While I am very interested in clean and safe water, I question the value of requiring home owners to pay for an annual inspection of backflow devices. Without enforcement of the regulation over the last 20 years, there have not been any contamination occurrences in Chesterfield County. The Chesterfield County Director of Utilities states the risk of contamination from irrigation systems at private homes is low. As Chesterfield is now more visibly requiring annual inspections, the only individuals that appear to benefit are the irrigation companies conducting these inspections. The requirement and enforcement of annual inspection is an unnecessary financial burden for Chesterfield County and homeowners when the risk is low.
Please consider a formal study to quantify the actual rate of contamination from faulty backflow preventers at private homes in Virginia to verify the degree of the problem and most reasonable solution.
