,000 percent per billing period on the charges for all water used beginning from the date the corrective action was required and until the corrective action has been completed by the customer." The clock runs from the date the corrective action was required.
• City-installed assembly: if a situation that would end service is not fixed in the time the termination notice gives, "the Director may install a backflow prevention assembly at the customer's point of service delivery and bill the customer for all costs, together with all applicable penalties."
• Publication: the director may publish, in the city's largest daily newspaper, the customers who violated the article in the past 12 months, with a summary of the enforcement action.
• Shutoff: if the Planning and Development director asks, the director may terminate water service when the customer does any of these: fails to properly locate, install, test or maintain a required assembly; removes or bypasses one without approval; allows a cross connection; fails to submit test and repair records on time; fails to follow the written backflow policy on file with the City Clerk; or violates A.A.C. R18-4-215.

Shutoff "will be immediate and without prior notice if the Director determines that the customer's water system may cause a health hazard to the public potable water supply." Otherwise the director gives ten days' written notice to the service address. Service returns when the condition is fixed to the satisfaction of the Planning and Development director, and the customer must pay all costs, fees, expenses, surcharges and penalties for the shutoff and restoration first.

Section 37-145 says an action or decision of the Planning and Development director may be appealed to the Development Advisory Board under Chapter 2, Article IX of the city code.

• Billing period: the water bill cycle. The penalty is computed on the water charges for each cycle the violation runs.
• Corrective action: what the Planning and Development director required, such as a test, a repair or an installation.
• Termination: the water shutoff.

Any customer, meaning whoever controls the water system, who has a required assembly. Commercial accounts are the usual targets because they carry the assemblies, but the wording is not limited by property type.

• A restaurant misses the filing date. The test was done but the form never reached the city. Failing to submit records on time is its own ground for shutoff, so file the result on the city form as soon as the gap is found.
• A tenant removes the assembly during a build-out. Removal without approval is a shutoff ground, and a city-installed assembly plus penalties is what the code allows if the notice is ignored.
• An inspection finds a possible health hazard. If the director decides the water system may be a health hazard, notice is not required. A missed test with no hazard finding gets the ten days' written notice.

1. 1Pull the last passing test date for every assembly and confirm the city has the filing.
2. 2If a corrective action notice arrived, note the date it was required, since the penalty runs from there.
3. 3Have a certified repairer fix the assembly, retest it and file the passing result on the city form.
4. 4If you think the decision is wrong, file the appeal with the Development Advisory Board.
5. 5Keep the notice and the test forms together. The code requires test records to be kept at least three years.

• "Shutoff always comes with a warning." The code allows immediate shutoff for a possible health hazard.
• "The penalty is a flat fine." It is a percentage of the water charges for each billing period it continues.
• "Removing the assembly avoids the test." Removal or bypass without approval is itself a shutoff ground.
• "The tester is responsible for filing." The duty is on the customer.