Thank you for your interest, consultation on the Backflow Prevention Policy closed on Monday, 29 May 2023. View our current policies.
Providing clean and safe drinking water to our communities is one of the highest priorities for Council and is a non-negotiable part of our work.
We're proposing a new policy to prevent the backflow of water from private properties that may pose a serious risk to the wider public’s health. When cross-contamination occurs this can carry contaminants including dirt, pesticides, chemicals, oils, and bacteria that can seriously harm people's health.
Through the proposed new Policy, we aim to work collaboratively with owners of high to medium risk properties to ensure contaminated water from their activities doesn’t enter the public supply through the installation of backflow prevention devices on their property boundary.
High/medium risk vs low risk
High to medium risk properties include (but not limited to) farming, industrial and commercial properties, and domestic properties with swimming pool , bore, in-ground irrigation system, and some home based businesses e.g, salon.
Low risk are those domestic connections (general households).
Only medium and high-risk devices require testing, so in most cases, there are no ongoing costs to normal domestic connections.
The draft Policy proposes that:
- All connections to the Council’s water supply network will have a backflow prevention device installed at the boundary to protect the water supply from contamination (this is required in accordance with the law).
- Council will own and be responsible for the devices.
- Domestic connections will generally have a (non-testable) dual-check device.
- Non-domestic connections (farming, commercial and industrial) will have devices that require annual testing to ensure their safe ongoing operation.
- Where testing of devices is required, Council will do the testing and recover costs from property owners.
- Council will undertake testing, maintenance, and replacement of devices.
- Developers are required to install devices in all new developments which will be vested to Council