Industrial facilities, just like residential buildings and other commercial businesses in a community, are usually connected to the public water system. But different types of buildings present unique risks both internally within their facility and to the public water system when backflow and pressure loss events occur.
As part of city-wide programs, industrial facilities are often assigned a degree of hazard that denotes their level of risk based on what runs through the pipes, the operations of the facility, and its purpose. Beyond the degree of hazard rating for your facility, different systems within your facility require different forms of backflow prevention to address varying levels of risk.
Hazardous by Degrees
First, you need to understand what degrees of hazard are and what they mean for you and your facility. There are two classifications that matter in the context of drinking water safety: high hazard and low hazard.
- High Hazard: High-hazard connections are those that transport substances that pose a significant risk of injury or death for those exposed, even in small quantities. These typically contain “contaminants”—chemicals or other substances—that can contaminate the water system.
- Low Hazard: Low-hazard connections contain “pollutants,” rather than “contaminants.” While these may cause aesthetic differentiations in the water supply—either causing it to look, smell, or taste unseemly—they don’t usually present a serious threat to health and safety.
Next, it’s critical to consider where the hazard is within your facility. Is it confined only to specific lines, or is your entire facility “high hazard”?
- Lines: An individual line can be labelled high hazard based on what substance it transports. The most common high-hazard lines are irrigation systems; while that may not be a problem within your facility, other critical operating systems can impact your degree of hazard, including fire protection systems, operational piping, and more.
- Buildings: If your facility utilizes contaminants in any piping lines, it may be categorized as high hazard. But a single high-hazard cross-connection does not necessarily lead to a high-hazard facility classification. Other critical components of a building that factor into the degree of hazard include the basic hydraulic conditions, facility knowledge of the system, and any extensions made to the system.
Common High-Hazard Facilities
Certain types of facilities are labelled high hazard based on their operations. Common examples include sewage and wastewater treatment plants, chemical processing and manufacturing plants, food processing facilities, shipyards, commercial greenhouses, and commercial car washes. Each of these types of facilities use a combination of chemicals, dyes, cleaning agents, process water, and other fluids that present serious health and safety risks to drinking water if connections are not properly protected.
How Do You Know?
Who determines your facility’s degree of hazard? Your local water purveyor has the final say in what is high or low hazard and how your facility needs to protect your drinking water and the public water system. Your utility may require a survey of your piping system to determine your degree of hazard and confirm all potentially hazardous cross-connections are properly protected.
These surveys are called cross-connection surveys and are typically part of a public water system’s cross-connection control program. This ensures a community’s water supply is safe from contamination, especially from high-hazard facilities or lines. The survey can also be useful to help ensure internal protection within your piping system.
Ensuring Up-to-Date Classification
One often overlooked risk is when facilities change—either their piping system, their purpose, or both. Facilities are fluid environments (no pun intended) and are constantly evolving to meet operational needs. As the process components your facility uses, or your piping system in general, change, make sure your classification is accurate. Sometimes, when a facility or building is purchased, a new owner changes the purpose of the facility, which can lead to a shift in their degree of hazard.
What It All Means
Understanding your facility’s degree of hazard is critical, but without acting on this classification, it can’t protect you, your employees, or the community. Your degree of hazard should influence your backflow prevention decisions—whether you use a method, device, or assembly for specific connections often relates to degrees of hazard.
Because you may need to conduct regular surveys based on your water purveyor’s policies (and to remain compliant), you can be sure your system is always protected. Plus, having in-depth and updated knowledge of your system keeps you safe and compliant year-round.
Want to set your facility up for safety and success? Learn more about how HydroCorp supports facilities with as-built piping schematics and full-scale water management programs.
