How often must a Scottsdale backflow assembly be tested, and by whom?

Section 49-65 covers inspections, maintenance and records. The parts that decide your calendar:

• Yearly test (b): every assembly is tested at least once a year. The city issues a notice when a test is due, and the city's commercial services page says commercial customers are notified by mail.
• 45 days to fix a failure (b): if the test shows the assembly is defective or in unsatisfactory condition, repairs, including replacement if needed, must bring it back to satisfactory condition within 45 days after the date of the city's notice.
• Repairs between tests (c): if the city or the owner learns the assembly is defective between tests, the owner must make the repairs. The code gives no day count for this case.
• Who does the work (d): installation, testing, maintenance, repair and replacement may be done only by an individual certified and approved by an agency the Water Resources Division recognizes. The city can suspend a tester from testing in Scottsdale for improper testing, maintenance or reporting.
• Records (e): the user keeps records of every installation, test, repair and replacement on forms the division approves, and sends the division a copy within 7 days after each activity.

The legacy single-check rule for fire systems is separate: Sec. 49-65(f) requires annual internal inspection, reporting a malfunction within 24 hours, and immediate double-check replacement. See the fire-backflow page for the overlapping deadlines and fire-department coordination.

The test, repairs and maintenance are at the owner's expense. The city's commercial services page adds that a contractor doing any work on an assembly, including testing, installation, retrofits and replacements, must be a certified backflow tester, and it publishes a list of certified testers and a test report form.

• Certified and approved: a tester holds a backflow tester certification and the city recognizes the agency that issued it. Arizona's state rule on tester certification is summarized on our R18-4-215 page.
• Notice date: the 45 day clock in 49-65(b) runs from the date of the city's notice, not from the day the test failed.
• User: the owner or account holder whose water system the assembly protects. A tenant may pay for the test, but the code puts the duty on the user.

Every Scottsdale water customer with a required backflow assembly, which includes restaurants, medical offices, car washes and irrigated properties. A plumber who is not a certified tester cannot lawfully repair or replace the assembly, however routine the job looks.

A dental office. The city mails a test notice. The office books a certified tester, the assembly passes, and the tester submits the report. The record must reach the city within 7 days of the test.

A failed relief valve on a restaurant RP. The tester reports a failed test. The owner needs a certified individual to rebuild or replace the assembly, and the fix has to be done inside the 45 days that run from the city's notice.

The edge case: the assembly fails a month after a passing test. A landscaper hits the assembly with a mower. Subsection (c) still requires repairs, even though the yearly test is months away. Waiting for the next notice is not an option.

1. 1Find your assembly's last test report and note the date. The city sends the next notice about a year later.
2. 2Pick a certified tester from the city's published list.
3. 3Ask the tester to send the report to the city and give you a copy, and keep the copy on file.
4. 4If the test fails, get the repair scheduled the same week. The 45 days start with the city's notice, and waiting eats into them.
5. 5Questions go to Scottsdale Water Quality at the current number on the city's Commercial Services page.

• "Any licensed plumber can rebuild it." The code requires a certified, city-approved individual for testing, repair and replacement.
• "We have a year from the failed test." The repair deadline is 45 days from the city's notice.
• "The tester files it, so we are done." The code puts the records duty on the user. Confirm the city received the report.

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